Situation awkward at Washington

SEATTLE – Michael Jackson songs blared from the speakers next to the field. Tyrone Willingham still wore a purple cap with a white “W” on the front, bouncing around to various players and clapping encouragement during the beginning stages of Tuesday’s football practice.

But the air of awkwardness surrounding Washington’s program was hard to ignore a little more than 24 hours after the school announced Willingham would be out as coach at the end of the season.

“We put our heads down and go back to work for the next five weeks and do what is right by this football program and what is right by these players,” said offensive line coach Mike Denbrock, who went through a similar stage of uncertainty four years ago at Notre Dame after Willingham had been fired.

“It was a difficult situation that we were in before and this is a difficult situation, too.”

Internet messages boards have brimmed with jubilance from disgruntled Washington fans since the announcement Monday that Willingham would be fired, effective at the end of the season. Speculation is growing about the candidates athletic director Scott Woodward and university president Mark Emmert are likely to target as the coaching search escalates in the next few weeks, providing a little bit of excitement to a program that’s lost nine straight games.

Willingham is 11-32 in his four seasons with the Huskies and would need to win the final five games of his tenure in Seattle to avoid owning the lowest winning percentage in school history. Those bold numbers made Monday’s announcement not much of a surprise to a realistic group of players and coaches.

“There has been so much speculation around for weeks now; the coaching staff in general, we took it in stride,” said running backs coach Steve Gervais, who joined Willingham’s staff last winter. “I don’t think it was anything foreign to us. There were expectations coming into the season of what we had to do for coach Willingham to be here in the future.”

Gervais added there has been no direction yet on how the coaching staff will handle recruiting between now and the end of the season. Most coaches are scheduled to leave Thursday for two days of recruiting in Southern California.

Many players were matter-of-fact about the situation. Both Jermaine Kearse and Kavario Middleton – highly regarded freshman who went to high school together – said their connection was to the school and not necessarily Willingham.

Center Juan Garcia, who was around when Keith Gilbertson was fired in 2004, said he tried to stress to his younger teammates earlier this season the massive changes that come with a new coach.

“I told the younger guys after we went 0-2, ‘You guys don’t want to go through a coaching change. It’s bad. Coaches will try to come in here and change the whole mentality,’ ” Garcia said. “That’s what I tried to tell those guys. But a little bit I feel like I am responsible. I wish I could have done more.”

Almost the entire Washington roster found out secondhand of Willingham’s firing, although the coach sent out an e-mail to his team just moments before Monday’s announcement.

Some learned through cell phone calls during class. Others in text messages from teammates.

When Willingham was hired in 2004, Washington became the first Football Bowl Subdivision school in the country to have black head coaches for football and men’s basketball when he joined Lorenzo Romar.

Romar was solemn on Tuesday talking about his friend.

“He’s done so many things right for this program,” Romar said. “It’s unfortunate in this profession that these decisions have to be made.”