Jim Sterk fall-out. News seemed to break as people were filing into the dinner that Jim accepted the Athletic Director position at San Diego State University. It didn’t even dawn on me during the social hour when he was nowhere to be seen making his usual rounds. President Elson Floyd was nowhere to be found either, and seeing that their goal this night was to raise $80,000 worth of scholies through the auctions, obviously something was happening on the home front.
Jim brought unprecedented success to WSU Athletics, seeing post season appearances from volleyball, soccer, baseball, basketball and football on his watch; not sure how many other ADs can say they had that much success at Wazzu. He appears to have taken a lot of heat for the recent failure of Phase III. Best of luck Jim. Hopefully we can work around the no compete clause Bill Moos has with the University of Oregon, otherwise this instantly becomes a must win year for Coach Wulff.
Current players have some swagger. The coaching staff was accompanied by Gino Simone, Jeff Tuel and Nolan Washington. These three young men have an aura of confidence that you don’t have to look to hard to find. There is a reason they dubbed themselves the Cream of the Crop coming out of high school. They were not shy in stating it is their goal to get us to Pasadena. To quote Nolan: “If you have friends or know anybody in Pasadena, tell them to look out, the Cougars are coming.” Week in and week out the coaching staff must love having guys like this selling our program to incoming recruits. They had me at hello.
Sean’s Take on the night:
And quite a night it was, Cougs! First of all, one of the most encouraging things of all was that it was a full house. That’s right, a SELLOUT. Even with some tough seasons in the very recent past, including a 1-win “roughie” in ’09, still, the house was packed. And not just with “nobodies” like myself, but as Lucas has shared with you, the Coug football stars were out in full force. What does that tell you? Well, it tells me that people still believe. They believe in what was once something special, and what can be special again. And if you believe what the people at the mike were saying this night, then rest assured Coug Nation….we are on the rise.
Some quick takes:
The current players believe (and so should you). I cannot say it enough, how impressive it was to watch Jeff Tuel, Gino Simone and especially Nolan Washington light up the room at the podium. Confident, impressive young men in every sense of the word, but when you see them and hear them speak to a packed ballroom about their passion and love and desire for all things WSU, well, it’s really moving. These guys honestly and truly believe that they are bringing great things to the university and the football program, and it’s hard to have any doubts about where things are headed when you see those beliefs in action. I mean really, isn’t that step 1A in the process? BELIEVING you can accomplish something? As Gino and Jeff both said, every morning at 5:30 when they break in the weight room, they start it with a “ROSE BOWL!” chant. You can’t stand there and go all aw-shucks or whatever about it, you have to KNOW it’s going to happen when you set lofty goals. And these guys believe.
Clearly the star of the show was young Nolan. The redshirt frosh who will see plenty of action in the secondary next year is a total natural at the podium. This kid has a lot of speaking engagements in his future, no doubt about it! During the auction, he actually grabbed the mike away from the auctioneer and helped bid up a dinner with the Gesser family! And he’s got a million dollar smile to boot. You get the feeling he’s going places….and we want to come with him! Of the best things he shared was that on signing day this year, he got 7 or 8 text messages from incoming recruits who simply told him “Hey Nolan, I just signed my ticket to the Rose Bowl!” So even the incoming kids are buying in, even before they set foot in Pullman!
But of all the quotes and all the stories and things that they said, the one thing I will never forget was the way Nolan thanked the people in attendance for giving him the opportunity to not only play college football, but for the honor of being able to attend a four-year college/Pac-10 school, and how much that meant to himself and his family. Great stuff Nolan, and we can’t wait to see you play this fall!
Welcome home, Ryan. Like Lucas, I was curious/skeptical of seeing how this was going to go down. Here was one of the all-time “lampooned” players in NFL history, the butt of several jokes, and who, well, behaved badly for several years. But there is no doubt that the Cougar family in attendance anyway is ready to forgive and forget. There were a couple of standing ovations for him as he was on stage, after he admitted to several mistakes he has made in the past. And he had a real sense of humor about himself as well. At one point, an item was up for bid, which was a painting of Drew Bledsoe, Mark Rypien and Ryan Leaf, all of them in their NFL uniforms of choice, all autographed by each of them. Leaf grabbed the mike and said “Come on now! You have a Super Bowl MVP in Mark Rypien. You have an all-pro in Drew Bledsoe who led his team to the Super Bowl……and you have some guy that was in the NFL for a couple of years…. 🙂 come on now! My parents have this thing hanging in their living room!” It was funny, it was legit, and it helped the final bid price go up a little bit in the process.
Let’s face it, this is a guy who hasn’t made a whole lot of friends in his post-Pullman ways. This is a guy who really needed to feel some love, from someone, anyone. And he got it last night. You know, Coug Nation never really had a chance to fully thank him for burying 67 years of frustration when he led us all on that fantastic ride in ’97, so in a way, this was not only a night of repair for Ryan, but a chance for many Cougs to flat-out thank him for his WSU days. A major hat-tip to Leaf, and we are happy to welcome you back where you belong!
Recruit stuff. Wulff did his presentation, and wow, some good-looking highlights all the way around. As coaches they are absolutely stoked with what is to come. From the excellent “framed” kids with tons of room to grow (Jake Rodgers, Aaron Dunn, John Fullington, Deone Buchanon) to some flat-out speed (Tracy Clark, Isiah Barton, Rickey Galvin, Kristoff Williams, Brandon Golden, Marquess Wilson) to some big-time, physical players (Brandon Rankin, C.J. Mizell, Tyone Duckett, Damante Horton), to the QB who can make all the throws (Connor Halliday), this was one complete, great-looking recruiting class! The future is in really strong hands here folks, combining last year’s crop with this year’s haul.
Some of the most memorable things Wulff said:
On Fullington: “He came to our camp as a junior last year, and was hands-down the best offensive line prospect in the camp. I believe he is one of the best O-line recruits on the west coast, and one of the best I’ve seen at the high school level (wow!).
Note – Fullington was impressive on tape, and not just his initial block. There were several plays where he would engage, win the battle, but keep driving until the play was over. A couple of other times, he blocked his initial guy, then got into the “second level” of the defense and went out and blocked a linebacker or defensive back. And he moves really, really well, definitely can see the former tight-end in his feet, the way he moves.
On Clark: “Part of a really good defense in Pittsburg, CA, excellent speed and ability, we think Tracy could play right away next year.”
On Horton: “One of the things coaches we would see on the recruiting trail would ask us is “how did you get Horton to commit?” He was highly sought after by numerous other schools, and we think he’s going to be an excellent player.”
Note – from his highlight tape, he is VERY physical for a defensive back. Of the quick clips we saw, every one was him jamming a receiver at the line of scrimmage, and then making a big play on the ball. And he had a hit on a run play where he totally “earholed” an opposing player, where the entire sideline just erupted! Keep an eye on Horton….if you don’t, he might knock your block off!
On Halliday: “When we came to WSU, one of the first things we said we had to do was get a quarterback. We think with Jeff Tuel last year and now Connor Halliday this year, we have two outstanding QB’s who can take this program to great heights. Connor is a player who can make all the throws, has room to put on weight with his 6-5 frame, but also has some athleticism and can move for a guy his size.”
On Buchanon: “Deone is already 6-2, 6-3, and is regarded as a late-bloomer. We think he will settle in at 215 or somewhere in there, and might play some Willy linebacker (weakside).”
On Williams: “League MVP, super-talented and athletic. Played QB but will be a wide receiver, excellent size already at 6-2, 200, we would like to redshirt him.”
Note – Williams really “popped” on his highlight tape. Maybe it was because he was a lefthanded, scrambling, super-athlete at QB wearing #7, ala Michael Vick, but you can really see how smooth of an athlete he is. He wasn’t rated highly as a WR, #259 in the country per Scout.com, but as Lucas and I said to each other, “can you imagine there are 258 wide receiver recruits better than him in the country??” Williams could be the super-sleeper of this class! In one clip, he caught a slant pass in traffic and outran the ENTIRE Pittsburgh High School Secondary. The same secondary containing incoming Coug Tracy Clark and Oregon Duck Erick Dargan!
On Wilson: “We signed five wide receivers in this class, but in the end, Marquess Wilson might end up being the best of them all. Great all around athlete with many other Pac-10 schools after him, he is tall and fast and will make a lot of big plays at Washington State.”
Note – To me, outside of Halliday’s passing ability, Wilson might have been the most impressive looking of them all. LONG strides (Wulff said he is already 6-4, might get to 6-5?), but really, really smooth strides, and he has some breakaway speed to boot. And he had a couple of goal-line fades, to which Lucas turned to former WSU wide receiver Michael Bush who was seated directly behind us and said “that’s you!” to which Bush smiled and nodded YES!! I noticed Jeff Tuel watching the screen with great interest as this big wide receiver was jumping for balls, running away from people, etc. Lots to be excited about with Wilson!
On Mizell: “Really strong, physical player who can make an immediate impact. And let me just say that yes, we lost one or two players at the end of recruiting, but getting CJ Mizell more than made up for those losses!”
Note – Mizell on tape is really impressive. He and Brandon Rankin might be the most Pac-10 ready to go, today, than all the others.
On Rankin: “It’s been a long road for Rankin but he is finally in Pullman and ready to go. He is big and strong, and he might even see some time at defensive tackle this fall, we’ll have to see how it goes, but he looks really good.”
I know Sterk has caught some flak here and there for not being perfect, but as Lucas mentioned above, he really did a lot of heavy lifting to advance some things at WSU. But with Phase III still not in the books, and with the football program struggling the last couple of years, I don’t know, I guess I would have liked to have seen him stick it out for the next few years to see these things through. It would have been a great, crowning moment to his regime as AD once Phase III opens, and the team is back in a bowl game around that time. Then it would have been totally cool to see him ride off into the sunset, mission(s) accomplished.
So it stings a little that he’s leaving now. But as our own Sutra said in comments last night, and I totally agree….uh, have ya BEEN to San Diego lately?? There’s a reason why it’s one of the most desirable places in the country to live. I mean if you hate 72 degrees, sunny weather and the beach, it’s not for you….but even though SD State is not a BCS powerhouse, well, I get it.
Again, overall the night was extremely positive and uplifting for where the program is headed. I have been to four of these things, a couple with Bill Doba and now a couple with Paul Wulff, and without a doubt this was the most positive one yet. The current leadership among players on the team is that they are all buying in. The former players in attendance, hands down the most I have seen at an event like this, all of them appear to believe strongly in where it’s headed. And Wulff himself is thoroughly convinced too, wrapping this up by saying:
“In two years, we expect to be in a bowl game. And in three years, we expect to compete for a Pac-10 title. And even though you don’t see it right now on the field every Saturday, we see it happening every day. When you walk in the halls and the locker room and the weight room, you see the things going on day-to-day, you have to believe in where we are going! It takes a commitment from all of us – coaches, players and YOU – to get us to that next level, and we will do it together.”
All for now. GO COUGS!
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