BY TODD DYBAS / SEATTLESPORTSONLINE.COM

As Washington fans streamed out of Husky Stadium last Saturday night, the Versus network, carrying the game on television, cut to a graphic.

It showed four coaches on the beloved "Hot Seat," including the one pacing the sidelines while Washington ineptly tried four times to score from the 1-yard line.

At 0-6 this year and 11-31 overall in three-plus seasons, Washington coach Tyrone Willingham has been under fire all season. Calls for his removal have grown into radio shows asking for his resignation. Stories about his possible replacement have already been printed.

During this tumult, new Washington Athletic Director Scott Woodward has repeatedly stated the football program will be evaluated at the end of the season, and that he is not generally in favor of a midseason change, should the university feel it necessary. The University of Washington reiterated that stance when contacted for this story.

He's not alone. Midseason firings in college football are Bigfoot rare. The most recent midseason move at a power program was in 2004 when Florida fired Ron Zook. Despite the dismissal, the university allowed Zook to coach the remaining four games of the season. The Gators went 3-1. Baylor fired Kevin Steele with four games left in the 2002 season. The Bears lost all four. In the last decade, that's about it.

"To me, it doesn't have the feel of the way we should be doing business on the college level, period," Grant Teaff, the Executive Director of the American Football Coaches Association said.

And why not? According to Teaff, a number of reasons. Coaches are watching from afar, seeing how the administrators at an institution handle a delicate process. The way schools watch coaches, coaches watch schools. He suggests a midseason move interrupts the educational process, a point of view rarely, if at all, discussed when Willingham's future is debated.

Teaff also preaches patience. He says some programs take longer to build than others, particularly in this era with the change in scholarship and academic rules. Programs are only allowed 25 new players each fall. That allows every school to pick from the bumpercrops, like the annual one coming out of the center of the prep football universe, the state of Texas.

Thanks to the rule, not every player who turned Friday Night lights into a personal showcase can become a Longhorn or Aggie. More than 400 Div. I-A or Bowl Subdivision players mount up and head out of the state of Texas annually. Only California, one of the Huskies' main recruiting pipelines, is on par.

These recruits? They have cable. They've seen New Mexico in a Bowl Game for six consecutive years. Watched Boise State beat Oklahoma. They also have the Internet. Rumors about Willingham's future already are giving schoolboys quaky knees, Willingham saying recruits are "waiting and watching."

These Mountain West and WAC schools? They have cash. New facilities are there or on the horizon. Technology has spread training philosophies throughout the country. That's the Mountain West with three teams ranked 18th or higher in this week's poll. Only USC gets a number in parentheses next to its name among Pac-10 entrants. In short, Joe the Plumber who makes more than $250,000 a year is seeing the wealth spread around.

The demand may be high, but the midseason removal of a college football coach is simply unlikely.

***

When Gerry Dinardo was fired at LSU, it wasn't a midway move. Dinardo was dismissed in November of 1999 by current University of Washington President Mark Emmert. Emmert was the LSU chancellor at the time, and he, not athletic director Joe Dean who also left shortly thereafter, fired Dinardo before the the Tigers' final regular-season game. The Tigers won three consecutive Bowl games in Dinardo's first three seasons, starting in 1995. But a 4-7 season followed by a 3-8 season, which included off-field issues, brought Dinardo's run at LSU to an end.

Dinardo's dismissal is one of two coaching changes that have been made at the three schools Emmert has been atop of, the other coming when Keith Gilbertson was dismissed and Willingham was hired in 2004. In addition to being president at Washington since 2004, Emmert was chancellor at LSU (1999-2003) and chancellor at the University of Connecticut (1995-99).

"At LSU, I was hired by a certain group of administrators and board members and I was fired by a new group of team owners because the board had changed, the chancellor had changed, and the athletic director was soon to change," Dinardo said. "It's just business."

Team owner isn't listed on any Curriculum Vitae, but is what Dinardo, now an analyst for the Big Ten Network, feels those in power on college campuses have become.

"I'm of the opinion that a lot of presidents, or boards, or trusts, or regents, whatever the terminology is, have become team owners, if you will, of the university's football team," Dinardo said. "There's a lot of different personalities in the NFL in terms of owners. In every university, you have the personality of the team owner."

Both times a coach was fired by a school with Emmert in charge, he had been there a relatively brief time.

At LSU, Emmert was hired as chancellor in April and Dinardo was dismissed in November. During the co-habitation, they did not spend much time together according to Dinardo.

"I didn't have a relationship with Mark Emmert," Dinardo said. "He came to my office one day after he was named chancellor, introduced himself to me. That was one meeting. I think the next meeting was when he fired me. So, I didn't have a relationship with him. I had gotten to LSU and they had lost six straight years and we won three straight bowl games. We struggled the last two years, and so Mark Emmert never really saw us do anything good. The people that had an appreciation for what we had done, were no longer in power. I never had a personal relationship with him, so there's nothing I can really say about how he did things, because I have no idea."

Emmert came to the University of Washington in June of 2004. Gilbertson announced he had been dismissed in the beginning of November. Three games remained in the season. Then-athletic director Todd Turner said at the time the school and Gilbertson had come to a mutual agreement Gilbertson should step down.

So Emmert has overseen two dismissals, both of which were announced prior to the end of the season, but well past the midway point. Neither of those coaches were hired while he was in charge, unlike Willingham.

***

There's an Utopian aspect to all of this to consider: the student-athlete. The title insinuates balance between each, though, per usual, this never comes up among the sports radio roar. Never has there been a press conference announcing the football coach is being dismissed because the graduation rate has dipped considerably in back-to-back years.

The Graduation Success Rate at Washington is 83 percent, a number second only to Stanford in the Pac-10 according to the most recent data from the NCAA. The number refers to the percentage of freshman student-athletes who entered school in 2001 and received their four-year degree. Washington was above the national average, increased its success rate from the previous year, and the school actually graduated student-athletes at a higher rate than the rest of the student body in that timespan.

Last in the Pac-10 is Arizona at 64 percent. So, the question is this: If the Huskies averaged nine wins each of the last four years, but fell to last in the Pac-10 in GSR, would Willingham's future be filling so many column inches and crackles in the air?

"You find me a president that would rather be 90 percent and in the Holiday Bowl rather than 64 percent and in the Rose Bowl and I don't know what I'll do," Dinardo said. "When given the choice, the football coach is hired to win football games and keep the lid in a reasonable fashion on the academic issues and on the character issue. That is the job of the football coach and that's how coaches are hired and fired. All that other stuff has become irrelevant.

"I have not been around university presidents, chancellors and board members that feel like (graduate players) is the most important thing for the football coach to do," Dinardo went on. "My experience has been winning is the most important thing. If you can do them both, let's try to put them together, but we are hiring you to win football games."

Teaff, while conceding college football is obvious big business, contends the academic and development ramifications of coaching changes need to be a crucial consideration.

"It's a very important question that can only be answered by the decision-makers at a University," Teaff said. "Contrary to what some people think, institutions are still educational institutions. Those that can walk that chalk line, between success on the field and success off the field are rare. Believe me, there is overpowering importance of not only doing things the right way, but what type of young people we are developing.

"When they leave the program are they better for having been in the program? Are they better individuals? Those are extremely important things and a university and a people have to honestly weigh their decision as to what value they want to place."

Willingham is the 2008 president of the American Football Coaches Association, the organization Teaff is executive director of, so it's no surprise Willingham's stump speeches about developing young men are in line with Teaff's outlook.

But history tells us it's Dinardo's point of view that is the overwhelming one countrywide.

Each year, the AFCA gives an Academic Achievement Award to the institutions that graduate the highest percentage of players. In 2001, there were to be two recipients since two schools achieved a graduation rate of 100 percent within their football program.

"We always give the award at our convention," Teaff said. "That year the winners of the award did not have a representative because both coaches had been fired for not winning."

Those coaches would be Notre Dame's Bob Davie and Vanderbilt's Woody Widenhofer. The latter technically resigned as the head man at Vanderbilt, leaving his athletic director at the time, Todd Turner, to search for a new coach. It would be Vanderbilt's third coach in 10 years, the post unsettled since Dinardo left there for LSU in 1994.

***

Six games remain for the Huskies. A loss this weekend would officially remove Washington from Bowl consideration.

There's no disputing Willingham's on-the-field record, 11-31, is abysmal. There has been no dispute as to his steadfastness in the mission of personal development when it comes to his players. Washington has a skilled backup quarterback filling in for Jake Locker for one reason, Ronnie Fouch's parents were thrilled with Willingham. The off-field hijinks of the Rick Neuheisel era, a winning one, are long gone.

"Good people are hard to come by in many ways," Teaff said, citing the process for Missouri's Gary Pinkel -- a coach commonly in the conversation when there is speculation about Willingham's future and successor -- who has made the Tigers a power after a difficult start seven years ago. "When you have somebody that is respected, somebody that is deeper than the shallow water that sometimes occurs, it's really important for institutions to have patience."

Another obvious stumbling block is the fact the would-be replacement is almost always employed during the season. That holds official moves until the end of the year, though they can come swiftly.

Dinardo was fired at LSU, Nov. 15, 1999. Nick Saban resigned at Michigan State 15 days later, Nov. 30. It was a Monday. Saban was introduced by Emmert as the new coach of LSU at noon the next day.

"The president of the University of Washington doesn't become the president of the University of Washington by not anticipating things, by not having a plan," Dinardo said. "I'm sure this is mapped out. This is not about the academic or educational experience. This is about the football team winning and losing, and that's all it's about.

"Mark Emmert and any other university president will make a decision based on winning and losing. He'll say nice things about Tyrone if he does make a decision, because he's a wonderful person and has a lot of great qualities, and he'll say those. But, in the end, football coaches are judged by wins and losses and no one's immune to it."

Todd Dybas is the editor of Seattlesportsonline.com. He can be reached via e-mail at tdybas@seattlesportsonline.com