Good Super Afternoon Coug Nation!
Sutra asked me spill the beans on my experience at the Night with the Cougars in good ole Tri Cities. So here is my story, and I’ll be stickin to it, right after you click on the mighty Hanford Jump..
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The turnout was great and I didn’t see an empty chair in the place. The only drawback was there wasn’t any Bridgeport at the bar.
So, I had slum it with some Black Butte as they didn’t stock any Animal beers either. My goal was to try and track down all coaches and get their take on our program. With the exception of Clay Mcguire and Dave Emerick, I acclomplished my goal. So let’s start at the top with Mr Bill Moos.
Moos was working the room and took time to stop and talk with everyone. He was still driving hard on his vision of rebranding the university and how we all must open up and contribute. Must have worked because before the night was over I lost temporary control of my right arm and I volunteered $200!
The best thing about my conversation with Moos was hearing the story of how he lost an eye from some shrapnel while shooting guns over at Bobo Brady’s place. I didn’t have the guts to ask him if he was going to get a cougar eye patch for game day. 
Next up was Coach Mike Leach. CML set up court right by our table and spent so much time talking with everyone that they had come and get him so he could get ready for his speech at the podium. I spent about twenty minutes talking with him and the subjects covered everything from Fat Little Girlfriends cookbooks to the History of the Marine Corps.
He seems to be so at ease in this situation and I didn’t hear him go ummm once. The passion that he showed when talking about the spirit of the school and the perfect storm of a great fanbase, supportive administration and the improvement in facilities made me feel he will be here a while.
As a parting request I asked CML to draw me up His favorite play and sign it. It was four verticles. He loves this play. As I was milling about and trying to find my next victim on the list of coaches I happened to look next to me and saw a young man furiously texting away on his phone.
As I looked at the name tag I realized I had my target in sight, Eric Morris. He was working the Iphone talking to next year’s recruits all ready. He was a very personable guy and I asked him how tough was it getting into SoCal for these recruits. He said that this staff has no qualms going into anywhere to get the guys they want. I asked him how he likes the area and if he had time to meet any of Cougar Greats yet. He said he had met the Jack Thompson at the LOI event in Spokane. I mentioned how he can talk about WSU for awhile and that got a big chuckle. He saw the play I had CML draw up for me. “Do you run that a lot?” I asked. “ Every down if we can” he responded. 
The one coach I didn’t have search too hard for was Joe Salave’a. This dude is huge. I asked him if he enjoyed the Cougar Nation so far. He looked down at me and answered with a very intense “that’s why I came here. We are going to get after it.” He likes Travis Long and said to me that he enjoys overpowering linemen instead of relying on too many stunts. On a personal note, we spent a few minutes talking about island cooking and how my wife is Chamoro (from Guam).
While I was talking with coach Salave’a, Mike Breske and Paul Valero came over and joined in. No real revelations here . Just good down to earth people. Valero looked like a Key West guy in his laid back attitude. Breske was crackin jokes and getting digs in on the other coaches. Simmons came over at this time and brought up the play I had CML draw up and they all yelled four verts and groaned. Like I said we will see this one a lot.
Well I have run through what little my taxed brain cells can remember and I had a great time. I thank you for letting me share my Night with the Cougars experience!!!
~Stiffmiester.
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