Good morning Cougs, and a happy Thursday to you and yours.
So the WSU investigation wrapped up on Marquess Wilson, and the news flew around pretty much everywhere last night on the school's internal findings. You can read through the entire review here if you wish, and it's got some pretty interesting findings as to what has been going on since Mike Leach arrived in Pullman. Some of it harsh, some of it tough love and I guess people are going to have different reactions to the whole thing based on what they believe.
But one word of caution here – is this really the end of the story? Or are things just getting started? I mean yeah, the WSU internal investigation is done, but there is another shoe to drop here and that's the Pac-12 investigation, stress on the word Pac-12. I'm not insinuating that the report will be all that different, and I do think Bill Moos and the rest have done what looks like a thorough job here. But as much as we are all ready to move on from all this, I don't think this thing is quite over, at least not yet anyway.
But there's already a lot of reaction out there, so let's take a quick glance around at what people are saying…..
Christian Caple had the breaking news yesterday, along with the official WSU statement. But he also had a follow-up later in regards to the text message that MQW sent to Bill Moos the same evening of the infamous press release before the UCLA game. In that message, MQW claims he meant no harm to the university and that he was simply trying to clear his name. Here is the text, see for yourself:
“Mr. Moos this is marquess … With that letter I wasn't trying to accuse the coaches of hitting players or anything. I was just trying to put it in different terms and now everything is getting misinterpreted and I didn't mean it like that at all … I simply was trying to get my story across and get my name cleared instead of having it say I'm suspended for breaking team violations … That could mean like I did drugs or something … I was never trying to harm the university or the program with it.”
So there you have it. I guess it makes sense now when you recall Moos and Mike Leach saying that the player had backed off his statements? You can judge for yourself but it seems pretty clear from here what his intentions were with that text message.
Moving on, Cougcenter weighed in and made some excellent points about the whole thing. Brian Floyd is absolutely right, in that NOBODY WINS with all this stuff, period! It's just crappy for everyone involved and as Floyd says, this kind of thing is going to stick with MQW, fair or unfair. I mean quitting the team by walking out is one thing, but to follow it up with the press release and such harsh allegations, only to completely back off said allegations a few hours later? NOT. GOOD.
It's just sad, all the way around. Now you have a player who will be labeled a quitter and a whiner, even if that isn't 100% accurate or fair. And who knows how much input he actually had on that press release? Maybe he just got some horrible advice, and his step father took it way too far and MQW was in Cover-Your-Ass mode from the moment it went out?
And now you have Leach and his staff having to once again defend the way they treat players out on the recruiting trail (although lately it seems like they haven't exactly taken a huge hit in recruiting over all this??). And that press release was not just harsh with claims of player abuse, but looking back at it now it sure looked like it was a calculated move bent on clearing the player's name and nothing else mattered. It looks pretty clear that they were trying to hit Mike Leach where he appears to be the absolute most vulnerable based on the controversy surrounding his exit from Texas Tech, and that is on how he and his staff treats their players.
So I wish this was the end of it, but it seems that isn't the case. Now Deadspin has their top story today with a huge picture of Leach, with the title "It is totally out of control". GREAT. But it isn't just reaction to MQW, but it seems that Deadspin got their hands on an email from someone not named, dated November 1st. In this email, they list out a bunch of concerns with what is going on with the team, from coaches treating players "like crap" and even stories of coaches telling players they better not say anything about all this abuse!?! Deadspin claims to have more emails that will be coming soon.
What a mess.
All for now. GO COUGS.
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