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December 1, 2011 in Sports
Lucrative WSU deal brings Mike Leach to Pullman
Inside: Mike Leach, WSU began negotiating on Nov. 16. Page B1
(Full-size photo)
On Tuesday, Washington State – in the view of one of its old guard – lost its innocence.
On Wednesday, the Cougars lost their minds.
In the very best way, of course – providing you’re not wedded to a 1980s way of how Wazzu fits into the football jigsaw puzzle or bearish on how universities do their sweaty show business nowadays.
For really the first time since college athletics became a runaway train, the Cougars have scrambled on board. Barely 24 hours after he’d officially lopped Paul Wulff and his $600,000 annual salary off the payroll as head football coach, athletic director Bill Moos leveraged $11.25 million of the school’s share of the upcoming Pac-12 television bonanza to hire a replacement.
What did he get for his money?
A one-time national Coach of the Year, a winner with 10 bowl games on his resume, a character, ranter, innovator, Renaissance man, law school grad, best-selling author. If not the Most Interesting Coach in the World, then surely in the top 10.
Also, plaintiff in a lawsuit against ESPN.
That’s right – the guy is suing the media monolith which, indirectly, made it possible for Washington State to afford him. You decide where that falls between irony and karma.
Bill Moos landed Mike Leach. With one cast.
The delirium that set in among Cougs on campus and across the state dominated conversations and overwhelmed social media, to say nothing of the Cougar Athletic Fund website, which reportedly experienced a high-volume crash for a brief time Wednesday. Short of letting a Kardashian design the next set of football uniforms, the school couldn’t have done anything more to purchase a sliver of national buzz than hire this mad scientist of throw-and-catch.
And as a bonus, Moos had this report to his constituency on the nature of the negotiations that made Leach a Cougar:
“A lot of schools wanted him,” Moos said. “He wanted us.”
Imagine that.
For an A.D. who had never before hired a football coach in stops at Montana and Oregon before WSU, it certainly didn’t take Moos long to get the hang of it – or to toss the ball back to his boosters.
“I opened my checkbook for you,” he told Cougar fans. “It’s time for you to open your checkbook for me.”
They wanted something to get excited about after eight years of mediocre-to-worse football? Moos gave it to them. They wanted to feel relevant in the expanded Pac-12? Leach made Texas Tech relevant and then some in the Big 12, taking on the big brands of Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska from little old Lubbock. They wanted to be able to measure their school’s commitment to compete at least by comparing price tags? Leach’s $2.25-million-per-year salary figures to be no worse than No. 4 among Pac-12 coaches.
That WSU now has the wherewithal to pony up like that for a coach and get facility upgrades off the ground must be a source of some wistfulness for Wulff, the former Cougar lineman who did the dirty work of repairing a broken program but managed only nine wins in four seasons. It was Wulff who said his firing with a year remaining on his contract revealed that “the innocence of Wazzu has been lost” – a feeling no doubt reinforced by the revelation that Moos first met with Leach back on Nov. 16.
The niceties of wooing a coach while you still have one in your employ are a rather icky sidebar of athletics, but nobody plays it straight anymore, if they ever did. Does it skirt integrity? Yeah. Is it necessary? If you plan on getting who you want, absolutely.
“If we had a chance to get Mike Leach, I had to set the foundation for that before the season was over,” Moos said.
That Leach is available, of course, is due only to the most bizarre of circumstances – his 2009 firing at Texas Tech and the triggering claim that Leach had ordered player Adam James – the son of one of ESPN’s most reviled blowhards, Craig James – into a storage shed and an electrical closet after it was determined he couldn’t practice because of a concussion. Depositions and statements gathered later showed the incident to be considerably less than that, and the litigation continues.
But Leach, who has since worked as a commentator, has had other opportunities to coach. Why Pullman? Bruce Feldman, the word mechanic on Leach’s biography “Swing Your Sword,” had this theory Wednesday:
“Every great thing that has happened to him,” he told KJR Radio in Seattle, “has resulted from him taking a big chance.”
Speaking of taking big chances, this may be the biggest for Moos, who showed uncommon vision in the face of the common wisdom that said you can’t attract a marquee name to Pullman – that, indeed, the Cougars exist to prop up the rest of the Pac-12.
“I didn’t come here to be a maintenance man,” he said after Wulff’s firing. “We’ve got to get the program in a position to compete and we’ve got to do it pretty quick or we’re going to get left in the dust.”
On Wednesday, he walked his talk. He decided to shoot for the moon.
And hit the planet Krypton.
| Year | Record | Bowl |
| 2000 | 7-6 | Lost |
| 2001 | 7-5 | Lost |
| 2002 | 9-5 | Won |
| 2003 | 8-5 | Won |
| 2004 | 8-4 | Won |
| 2005 | 9-3 | L |
| 2006 | 8-5 | W |
| 2007 | 9-4 | W |
| 2008 | 11-2 | L |
| 2009 | 8-4 | * |
| Overall | 84-43 | 5-4 |
Blanchette: GU track lifts off with Thomas 
Notapatriot on December 01 at 5:39 a.m.
Nice. The world going to hell in a handbag but we have 2 million for a freakin’ football coach. Only in America.
Pigrobin on December 01 at 6:20 a.m.
I prefer to look at it this way. You get what you pay for and there is no free lunch. Let me repeat that last part since there are so many in America who think otherwise. There is no free lunch.
32Ford on December 01 at 7:20 a.m.
What in the h e l l is wrong with this picture, our State is busted and some lame brain air head spends millions to bring in a football coach. Some really bad thinking going on here!!!
oneanddone on December 01 at 7:23 a.m.
True, no free lunch. But if you are a janitor with 3 kids and a wife, a house in foreclosure, and a car that came off the show floor the same year John Wayne was born you don’t spend your weekends playing golf at the Cda Resort. Life is all about spending what you can afford and NOT spending it on those things that would be really nice to have. The money that pays for this guy, no matter where it comes from, could be MUCH better used in other ways. And for those who think this money just comes from some Fox Sports TV contract - look up the word “fungible.”
OaktownCoug on December 01 at 8:16 a.m.
The compliants sound like those who think money on the military should be used to provide healthcare. In the real world things are not so simple. Like it or not football pays for more than football, and it gives a school publicity it would not get from non-sports acomplishments.
Go Cougs! Go Moos!
PassinThru on December 01 at 8:53 a.m.
It is unfortunate that we pay over two million a year to a… football coach.
A sports network wants to spend a bazillion for the rights to air PAC-12 games featuring elite teams such as USC, Oregon, UCLA, Stanford and occasionally even the Huskies. The fact that the Cougars and the Beavers get to belly up to the same trough is a good deal, considering how often they field teams of national/BCS significance.
Because this cash cow is results from the football program’s tie with the PAC-12, it’s only fitting that the Cougars’ share go toward some effort to bring WSU out of the Bottom Ten of college football. This is why the money is spent on Martin Stadium improvements, and for paying this crazy wage to a… football coach.
In Union labor negotiations, you look at the comps; you want to see how your salary matches up with similar positions (not apples/oranges or doctors/janitors). Ohio State is going to pay Urban Meyer FOUR million per season, and this new WSU coach will still only be the 3rd or 4th highest paid coach in the PAC-12.
I once visited a country where skilled surgeons were paid the same as a janitor with a wife and three kids, NO car, a cramped little apartment, and no hope of ever improving his life situation. You folks who demand that kind of life are free to move there. You’re only real loss would be your freedom to bellyache and occupy.
But I do think its unfortunate that we pay over two million bucks for a football coach. And I’m really weary to these pop-up ads from State Farm and Les Schwab.
Rand on December 01 at 9:09 a.m.
Nice little pity party. Unlike every other program you geniuses claim “saves money” having a successful football program does pay for itself and much more. I know it doesn’t produce as much as the millions we give to fecal sculptors or NPR but at lease Cougar football supports itself. Wish the same were true for most of the above.
almerkel on December 01 at 9:46 a.m.
It is time time fire people at WSU for this abuse of taxpayers’ funds used to hire a “coach” instead of using the money to support education. This is close to criminal activity in times of cuts to higher education in the State of Washington. These people are same as out government leaders (national and state) in their disregard of the public interest while choosing self-satisfying interest.
liberal_in_right_wing_land on December 01 at 10:04 a.m.
Love the republicans on here complaining about the coaches salary. You know, this is the American system you guys are fighting so hard to protect, the free market in college sports dictates that coaches are paid millions of dollars and WSU is doing this to keep up with the Joneses.
So you republicans are ok with CEO’s making $10, $20, $50 or $100 million a year to send American jobs overseas or to lay off and fire as many lower level staff as possible so they can continue to make millions and give out millions in bonuses, but coaches and anyone else you don’t agree with shouldn’t be allowed to make as much money as the free market allows them. Hypocrites.
jddavis on December 01 at 11:16 a.m.
Liberal—the difference is that the owners of the company(s) pay CEO salaries. Who are the owners of WSU?
I would like to see where the football (or any other sport) program financially supports the academic mission of WSU, UW, and any other public university/college. Perhaps they do, but it is not transparent.
Rand on December 01 at 11:17 a.m.
Ya that damn republican the_seer. Nice spin lib.
liberal_in_right_wing_land on December 01 at 11:44 a.m.
jddavis, these are public universities, you can go and look at all their financial records and see how the money from a well funded and successful athletic department benefits the WHOLE university. I gave one example in another post of how after the WSU football teams three straight 10 win seasons and top 10 finishes there was a major donation boost that helped build a lot of the new classroom buildings on the WSU campus 5-10 years ago - I was lucky enough to sit in some of them during my time at WSU - and this was repeated after the recent success of the mens basketball team.
However, as both programs have fallen donations are down and that has hurt not only the athletic department but also the university. You might have heard President Floyd talking about how donations have fallen and how he understands that a successful athletics department benefits everyone at the university. And I know most of you righties hate college professors, but even most of professors know a successful athletics department benefits them in both the recognition the university receives but the donations that helps them with new research equipment, books or labs.
Again, these are public universities, just because you haven’t taken the time to research and look into how the spend their money and their donations, doesn’t mean it isn’t being done in a proper manner that helps everyone.
Also, this has been reported on I think every news station and in most printed articles, but NO TAX PAYER MONEY PAYS FOR COACHES SALARIES. The Pac-12 just signed a $3 billion TV deal that gives each university an extra $30 million dollars EVERY SINGLE YEAR, they can pay for Leach’s whole contact in one year if they wanted so its really not that hard to figure out where the extra money is coming from to pay for the coach.
And finally, once again, these are public universities, they have to have public records, just contact the university at least and they can send you whatever you request.
jddavis on December 01 at 12:15 p.m.
Liberal—thanks for the info on how WSU athletics have supported other departments.
My point was that you cannot compare CEO wages to that of a coach. The salary decision process is very different, as is who makes that decision. Your analogy of the two is faulty.
“And I know most of you righties hate college professors…”, hmmmmmmmm.
UndefeatedFan on December 01 at 12:34 p.m.
I was lucky enough to attend WSU during some of the best football years in recent history. From the Rose Bowl year in 97-98, that still has time left, to the 2003 Rose Bowl and later Holiday Bowl of 2003. From 1998 to 2003 WSU attended 4 bowls with payouts over $28million. This excludes any additional money from TV payouts, sponsorships, booster money, full stadium ticket sales, etc. Just bowl payouts alone. 1998 Rose Bowl $12.3 million Payout
• 2001 Sun Bowl $1.0 million Payout
• 2003 Rose Bowl $13 million Payout
• 2003 Holiday Bowl $ 2 million Payout
It was pretty obvious during my last year and the few after I left Pullman, that money was flowing in to the university from not only the bowl games, but all the other revenue items mentioned above. Stadium Way was renovated (Crosswalks, flags, benches, landscaping), new Bookie, new indoor practice facility, new student Recreation Center, new Science Building, New football Turf, just to name a few during that time. It can’t all be related to sports solely, but it has a huge part of it. $28mill is not bad for 4 games. Leaches 10 bowls in 11 years, at a Coug average of $7 million a year, it would have been $70million. The $2mill a year for him from TV money is money well spent for the entire Universities future.
CougarGold on December 01 at 2:21 p.m.
Wow. In a moment of rare clarity, liberal in right wing land and I are it total agreement. I’ve personally had several conversations on this very subject with Dr. Floyd and lib has it exactly right. Here’s the dilemma:
State funding has dropped significantly for higher ed. Three or four years ago, the State covered about 2/3 the cost and the student 1/3. Those proportions are now reversed leaving the student with about twice as much expense from as little as four years ago.
With the higher cost to the student, competition for students is much greater. Private schools and out-of-state schools are suddenly much more comparably priced when compared to state schools. Ask why UW decided to actively compete for out of state students and can get them.
WSU needs to bring in about 4,000 new students to make the budget work. In order the get that many, average GPA has been lowered from prior standards to a point where many of these enrollees may not be able to meet university requirements and will fail out of the school. It’s a critical juncture in that if lowered enough, it threatens WSU’s role as a top level research university.
College athletics are the window into the school; the marketing arm. People want to associate with a winner and athletics get all the press. If you don’t think athletics are important or that they don’t have an impact, look no further than Gonzaga. The success in their basketball program has led to higher and better qualified enrollments, more money for their various colleges, more money for better professors, and national recognition. The entire university has benefitted financially as a clear result of the success of the basketball team. And so has Spokane, for that matter.
For what it’s worth, to all who feel cheated because all this money’s going to a coach, as I understand it, there was one donor who was withholding a $3M donation pending the hiring of a new, high-level coach. This hire frees the $3M. That one donation paid the first year’s salary. Beyond that, there were so many people making donations yesterday that they crashed the server. Tax dollars aren’t paying for this, people are with private funds. And if you think you would rather those people spend their money on issues that are more important to you, make your case. It’s their money to spend as they choose and if you make your case, maybe you can get some of it.
drwonderful on December 01 at 2:25 p.m.
I like the hire!
hcamper on December 01 at 3:23 p.m.
MIght make it worthwhile to visit Pullman a couple of Saturdays in the Fall. Sure hasn’t been lately.
freckles on December 01 at 9:55 p.m.
I can’t quite figure out how a “liberal” can support the raw competetive nature of sports. In true leftyland, when a team crosses the goal line, both teams would get 6 points. Oh well, we all know lefties are dishonest hypocrites,
bez233 on December 02 at 9:13 a.m.
Sorry, but I can think of better things to spend several MILLION dollars on. How sad a pathetic this is the number one priority on the state budget.