Hmmmm. A team is ahead by 50 points and attempts a fake punt. In the fourth quarter. While handing Stanford the worst home loss in its history.
If a guy didn’t know better, he might think someone was trying to prove a point.
But the particular someone in question, Tyrone Willingham, insisted there was no point involved Saturday night.
Even though Willingham is now at Notre Dame and was coaching against his former Cardinal team.
Even though Willingham strongly implied he was upset by remarks a Stanford assistant coach made last week about the Notre Dame staff.
But he maintained that the fake punt–which occurred at midfield with 4:49 left in the game and Notre Dame leading 57-7–was a pure football decision. Honest. Truly. No, really.
“That was a call on our part,” Willingham said. “Stanford was lined up defensively in a way that caused us to try the fake punt. You don’t like to do that. But when they put all of their guys up there in the box to try and block the kick, you’ve got to make them pay.”
But you could sense his displeasure with a Saturday story in the Oakland Tribune in which Stanford offensive coordinator David Kelly said “this game is personal” because he believed various Notre Dame coaches “continue to feel they’re experts on what’s going on in the Stanford program” and remained too chummy with current Cardinal players.
Asked about this afterward, Willingham at first grinned, and, when pressed, said evenly: “You are interpreting my smile as a response to the comments he made in the newspaper today. No comment.”
Yes, sir. Just another night of good will. Who would have guessed that such enmity might creep into a game between two teams embroiled in losing seasons?
