Willingham needs wins.(College Football)

He is a portrait of poise and presence, of faith and fortitude. This is Tyrone Willingham because there is no other way. This is how you deal with a distinguished alumnus who spouts idiotic, racially insensitive comments about the state of Notre Dame recruiting. Or how you dodge death threats from some nut in Florida.

Or how, inevitably, you deal with the bigger issue on the horizon: job security.

Tyrone Willingham isn't foolish enough to talk about patience at Notre Dame or brash enough to talk championships. The situation is what it is. He says his team is ready to prove itself after a 5-7 record last season, the third such losing season in the past five years for the most storied program in amateur sports. "Hunger," Willingham says, "is always a good thing."

Actually, hunger is usually one of two things: inspiration or desperation. In this case, it's the latter. If the suddenly stale Irish don't show significant improvement this season, Willingham's days in South Bend will be over. This has nothing to do with impatient boosters or the microwave, want-it-now society all coaches tread in these days. It's economics, plain and simple.

Notre Dame has its own television contract with NBC, and although it recently extended its deal with the network, contracts are made to be broken. Especially considering last year's worst-ever ratings for Notre Dame games could slide further south and have NBC execs pining for the XFL. The Irish are alone in the cannibalistic era of super conferences and can't be left without a television partner when the last chair eventually is taken.

Money drives the train in college sports; why should any coaching decision at Notre Dame be any different? The Irish shouldn't have to settle for just anyone. Yet since Lou Holtz retired after the 1996 season, that's all Notre Dame has done. Bob Davie, George O'Leary, Tyrone Willingham. Those guys aren't sending shockwaves from Miami to Seattle and parts between. And they're certainly not attracting elite high school athletes to South Bend.

According to Rivalsl00.com, only two of the Irish's 18 recruits were among the top 200 in the nation this season. Notre Dame likes to think it's at the same level as rivals Southern California and Michigan, but 15 of the Trojans' 20 recruits and 13 of the Wolverines' 22 were among the top 200.