When I first heard Notre Dame wanted to interview Tyrone Willingham, I figured it was for political, not practical reasons. But sometimes the political can become practical. Ask Denny Green.

A decade ago, Green was the official "black candidate", whose name was floated for every major opening. Once hired, he was a success by any measure, lasting 10 years in Minnesota -- an eternity for pro coaches. But he lost control of his team this season. It was time for him to go. Red McCombs fired his coach for practical reasons, not political ones.

For the past three seasons, Tyrone Willingham had been the "black candidate." Notre Dame had no intention of offering him the job. Athletic director Kevin White only offered Willingham a courtesy interview before introducing George O'Leary as his new coach.

But after O'Leary resigned in disgrace (by the way, his sin wasn't a fictitious resume, it was having referred to the Notre Dame mystique as "spiritualness"), Willingham became the Irish's practical choice. At his press conference, he acknowledged that his hire is "significant, but not Jackie Robinson significant." I disagree.

The footprints Willingham leaves behind at Notre Dame could be deeper than those Robinson left on the baseball diamond. Tyrone Willingham is already a proven commodity. He isn't some sacrificial lamb thrown to the wolves. And he's not a black-faced figurehead in some wooden corporate structure. He's calling the shots at the most storied collegiate program in the country.

There's a difference between hiring a black face, and giving power to a black voice. Tyrone Willingham has the voice -- it resonated in the meeting room at Stanford during the '89 season. "Now ... men," he would always begin, followed by a recitation of our deficiencies as kick returners. He sounded so disappointed in us. It was like playing for your dad. He demanded a lot -- but somehow he always made us want to make him proud of us. We didn't exactly fear his wrath -- "Now ... men," was as bad as it got -- but we always sought his praise.

As Jackie Robinson said, "a life is not important except for the impact it has on other lives." Willingham, Notre Dame's first black coach in any sport, has a chance to blaze an interstate highway through the whitebread wilderness.

I recently spoke with Falcons offensive coordinator George Sefcic, a former player and coach at Notre Dame. "College football boils down to recruiting," he said. When I asked if Willingham would be a good fit, he said without hesitation, "The color of his skin doesn't matter."

If you take this at -- pardon the expression -- face value, Willingham is the perfect coach for South Bend. Notre Dame actually honors the academic commitment. And like Stanford, Notre Dame has no athletic dorms. When athletes live among students, the term "student-athlete" becomes a hyphenated reality, not some empty politically-correct pacifier like "African-American."

But in this case, the color of the coach's skin does matter. As Sefcic said, recruiting is the most important part of a college coach's job. And the recruiting process is rooted in trust.

When Willingham strolls into a black kid's living room this month, it sure won't hurt that the coach is a clean-cut articulate disciplinarian who just happens to have the same complexion as his parents.

But if he doesn't win, he's going to get fired, just like Denny Green. That's not politics -- that's reality.

Alan Grant, a former NFL defensive back, writes football for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at alan.grant@espnmag.com.