One frequent source of discussion after Willingham's hiring and continuing today is whether Willingham's offense is too pass-happy. The underlying assumption seems to be that Willingham is more prone to passing than other coaches, in particular because it is believed that he runs a version of the West Coast Offense ("WCO").

It may be that the term WCO has come to stand for so many kinds of offenses that it has lost its meaning. However, it is certainly not an offense that relies exclusively on the pass. In fact, the San Francisco 49ers were one of the few NFL teams to actually have more rushing plays than passing plays during the regular season.

Moreover, Willingham turns out to have been the most rush prone coach of those discussed for the N.D. job other than Lou Holtz, and in the latter's case, it was quite close.

Here are some NFL figures for last year:

New England Patriots (Super Bowl Champs)

Rushing: 3.8 yds per carry, 49.6% of plays
Passing: 6.9 yds. per att., 50.4% of plays

St. Louis Rams (NFC Champs)

Rushing: 4.9 yds per carry, 42.6% of plays
Passing: 8.9 yds. per att., 57.4% of plays

San Francisco 49ers (Mariucci)

Rushing: 4.4 yds per carry, 50.1% of plays
Passing: 7.0 yds. per att., 49.9% of plays

Oakland Raiders (Gruden)

Rushing: 3.7 yds per carry, 38.8% of plays
Passing: 7.0 yds. per att., 61.2% of plays

Green Bay Packers (WCO in cold weather climate)

Rushing: 4.1 yds per carry, 44.6% of plays
Passing: 7.7 yds. per att., 55.4% of plays

Jacksonville (Coughlin)

Rushing: 4.3 yds per carry, 41.1% of plays
Passing: 6.9 yds. per att., 58.9% of plays

As is evident, only San Francisco among the group actually had more rushing plays than passing and Oakland was the most pass happy team of the bunch.

College teams are a more varied group and probably more rush prone. Here are some important examples:

Notre Dame

Rushing: 3.9 yds. per carry, 70.9% of plays
Passing: 5.1 yds per att., 29.1% of plays

Nebraska

Rushing: 5.6 yds. per carry, 77.2% of plays
Passing: 8.3 yds per att., 22.8% of plays

Stanford (Willingham)

Rushing: 4.4 yds. per carry, 60.5% of plays
Passing: 8.3 yds per att., 39.5% of plays

South Carolina (Lou Holtz)

Rushing: 4.6 yds. per carry, 61.5 % of plays
Passing: 6.8 yds per att., 38.5% of plays

Miami Fla. (National Champions)

Rushing: 5.3. per carry, 55.4 % of plays
Passing: 8.1 yds per att., 44.6 % of plays

Oklahoma (Stoops)

Rushing: 3.7 yds. per carry, 43.7 % of plays
Passing: 5.9 yds per att., 56.3 % of plays

Oregon (Belotti)

Rushing: 5.2 yds. per carry, 54.2 % of plays
Passing: 7.7 yds per att., 45.8 % of plays

Florida

Rushing: 4.1 yds. per carry, 41.2 % of plays
Passing: 9.6 yds per att., 58.8 % of plays

As we can see, Nebraska and Notre Dame were among the most rush prone teams in the nation, though Nebraska's offensive attack was vastly more effective. But among the coaches discussed for the Notre Dame job, Lou Holtz and Willingham were the only two who selected rushing plays 60% or more of the time last year.

Notre Dame's play selection in the spring game of 34 rushes and 24 passes (59% rushes) is almost perfectly consistent with this trend. Moreover the choice of 14 rushing plays and 9 passing plays on first down (61% rushes) mirrors this almost exactly.

Thus, of all of the justifiable worries that one might have about next year's season, Willingham's propensity to run the ball should be low on the list.