Serious makeover

Don’t think that this is a case of Andy Roof having the last laugh.

Yes, there is cheer in his voice and easy humor in his conversation, and the fact that he’s playing a meaningful football game this weekend while his old teammates at Washington State are yet again playing out the string oozes an irony that he can’t help but grasp.

But to adopt a tone of, well, neener-neener would suggest a lack of regret, and the truth is Roof has some.

And when you’ve been a punchline yourself, maybe the laughter doesn’t come so easily. Maybe you understand the need to take yourself more seriously.

Speaking of punchlines, the Apple Cup unfolds for the 102nd time today in Seattle, a game for which all 72,500 ticket holders might consider showing up hooded in brown paper bags. No such accessories are needed 110 miles to the east where Roof’s new team, the Central Washington Wildcats, meet Northwest Missouri State in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division II playoffs in front of a crowd one-twelfth the size, which sort of shows once again how much we value spectacle – even a train wreck – over substance.

“I miss playing in front of larger crowds,” Roof allowed, “but the Ellensburg crowd is loyal and cheers pretty hard, too.”

Now 24, the East Valley grad starts at left guard for the unbeaten and top-ranked Wildcats, a typical D-II melting pot of overlooked projects like tackle Tony Quirk, fourth-gear achievers like Chattaroy linebacker Buddy Wood and Division I reclamation jobs like another Cougar refugee, quarterback Cole Morgan. And Roof, with multiple perspectives from which to draw, is unblinking in his belief that the Wildcats, D-II or not, could play “with any team in the state.”

“Look, it pains me to say this, but U-Dub is pretty good – better than they have been,” he said. “Jake Locker’s a heck of a player. But I honestly think we could go against anybody in this state – U-Dub, Washington State, Eastern – and beat them or at least give them a good game.”

And in the middle of it all, against all odds, is Andy Roof – all-league lineman, dean’s list student, a little humbled and a little wiser.

Fifteen months ago at Wazzu, Roof was Mr. Bad Example.

Back for his senior season after three alcohol arrests – including a DUI – had led to a school suspension in 2007 and a stint in Kirkland rehab, Roof was arrested in April 2008 for his role in a campus brawl. The case dragged on into August while Roof practiced with the Cougars until the school’s Student Conduct Board expelled him. Though Pullman police recommended an assortment of charges, none were ever filed – and Roof still feels that “I was defending myself.”

“But at the same time, I was in a situation I shouldn’t have been in – it was a situation I created, and that makes it my fault,” he said. “Had I not been there, the whole thing wouldn’t have happened, and in that respect it’s on me.”

So, then, would be any redemption. Within 24 hours, the Cougar staff had hooked him up with Central, and Roof had no reservations about the step down.

“I feel like I had a lot to prove – more than anything a lot to prove to myself,” he said. “Like I said, it was a bad situation that was nobody’s fault but my own. But I felt I still had a lot of football to play and a lot of things to do. Not just on the field, but prove to myself that I could stay out of trouble and get good grades.”

The stats state his case. An academic all-league player, Roof has a 3.5 cumulative GPA at Central and a 3.7 in his major. If his grades aren’t good enough to get him into a physical therapy school, he’ll likely pursue a master’s in education and teach.

“Though I think it would be pretty cool to have somebody call me ‘Dr. Roof,’ ” he said. “That would be a 180.”

His football experience has taken a similar turn.

“It’s tough, man – I’m still a Coug and I’ll always be a Coug,” he said. “I’m just a Wildcat, also. I still follow the Cougs and I talk to Kenny Alfred and Andy Mattingly and I feel for those guys, and I know Coach (Paul) Wulff is trying to do it the right way and I really think that program will bounce back.

“But every time I talk to my friends or other people and they ask, ‘Would you rather be at WSU or here?’ I have to tell them, I’d rather be here. I love it here. This is what football is supposed to be.”

Seriously.