Leftovers from Ty from the hot seat story:
D&E: You recently offered a scholarship to a high-school freshman. What happens, for example, if the kid breaks his leg between now and then?
T.W.: "I had that happen with a (high school) senior. A running back committed in July some years ago. I can't say what university. What happens is about two weeks into his (senior) season, he tears his knee up. We don't know anything about it. He doesn't tell us anything about it until much later.
"You've made an offer, you're committed. Some people would walk away, snatch the scholarship away. If you're building a program of integrity ... when that young man says yes to you he should be committed to those words and those parents should be committed.
"The difference is the fact that things become formal today that never became formal in the past, because of the Internet. Before when you had them in camp. (Former Michigan State coach) Duffy Daughtery had all those kids from Detroit in camp, he'd offer this one, this one, this one. It was simply word of mouth.
"As soon as you got wind that a kid was good enough, you wanted to put a bug in his ear. What is a bug in his ear? An offer for a scholarship."
D&E: Do you feel any urgency to win?
T.W.: A football coach is only concerned about one game, it's the next one. If you win enough nexts, guess what happens? You're right where you want to be.
"It's impossible to put pressure on someone whose expectation is greater than those who seek to apply pressure. Is there anyone who wants to win more than Coach Willingham?"
D&E: What did you think of the Seattle Times series on the 2000 Rose Bowl team?
T.W.: "I was embarassed. I was embarrassed for all of football. Football has long carried a black eye for that type of behavior. It was embarrassing for the university.
D&E: Did you wonder why they ran it less than a week before signing day?
T.W.: "I asked all those same questions.
"Why would someone not have trust for the media? Whoa, pretty easy. But if you've been around long enough you've seen all these things. I qualify my statement in saying I understand the media. I understand your job is to sell papers, mine is to coach our football team."
"I will repsect your job, please respect mine. I've never dodged one question that's never been aksed of me."
D&E: But there's never a good time to run something like that.
T.W.: "I'm still puzzled at what it accomplished. It did not help any of indiviuals.
"One of the stories that came out of that was never quite looked at was the one about Curtis Williams. Curtis Williams has a little girl that had to read that story. Nobody ever told her that her that her father was a (a bad guy).
"There were some things in there that weren't quite right. No one ever ran a correction. Yet, coaches are supposed to be open and accessible and spill their souls to people."
D&E: It was a window on a period of time in that program that was pretty compelling. Just as a reader I enjoyed it.
T.W.: "My living with it is pretty easy. I know very clearly what I stand for. I know very clearly what we're going to do. In my 115 guys, I've got a little bit of everything this world has to offer. I've probably got a thief in there. Probalby got a few honest guys. Probably got somebody that's deranged. No different than society."
D&E: How is U-Dub going to be this year?
"We're going to win the next game. That's an awful big one because that's Oregon. We've got to get some things in place. I think we have maybe the best quarterback in the country. He's a great leader, a great person, a great player."
D&E: I like to call him a West Coast Tim Tebow?
"Tim Tebow has a Heisman. Our young man is one heck of a quarterback. I have had good ones at Stanford that set records. I had Brady Quinn at Notre Dame. I think this young man can be as good or better than any of them."
