Even though this is a game against the most storied program in the history of the sport, the UW-Notre Dame game feels largely devoid of storylines, other than the most obvious --- Tyrone Willingham. So that's what a lot of us are writing about this week:

--- Here's my attempt to settle the Willingham-Notre Dame issue once and for all, wondering if ND fans feel vindicated by the coach's lack of success here. Turns out they do. I also had this notebook today leading off with an update on Cody Bruns.

--- The Chicago Sun-Times, meanwhile, wrote this piece about Willingham's struggles at UW. Two things I'd take slight issue with --- one, I think it's hard to blame Keith Gilbertson for leaving the cupboard bare when he was coach for 15 months and only brought in one class. If the cupboard was indeed bare, which is open for increasing debate, then Rick Neuheisel has to get more of the blame for that, it can't just be Gilby. To me, he's too convenient a scapegoat for all of this; two, maybe Willingham hasn't been helped by a couple of years in-state that didn't yield as much talent as others (though 2008 surely did) but that might look a little different if he'd gotten Taylor Mays and Steve Schilling.

--- The South Bend Tribune looks at the fact that the last three Notre Dame coaches will all be at Husky Stadium Saturday in one capacity or another.

--- A columnist for the WSU student newspaper says that at least the Cougars aren't as bad as the Huskies, an easily debatable assumption on all levels.

--- The AP has a wrapup of Charle Weis' comments from Tuesday.

--- ESPN's Ted Miller opens his mailbag, including a question about the Cougars and Huskies. Miller writes that all of this would have been avoided had the school not fired Neuheisel and UW would have kept going to Las Vegas and Sun bowls. But would that have been enough? I've always wondered, as well, how the QB situation would have been different in 2004 had Neuheisel stayed, the biggest reason that team fell all the way to the bottom? Miller also opines on some potential UW coaching candidates.

--- Miller also says it will be interesting to see how UW's players stick up for Willingham with their play this weekend. He says there's no reason this isn't a close game.

--- The Chicago Tribune has a notebook on the Irish.

AND TO ANSWER A QUESTION from the previous comment thread, even if a player is on scholarship in one sport, he counts as a walk-on if he tries to play another, as would be the case with Devin Aguilar in basketball. So no worries there about him impacting the basketball team's 13-player scholarship limit. However, there is a limit to the number of walk-ons all teams can have based on their own Title IX numbers (which I don't want to explain here but just to make clear there is a reason why teams don't have dozens of walk-ons).