Perhaps Tyrone Willingham’s fate as the Irish head coach should have been clear after his first game at Notre Dame Stadium. Maybe that realization comes only with hindsight, the kind of perspective that accompanies a tenure’s latter bookend.
But when Notre Dame reached 2-0 with a 24-17 win against Purdue in 2002, an oddity stood out despite the Irish averaging 23 points in their two wins, an oddity overshadowed by the hype surrounding any new hire, particularly one with the historic heft of Willingham’s arrival.
The offense did not score, not in the 22-o win against No.