Difficult Goodbye

If any of you had the privilege of taking Fine Arts 101 during your stay in Pullman, or were a FA Major, you likely know the name of the above Goya painting. Thanks to Pamela Lee an awesome instructor, and the WSU GER credits, I know what that painting is.

For those of you who don’t, it’s Saturn Devouring His Son.

You probably have an idea of where I am going with this now, so click the jumparoo to get my take on the crazy week that has been over in Pullman!

I was somebody who supported the shit out of Paul Wulff. In 2008 and 2009, I attended countless home games, usually made at least one road game per year, and gave money to the then Athletic Foundation. All the while, supporting Paul Wulff through shit fest after shit fest. Knowing how difficult the task was given the situation that he and his staff inherited.

Wulff & Co. didn’t do things the easy way, and were all about business in the tear down and rebuilding of our football team. They caused an upheaval amongst players they inherited, who would have rather smoked blunt after blunt, eat Big Mac’s, crack frying pans over peoples head and pour rubbing alcohol in their teammate’s contact lens case. Each week they suffered crushing defeat after crushing defeat, yet were able to uncover and recruit some fantastic talent to Pullman, while instilling a solid training table and weights program, and putting player after player on the All Pac Academic team.

This process was a difficult process for most fans, former players, and campus administrators to watch. But make no bones about it, it was what needed to be done. Those first two miserable seasons, I wrote off when he was hired and I told myself I wouldn’t pass judgement to the on-filed product until the end of the 2010. When last year concluded, I was very pleased with where our on-field performance was progressing, and I had grandiose visions for 2011.

So did Bill Moos, who opted to retain Wulff for 2011. With a soft schedule and lots of returning players, this season has six or seven wins written all over it. After a 3-1 start, even with Jeff Tuel out, tell me you didn’t look at our remaining schedule and see six wins.

UCLA was offensive on offense. Oregon State had lost to everybody at that point. Cal was vanilla as can be and had a QB more erratic than Mike Tyson circa 1997. Utah hadn’t done anything to inspire me through week five, and I was getting turned on by the thought of shredding the Mutts shit defense in the Apple Cup.

Well we blew a late lead at UCLA because of our inexperience, and lost at home to what I thought would be a BCS Championship Bound Stanford team. No biggie, right?

Well then we came out flatter than Calista Flockhart in two of our next three, against very weak opponents in Oregon State and Cal. Honestly, the team couldn’t do anything right those games, not to mention a trip to Eugene was sandwiched in-between these turd fests.

Sweet, 3-6. You know the drill from here, and after four seasons, we’re staring at 9-40.

No other coach in the history of our fine conference has dropped 40 games over four consecutive seasons, yet we were still talking about the possibility of retaining him. Even Monday, as the blogfathers were exchaning emails and speculating, rationale cases were being made to bring this staff back for year five.

Enter, Saturn Devouring His Son.

The hardest part of Wulff’s departure, and one of the reasons I think I defended him for as long as I did, is because he is one of us. He’s a Washington State Cougar to the core. I always root for my Cougs, no matter who it is. It could be one of my co-workers that is a Coug, Paul G. Allen, Rian Lindell, Reid Forrest or Ryan Leaf, and I bet many of you are the exact same in that regard.

Here is a perfect example.

I am a bit of an aggressive driver.

If you are tailgating me or driving like an idiot, I am very likely to let you know how I feel by honking or waving my middle finger at you. But you know who I would never honk or stick my middle finger out at even if they had just sideswiped me and driven off? Somebody with a WSU license plate, sticker or anything else on their vehicle indicating they are one of my own.

I cried on Tuesday night listening to Paul Wulff’s post-termination news conference. I hate watching one of my own fail, hate it. One thing Wulff said that really stood out to me is how this is sort of the end of our innocence in Pullman. Man, he couldn’t have been more right.

With the announcement of an $11M deal over five years, Wazzu officially has thrown it’s hat into the ring to play with the big boys. Having the ability to throw this kind of money at our football program, it tells America that Bill Moos and Washington State University will no longer be viewed as a doormat program or a stepping stone for football or basketball coaches. For those of you who are offended that football coaching is getting paid millions (Leach and Sark are now the highest paid state employees in Washington) while cuts are being made left and right to higher education, stop complaining. WSU’s General Fund would never see a penny from the new Pac 12 TV contract. Hell the school might even have more money now, as the Athletic Department should no longer have to dip into the school’s General Fund!

I’d like to thank Paul Wulff and his assistants for cleaning the manure out of the horse stall and for never wavering from their plan to build a football program the right way. That being said, just because you build the mansion, doesn’t mean you can afford to pay your mortgage.

Have a great Thursday Cougar Fans, SWING YOUR SWORD!