Tyrone Willinghma 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 ND’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. Because now we have coaches especially some minority coaches, they are losing their jobs after 21/2 years. That’s not right.”

Willingham was fired at ND with a record of 21-15 (a winning % 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 has hurt by a double standard. Willingham has been reluctant to inject himself into that debate.

“For me, the experience was a steppingstone, hopefully not a steppingstone personally but a steppingstone for African Americans,” Willingham said. “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 was fired this season at Washington where the Huskies are 0-11 entering the 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 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. Willingham took over a Washington Husky team that went 1-10 in 2004. At Mississippi State, Croom faced an uphill battle in the ultra competitive SEC. And Gill Gill has turned around a Buffalo program that was among the nation’s worst.

“It has always been the downtrodden that we’ve had to take over. 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 (regarding Weis), but we have to change that mentality with African American coaches. 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.”