Wulff Speaks on Arrests

Happy Monday Coug fans! Still rolling around over the new uni’s? I was out of town over the weekend but snuck away to check them out on my little blackberry. EA Sports kind of “softened the blow” a bit, and they were pretty close to the real thing. The all-white look might be pretty cool on the road, although they look a lot like Oklahoma? But you can bet they’ll mix-n-match. I thought the gray pants looked a little dull, but that could just be the lighting. And you know they’ll roll out the “Cougars” helmets for the Apple Cup, and hopefully with the gray pants as well. Anyway, overall, put me in the like ’em camp.

Meanwhile, Q-13 spoke to Wulff in an interview over the weekend, and of course, the topic of the recent news is the off-the-field arrests ‘n such. He addresses the recent bad news, plus Xavier Hicks as well. Check it out, in THREE PARTS:

Part One – HAVING trouble directly imbedding the video, so here’s a link to part one:

http://www.q13fox.com/video/?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=3865121

Part Two – Having trouble directly imbedding the video, so here’s a link to part two:

http://www.q13fox.com/video/?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=3865116

Part Three:

Note – if you can’t see the videos, here’s a link to the transcript.

Don’t want to click the link? On the juicy stuff (read: arrests), here’s what he had to say:

Q. I have to address the Tyree Toomer and LeAndre Daniels situation. They’ve been suspended from team activities. What else, if anything, can you tell us about their situation?

A. First of all, it’s a mistake, and a poor choice by a couple young guys that have never been in trouble prior to Washington State or in their first year. Both have been done very well academically as well. I think when it’s all said and done, there’s a question mark on whether the charges will even be filed. There are some issues there behind the scenes that look favorable for the players.

Q. Have you spoken with them, and if so, what was your message?

A. Oh, yeah. I had a message. But we don’t need to talk about that one here. But, bottom line is they’re very remorseful and we’ll deal with that, and the bottom line is they need to make sure they learn from those mistakes.

Q. Do you expect them to rejoin the team, and if so, when?

A. Yes we do, and hopefully soon.

Q. You talked about Xavier Hicks during spring practice as being a leader on the team. How much of a blow is that, that it happened again?

A. Xavier’s done a great job. He really had. What occurred was he had a traffic ticket in 2007 in Othello and it wasn’t paid. And college students move around, his address, he didn’t receive any of the information that it was suspended. And then he got pulled over and then he found out then. So, that’s the offense. It’s something he has to learn from, obviously, but those mistakes are going to occur.

Q. Are there any repercussions?

A. We’ve got a few things we’ll do to handle that, but for the most part, at this point, he’s not going to be suspended.

So there you have it. Daniels, Toomer and Hicks will get dinged, but will be part of the team this fall. Interesting.

The entire interview is pretty good, and it’s the first in-depth information we’ve really heard from Wulff this off-season. He sounds pretty forgiving. But they have a process in place and he knows the full story for each of the bad news items. If they don’t deem the offenses bad enough on the scale to actually kick someone off the team, then so be it.

That’s it for today. Enjoy your Monday, and GO COUGS!