There are no black Bob Davies, faceless coordinators elevated to college football's most prestigious position when they should've been sent out for seasoning at Kent State. There are no black Gerry Fausts, high school coaches plucked to assume the seat of Rockne, Leahy and Parseghian.

	Tyrone Willingham getting the head coach job at Notre Dame could be a big boost for minority college football coaches everywhere.

When it was time, Tyrone Willingham had to get the Notre Dame job the hard way, with a winning record, unimpeachable character and most of America turning down the chance.

He had to take it, though. This isn't just a terrific move for Willingham and Notre Dame, this is good for progress. Black coaches never get these jobs. What's worse, they're seldom considered. Somehow, this is college football's way, the residual legacy of a crumbling old-boy network. If Willingham didn't leave Stanford for Notre Dame, who would be the next black coach to get this chance? And how long would it take?

Few worthy candidates wanted to clean up this George O'Leary mess, but for $2 million a year and a chance to make history, Willingham can be college football's brightest beacon for opportunity. For all its troubles, Notre Dame is still the team the nation turns to as a standard. The Irish still can set an example of excellence, even when they've been so busy setting a laugh-track to a bad sit-com.

Willingham has won with the same good students at Stanford that he'll be charged to recruit for Notre Dame. Not everyone can do this, but he's done it. The right kids still want to play for Notre Dame. Willingham gives them a reason to believe. Willingham is hope for the Fighting Irish, and far, far beyond the narrow scope of winning football games.

No traditional power ever hires a black coach. No administration ever trusts a prestigious program to a minority. Mostly, black coaches get the second-class jobs in second-rate conferences, the San Jose and New Mexico states. They get hired where administrations believe they have nothing to lose. Michigan State's Bobby Williams is one of the rare black assistants elevated within his own program. He was fortunate. He was a coordinator. Often, black coaches don't even get those coordinator jobs to put themselves in position for the promotion.

All Willingham has to do is wake up those echoes of Notre Dame and the copy-cat administrations will fall all over themselves to more closely examine black coaches as legitimate candidates. It isn't so much a problem of deep-seated racism in athletic administrations as it is the small-minded fear of trying something completely different. Willingham coaching Notre Dame won't just make it easier for black coaches to get the Floridas, Nebraksas and Alabamas, but the entry level jobs too.

Like the hiring record of the NFL against that of the NBA, college football has lagged far behind college basketball. Tubby Smith coaches Rupp's Kentucky Wildcats. UCLA has had two black coaches, Larry Farmer and Walt Hazzard. An anonymous assistant, Mike Davis, got the Indiana job. A small, upstate New York catholic college, Siena, has consecutively hired four black coaches. This sport has progressed to the point where it's hardly newsworthy for a minority to get any head coaching job, never mind one of the elite ones.

Do you believe for a moment that Grambling's Doug Williams would be so completely ignored for major college interviews as a basketball coach? When Williams was hired to replace the legendary Eddie Robinson, the Grambling program had suffered the wear of Robinson's advanced age and stumbled onto hard times. But Williams made it a winner again, going 5-4, 7-4, 10-2 and 10-1 through his four seasons on the job. He played quarterback for two decades in the pros, won a Super Bowl MVP and even earned enshrinement in the College Football Hall of Fame last summer in South Bend, Ind.

Once, that was as close to the Golden Dome as a black head coach could dream of getting. No more. The next time Williams has the chance to visit one of these famous schools, he ought to take a nice, long walk across the campus, study the beautiful facilities, the gigantic stadium and consider that one of these powerhouse programs someday could come under his watch, too.

It won't happen today. Probably not tomorrow. For the first time, though, black coaches can consider themselves in the ballgame. Tyrone Willingham is the head coach of the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Yes, there's finally hope.

Adrian Wojnarowski is a sports columnist for The Record (Northern N.J.) and a regular contributor to ESPN.com.