BY TODD DYBAS / SEATTLESPORTSONLINE.COM

He's going, soon to be gone.

That should delight the disgruntled who booed Tyrone Willingham last Saturday, though Willingham will depart one up on many of them.

It's not due to the $1 million buyout he receives, but more of an integrity issue.

Willingham is the 2008 president of the American Football Coaches Association, a group which has made a recent push on behalf of Coach for the Cure MD.

Lit pixels produced Willingham on the scoreboard Saturday night while the Huskies were getting drilled by Notre Dame. It was a public service announcement for the Coach for the Cure pursuit which prompted the loudest boos of the night from many among the 70,000 sitting in the dilapidated stadium. So, score one for Willingham before he leaves, because whatever staggering arrogance or carbonated golden beverage inspires fools to boo an effort to raise money for muscular dystrophy research would never befall the deposed coach.

Yes, that's a view from a high horse, and Willingham's departure reminds that horse in college football ought to receive its lofty status from computer rankings opposed to human molding.

But he knows that, as does everyone involved. This is about winning, something his teams did on rare occasion thus understandably eliminating choice about his future.

Willingham always referred to his players as "young men," what he had to do to get his "young men" in the right position. There were repeated mantras about championship players, championship teams, championship people. That's one dropped on the recruiting trail, making parents rightfully feel they could trust their son to this man. The same phrase surfaced Monday during the dismal dismissal announcement.

There's undoubtedly more to Willingham than he presents to media schlubs or on his radio show. He often tells the reporters when it is time to get started, the instructor and process controller in all instances. His public display a recurring, seemingly automated theme which allows focus to go to exactly what is going on, then is explained with generalities, Willingham's preferred approach.

And that's a dangerous tide these days. At times it appears if you're not full of it, you'll be in it, as the coach was because of the results on the field he is largely responsible for. Willingham never presented hobnob for the sake of hobnobbing, speaking in his own vernacular born of historical quip and aversion to hyperbole. As we rollick in speak-first, think-last society, there was no chummy facade from Willingham to buy him time from fans or boosters. He wouldn't have it different.

What's buried by the stern public countenance are stories about his recruiting trips when he posed with little girls who were taking pictures of him on their cell phones at the school campus. Moms of players upset enough to to have watery eyes when learning the official news Monday. What next for their son now that entrusted coach Willingham is out?

But 0-7 will not do, nor will 11-32. A change in defensive coordinator has produced no progress. The fact the two stud quarterbacks Willingham's had have both been injured, Isaiah Stanback and Jake Locker, is irrelevant, as is the age and injury decimation of this year's team. This is the University of Washington, and if you didn't know that, they'll remind you of their preeminence in a town where they have no challengers.

So when said establishment is mentioned in the same sentence as North Texas because the two schools are tied for the longest losing streak in the nation among "major" college football programs, each cuffed to the post for nine games now, it's time for a change. There's no disputing that.

Nor can the financial ramifications of extended losing be ignored. College football is big business. It's a cyclical process spread throughout the universities, media and those so self-assured placing a bounty on the a coach's head is done without pause. Not to mention more than a modicum of excitement will be necessary to pry open wallets for the millions it will take to restore Montlake's winged house of horrors.

For Willingham, he leaves intact despite the record, having waded through ongoing discomfort that would cause the meek to crumble. When the bright lights are off, the philosophy remains, the mantras persist. "Humble and hungry," a persistent lecture point that was dropped on the trail, will be packed in the bag when he leaves.

Left behind will be a legacy of losing juxtaposed by unwavering personal perspective.

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