SEATTLE – Every day, Tyrone Willingham passes a display of gaudy trophies in glass showcases across the hall from his modest corner office.

Smack in the middle is the hulking prize from Washington’s share of its only national championship in 1991 – the season the Huskies went 12-0, won the Rose Bowl, and split the mythical title in the polls with Miami.

The last national title Charlie Weis can boast about at Notre Dame came in 1988 – though mystique-minded Fighting Irish fans are quick to summon up the 11 consensus championships the school has won going back to the days of Knute Rockne.

The game Saturday between Washington (1-2) and No. 16 Notre Dame (2-1) marks more than the first clash between Willingham and Weis, Fighting Irish coaches past and present, nine months after their careers unexpectedly intersected.

It’s a game that reminds both schools of wrenching upheavals, the long-lost glory of their football programs, and decisions they hope will put them both back on track to be title contenders again.

But it won’t prove who’s the better coach, who was right and who was wrong when Notre Dame hired Weis last December after abruptly and controversially firing Willingham.

Willingham and Weis have never spoke about what happened at Notre Dame. Never discussed the players Willingham recruited and Weis inherited when he returned to his alma mater, bejeweled with three Super Bowl rings as the New England Patriots’ offensive coordinator.

“I think he didn’t feel like he needed any assistance,” Willingham says. “I think he felt that with his Notre Dame background he was in pretty good shape in terms of understanding the program, what he wanted to do. I think he wanted to come in and have a fresh, brand new approach.”

Willingham had gone 21-15 at Notre Dame, winning fewer games than he wanted or Irish fans expected. After an 8-0 start his first year, the program stalled, and Willingham was let go three years into his six-year deal, making him the first Notre Dame coach in 70 years who was not allowed to finish his first contract.

Was race a factor? Willingham was Notre Dame’s first black coach and one of the few in college football. Or was it because Willingham, a buttoned-up outsider who ran a disciplined but uninspired offense, never quite clicked with the powerful Notre Dame alumni?

Willingham blamed himself, never pointed fingers and didn’t talk of racism. Asked now about not making more of an effort to defend himself, when so many others at Notre Dame and elsewhere condemned his firing, Willingham rebuffed that notion.

“Whoa, wait, we’ve got to be careful there,” he said. “Because sometimes a defense is not visible. What did I do wrong?

“I think I coached our young men well. I think I finished with a winning record. Did I win as many games as I wanted to? I said it from day one: No, I did not.

Did he feel bitterness toward Notre Dame?

“I moved on,” he said.

With his integrity intact Willingham landed on his feet quickly – richer yet with a five-year deal worth $1.43 million in guaranteed annual salary, plus incentives that could boost it to $2 million annually – when he took on a Washington program that was coming off its worst season in history. The Huskies, 1-10 under Keith Gilbertson, had been in turmoil since Rick Neuheisel was fired the year before for gambling on NCAA basketball.

Notre Dame signed a coach who could dazzle recruits with his glittering Super Bowl rings, turn on his blunt native New Jersey charm, and get misty-eyed talking about the Fighting Irish past.

Weis’ Notre Dame credentials also gave him a big boost on campus.

“The alumni certainly think that,” Chuck Lennon, executive director of the Notre Dame Alumni Association said. “We’re not better than anybody else. We’re different.

Willingham gained friends fast at Notre Dame when he won his first eight games. He remains respected in South Bend, Ind., even with all the differences in style between him and Weis.

“You can’t not like either one, even though they’re extremely different,” said Tony Roberts, Notre Dame’s radio broadcaster. “Where Tyrone is more of a CEO, Charlie is a hands-on guy. He seems to give great attention to every detail.

“All of a sudden there’s renewed hope that this guy is going to take them to the promised land.”

For that reason, Weis has less to gain and more to lose than Willingham on Saturday.

If Washington, a 13 1/2-point underdog, pulls off an upset, Willingham looks like a genius. A few more Notre Dame fans will wonder if his firing last season was too hasty. Weis suddenly won’t seem a savior.

If Notre Dame wins, Weis is doing only what was expected, beating a school bruised by coaching changes, and that had an 0-5 record against the Irish.

Willingham was on the winning side of last year’s 38-3 romp between these schools in South Bend, a loss that still stings the Huskies.

This year’s game has loomed large for players and coaches on both teams for nine months. Now that it’s arrived, they’re all playing it down as just another game, nothing personal between the coaches.

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