I hope you know what you’re doing, pal.
I do not know what to think. Not knowing what to say happens to me all the time (virtually anytime someone has lost a loved one or if there is a hot babe to whom I’m supposed to say something charming). I can finagle my way out of not knowing what to say, but ever since the scoreboard at the CLink showed Washington 38 – Washington State 21 and the game clock had nothing but zeroes, I haven’t been able to consistently figure out what the hell I was thinking. It’s a good thing nobody had explicitly asked me if the end of the season at 4-8 should also mean the end of the Paul Wulff Era. Emotionally, I thought no, but rationally I thought maybe while understanding why the answer would probably be yes. Sometimes those emotional and rational responses would flip flop as I tried to sort it all out. To make matters worse, I wasn’t even home yet when the Seattle Times was reporting that Wulff would be fired early this week. That kicked off a two day extravaganza of Twitter refreshes, comment posting, comment reading and more scatterbrained thinking. Where did it get me? I still don’t know for sure, but I do know it’s Wednesday and I’d better have something so I’m going to attack this issue the only way I know how: by spewing as many of my thoughts as possible across the screen on This Here Blog. This will happen, of course, after the jump. So you might as well jump, go ahead and jump. Jump!
I understand why Paul Wulff was fired, but it saddens me. Coach Wulff is by all accounts a stand-up man. What I always appreciated about his tenure was that he had a clear vision of how he intended to build the program and he did not stray from it. Perhaps more importantly, that vision was catered to his belief of how success had to be attained within the confines of an environment like Pullman. If you don’t believe they are confines, at least in the current state, you’re kidding yourself. I wanted very badly for Coach Wulff to succeed as the head coach atWashington State for reasons beyond simply having a good football team. We Cougs know that Pullman is a special place and can appreciate it for reasons like Sella’s calzones and Busch Light right off the palettes at Dissmore’s and so on. Paul Wulff got that. He was our guy. Now he’s unemployed. That is, for lack of a better word, a bummer.
Ironically enough, Paul Wulff’s career unraveled because of another man’s vision of success in Pullman. Bill Moos has a far more aggressive vision. Both men believe the Cougs can regularly compete for conference championships, but by virtue of their occupations require different understandings of how to get there. Wulff’s is based on athletes and coaching. Bill Moos has to focus on buildings and butts in seats, or more simply put, money. I believe that Moos appreciated the strides Wulff was making on the athletes and coaching front, but he couldn’t shake the fact that it was happening too slow and that it was impacting the bottom line. Once the word apathy starts getting thrown around referring to a college football fanbase, you know there is trouble. Among the many telling remarks by Moos in his press conference yesterday, what I found the most telling was his reference to “running with the big dogs”. I love that Bill Moos wants to shed the mediocrity and transform the attitude of WSU Athletics. The role of lovable loser is one thing when you’re sitting in the bleachers drinking beer at Wrigley Field. It’s a whole other thing when you’re being asked to drive over a snowy mountain pass to sit on metal bleachers with temperatures in the teens. A culture shift is needed in the athletic department, but it’s going to come at a cost. Running with the big dogs in college football is a slippery slope. It’s not a place where nine wins in four seasons is acceptable, even if you are a good guy. The precedent has been set. Washington State is now a “win or else” establishment just like all the others. Whoever the next coach is will have to adjust quickly to what it takes to win at WSU or the revolving door might start spinning.
The other thing that worries me with this move is that the revolving door might start spinning regardless. Should we hire an up and comer, will Pullmansimply be a layover until a spot opens at a “big” program? This is a problem to a degree, but ultimately it could be a good problem to have. The days of icon coaches staying in one spot for decades are seemingly over and if a guy that we hire now is sought after by “big” programs, it means that he won plenty of his ball games over his time with the Cougs. Should this happen, there is still risk. Anytime a new coach is hired, the continuity and therefore quality of the program is threatened (see WSU basketball). The best case scenario obviously is to get a guy who wins games and is willing to stay for the long haul. The worst case scenario is that a guy comes here, bolsters his reputation based on the foundation Paul Wulff built, bolts for “greener” pastures and the program is right back in the starting blocks.
The question becomes, “Who is the next guy?”. For me, it’s Mike Leach, Kevin Sumlin and a whole bunch of dudes that do nothing for me (barring a Chris Peterson miracle; not happening). Is Mike Leach a weird dude? Yes. Were the circumstances under which he left Text Tech, scandalous at worst and kinda fishy at best? Yes. Is he a remarkable offensive mind and a good football coach? Hell yes. The weird dude thing doesn’t bother me in the slightest, mostly because I’m kinda a weird dude. The circumstances under which he left Texas Tech had far more to do which Craig James being a villain than with Leach’s wrongdoing, in my opinion. I think Leach would win ball games and stick around. I believe Sumlin meets the win ball games criteria, but I’m not so sure he’d stick around if one of the elite programs came calling and for him, I think those programs would. Hiring one of the many assistants whose names are being kicked around would bring to many questions marks. Would it actually move the needle for the fans? Can the guy actually be a successful head coach? If the hire raises more questions than answers, you may as well have kept Paul Wulff.
More than anything, I wish we weren’t having this discussion. The likelihood is that it will result in a better future for WSU football, but in the here and now, I’d much rather be talking about bowl selections and recruiting, as we all would. Strike that. I don’t think we all would. The internet loves schadenfreude so the interest and discussion is at a fever peak right now. Maybe Bill Moos is wrong. Perhaps it isn’t success that will bring the fans back. All it took was colossal failure to get people talking. Go figure.
Go Cougs.
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