ESPN College Football

Tyrone Willingham was fired after three years at Notre Dame with a winning percentage only slightly better than what his successor, Charlie Weis, has achieved in four seasons.

So, his reaction to Notre Dame's decision to keep Weis for a fifth year? "Maybe Notre Dame got it right," he said, according to the Chicago Tribune.

"It's not just my issue, it's a college football issue -- we have to give coaches a chance to do their job," Willingham said Thursday, according to the newspaper. "Because now we have coaches ... especially some of the minority coaches ... they are losing their jobs after 2½ years. That's not right."

Willingham was fired at Notre Dame with a record of 21-15 (a winning percentage of .583) and two bowl appearances. Weis is 28-21 (.571) with two bowl appearances in four seasons -- but with 15 of his 21 losses coming in the past two seasons.

Although some have pointed to Weis' record as evidence that Willingham was hurt by a double standard, Willingham has been reluctant to inject himself into that debate.

"I have tried to take myself out of the situation as much as possible," Willingham said, according to the Tribune. "Other people will not let that die. I can understand that from one perspective."

"For me, the experience was a steppingstone, hopefully not a steppingstone personally but a steppingstone for African-Americans," Willingham said, according to the Tribune. "The sad thing is the way all of it happened. There was that somewhat ghosted image that we were not successful. That's not the truth. Of the three years there, two of those were bowl teams."

Willingham got off to an 8-0 start at Notre Dame and was the school's first coach to win 10 games in his first season.

"And put in place was a [recruiting] class for the success you hope to have at Notre Dame -- those are the facts," he said, according to the newspaper. "Hopefully it was a step. I don't dare say it was like the step we took on the moon, but hopefully it was a step in moving us forward."

Willingham was fired this season at Washington, where the Huskies are 0-11 entering Saturday's season finale at Cal. With his firing, the resignation of Sylvester Croom at Mississippi State and the firing of Ron Prince at Kansas State, only three African-American coaches in college football's 119-team top tier remain: Randy Shannon at the University of Miami, Turner Gill at Buffalo and Kevin Sumlin at Houston.

Willingham said African-American coaches have proved they can succeed -- but noted the job opportunities they have been afforded are among the most difficult situations in big-time college football. Willingham took over a Washington team that went 1-10 in 2004. At Mississippi State, Croom faced an uphill battle in the ultracompetitive SEC. And Gill has turned around a Buffalo program that was among the nation's worst.

"It has always been the downtrodden [programs] that we've had to take over," Willingham said, according to the report. "There are a lot of things not right with those situations. The degree of difficulty is enhanced in those programs. You do the best you can with the resources around you.

"Maybe Notre Dame got it right [retaining Weis]. But we have to change that mentality with [African-American] coaches," Willingham said, according to the Tribune. "Nick Saban is making it work at Alabama in his second season. But in the majority of cases, it's going to take longer to get things right and up to speed."