Irish ready to move on

Disappointing end to 2002 season is history to Willingham

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) -- Tyrone Willingham knows as well as anyone it's hard to get past Notre Dame's storied history.

But he's determined to at least get past last season, which began with a surprising 8-0 start and then ended with embarrassing losses to USC and North Carolina State in the Gator Bowl.

That's why he can't wait for Saturday's season-opener pitting No. 19 Notre Dame against Washington State (1-0), so people will have something else to talk about.

"What happened last year is, to me, old news," Willingham said at his weekly news conference Tuesday. "It's about what we do today. That's where my focus is. So when I work with my team, I work within that mindset."

It's a mindset the players seem to have bought into.

"Last year was last year," offensive tackle Jim Molinaro said. "Personally, I don't pay any attention to what people say about last year."

Players acknowledge, though, that it has been hard.

"It's on all of our minds how we finished the season," quarterback Carlyle Holiday said.

Willingham gets evasive every time reporters ask him about another piece of recent Notre Dame history: its penchant to follow a good season with a bad one. Since 1997, the Irish are 17-19 in odd-numbered years and 28-9 in even-numbered years.

That doesn't appear to bode well for the 2003 season. Willingham, though, says he pays no attention to such statistics.

"Honestly, until you said that, I wasn't focused on that pattern," he said told a reporter Tuesday. He gave almost the same exact answer to another reporter who asked the same question on media day last month.

While Willingham said he isn't focused on the trend, players say they are aware of it.

"I think we're all aware of it," Holiday said. "But everything is changing now. We broke so many different trends this past year. There's no reason we can't break another."

If they do, maybe that's a history Willingham would be eager to talk about.