Tyrone Willingham doesn't appear to be bitter that Notre Dame recently announced that it was giving Charlie Weis a fifth season as coach.

Willingham was fired after three years at Notre Dame with a winning percentage slightly better than what his successor Weis has achieved in four seasons.

"Maybe Notre Dame got it right," Willingham told 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," Willingham told the paper Thursday. "Because now we have coaches ... especially some of the minority coaches ... they are losing their jobs after 2½ years. That's not right."

Willingham was fired at Notre Dame with a record of 21-15 (a winning percentage of .583) and two bowl appearances. Weis is 28-21 (.571) with two bowl appearances in four seasons.

Willingham was fired this season at Washington, where the Huskies are 0-11 entering Saturday's season finale at California. With his firing, the resignation of Sylvester Croom at Mississippi State and the firing of Ron Prince at Kansas State, there are only three African-American coaches in the Football Championship Subdivision: Randy Shannon at Miami, Turner Gill at Buffalo and Kevin Sumlin at Houston.

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