UW coach Tyrone Willingham got a little more attention than usual on the Pac-10 coaches conference call today. Here's some of what he said:

On whether there is a weight off his shoulders now that his future is settled: "Not necessarily for me but more for the overall program than for myself that hopefully it can eliminate some of the outside negativity that has been surrounding the program and hopefully our guys can now have some idea, even though it does raise some questions, have some idea of what is going to happen, what's going to take place, so they can focus on what is important, which is a very, very good opponent that we have in front of us.''

Are there things he would do differently at UW: "At the right time I will kind of sit down and catalog those things in my mind, what I will do in the future and how things work. Right now is not the time for me to be looking back. We've got five football games to go and obviously we are playing the best team in the country in our opinion, so we better being looking face forward. If not, we'll have real problems.''

On how the team will respond now: "There's so much we don't know. It would be wonderful if I could tell you exactly how all of our players, even the majority, are feeling. Right now, gosh, those guys have probably done a couple of flip-flops flips in their minds in the last 24 hours. Hopefully when it's all said and done (the team will follow) the example I have set from day one, that we embrace challenges, we go out and give our best and we move forward, that has been my approach and hopefully they can follow my example and they will be even more intense than they have been in the past. Is that difficult? Without question it's difficult. But that's the thing that makes competition so much fun that you have to rise above human nature. Right now we can get some real drains from human nature, but hopefully our guys will be able to look at coach Willingham and say 'you know what? Coach didn't give up on us, coach is staying with us, coach is going forward, and we are going to do the same.'''

On talking to the team and assistants: "We have to quickly turn our attention to USC. I did have a chance to speak with the staff and coaches before the press conference so they were aware of what is taking place. I sent an e-mail to much of our football team, unfortunately it was not the best of timing or the best way to communicate with them, but we did try to give them a head's up of what was taking place. Today I will meet with the team and I told them in the e-mail I will speak briefly on the subject and then we will put our attention to USC and the four remaining games that we have on the season.''

On the reaction of assistants: "You cannot in any stretch of the imagination think that this is business as usual. These are unusual circumstances that happen and you have to deal with them. You are not sure of all of the emotiois of all the players and I don't know all of the reactions of all of our coaches. Some will see it differently. Some will respond to is as another challenge, some will not. But hopefully again they will follow my lead and get after this thing.''

Willingham said that an MRI on Senio Kelemete had taken place in the morning and depending on the results, he may be having knee surgery today.

Willingham also said that he is unsure where recruiting goes now. He said he will have to meet with the administration here to see how it wants this coaching staff to deal with recruiting.

"These are unusual circumstances and now we have to carry a different voice because it's not Tyrone Willingham's voice of this current program but we've also got to look out for the program of the future and make sure we are doing the right things for them, also.''

Asked if he has any voice left in recruiting he said, "right now I don't have a voice. It's unfortunate, but I don't.''