Tyrone Willingham and Jake Locker Propel Huskies Back to the Forefront

Other than the Michigan Wolverines 0-2 start one of the storylines that everyone should keep an eye on is the Washington Huskies and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Charlie Weis replaced Tyrone Willingham at Notre Dame and with the expected demise of the Irish in the 2007 College football season there is a great debate brewing about whether or not Weis should be fired like Willingham was if Notre Dame finishes 4-8 or worse. If Weis is not fired this season the question will be asked why didn't Willingham get as much time as Weis is receiving to attempt to bring the Irish back to prominence. Tyrone Willingham's coaching ability should never be in question. Willingham took Stanford to the Rose Bowl. Weis has had the benefit of Notre Dame having different qualification rules to make a BCS game than the rest of the teams in Division 1 football. A lack of speed on the Notre Dame football team was lacking under Willingham and the same speed problem is occurring under Charlie Weis. Moving forward Tyrone Willingham and the Washington Huskies are 2-0 and have one of the best young QB's in the nation in Jake Locker.

The key to success in College football is the QB position. If a team is solid at QB there is a great chance that team will be able to win a lot of games. Consistent QB play can even help overcome bad defensive play. Colt Brennan and Brian Brohm led Hawaii and Louisville to a lot of victories despite their below average defenses. There is Pat White at West Virginia, Nate Longshore at California and John David Booty at USC will help their teams win a lot of games. In his first couple of years at Washington Willingham's lack of a quality QB has cost his team a lot of games. Isaiah Stanback was the QB for the Huskies last season and after the Dallas Cowboys drafted him in the 4^th round of the 2007 NFL Draft Dallas immediately moved Stanback to WR. In 2006 Stanback only completed 53.4% of his passes. On the other hand, Jake Locker is completing 61.4% of his passes this season and Washington has victories over Syracuse and Boise State.