Letters To The Editor

Sun., Dec. 3, 2000

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Cougars need coaching change

I am writing in regard to last Sunday’s letters referencing the Washington State football team’s performance in the 2000 Apple Cup.

I read Mr. Ducloss’ letter describing the Cougars’ and the coaching staff’s performance, and felt he was right on target. The Cougars were not prepared for the Apple Cup, Stanford, Oregon State, and Idaho.

I then read letters written by Mr. Greene and Mr. Rhodes, and couldn’t help but wonder what universe these guys have been in the last 12 years. I am a football season-ticket holder, an alumni, donor, and I bleed Crimson and Gray.

I have been watching Mike Price coach the Cougs for 12 long years and have noticed that under his tenure they have yet to put two winning seasons together. The Cougs have shown little discipline under Price, which is evident by the number of penalties racked up game after game.

I have seen quality recruits leave the program, and recruiting classes dwindle to a quarter of their original size. How is the graduating percentage calculated? I would like to see a statistic that shows how many players have left the program due to academic ineligibility, got dismissed due to trouble with the law, or just got fed up. There really isn’t a mystery to this equation. The football program needs a coach who can turn around the program.

The athletic director can not neglect this issue if he wants Martin Stadium filled on Saturdays. Cougars fans have been loyal to Price and his staff. Now, the university has to be loyal to the fans and alumni. Mike Fuentes Colbert

Time to start building at WSU

I have lived in Washington my whole life. I’ve been living in the Spokane area for almost two years, and I am impressed with the love and devotion fans in this area show for Cougars football and their coach, Mike Price.

However, I think Cougars fans are confusing devotion and pride with settling for mediocrity.

One Rose Bowl appearance (not even a victory), four winning seasons in 12 years and a couple of Apple Cup wins has given Price a job for the next two years. These things are nice, but fans seem to have selective memories and low expectations when it comes to all the disappointments and defeats during that same period.

After going to the Rose Bowl, I would have expected recruiting to become the key point in building a solid program for at least the next few years. Instead, we get one of the longest losing streaks in history and an 0-3 Apple Cup record.

While programs across the nation have learned to change and rebuild in order to create a solid football team, WSU and Price continue to live in its few highlights of the past and cross their fingers, hoping somehow all those good things will happen again someday, somehow.

A team that lives in the past is a team that has no future. Yet Cougars fans start screaming bloody murder at the mere mention of a coaching change. If WSU alumni are satisfied with losing records and losses to Idaho and Washington every year, then Price is your man. However, if fans want to actually compete in the Pac-10 on a yearly basis, then Price’s track record proves this will only happen sporadically. Let’s stop making excuses and start building a solid football program. Ken Lamoreaux Spokane

Careful what you wish for

“We need a change at the top,” the refrain goes. “If we had a better coach, the Cougars would win more games.”

Well, while the Blanchette Brigades storm the Bohler Gym doors with pitchforks in hand, perhaps some reasoned discussion might be in order.

Were it not for fine coaching, WSU would not even be competitive in Pac-10 games, much less win any of them. The obstacles WSU faces compared to its larger and better-financed conference foes are well-documented.

Coach Mike Price can’t depend on his players’ physical superiority to compete; he must do it with imaginative schemes and getting his players emotionally charged up enough to defeat a team with better athletes. When he has the athletes, he has proven he can even make it to, and almost win, the Rose Bowl.

Some of us with perspective remember the days of (Warren) Powers and (Jackie) Sherrill, of four coaches in four years’ time. Pullman was a 10-minute water stop for those guys on the road to fatter contracts. Others who were around for a time, like Dennis Erickson, didn’t care if their players even went to class, much less graduated. Price is a man who is committed to his kids, runs a clean program, and wants to stay in Pullman. He even delivers a bowl game every few years.

Those who want Mike Price gone should be careful what they wish for. The Jackie Sherrills and Warren Powers of the coaching world would be lined up to replace him. Jeff Davenny Spokane

Oh, those humorous Hurricanes

I find it “amusing” that Miami thinks it should be rated higher than Florida State in the BCS because it beat Florida State. It doesn’t seem to have a problem being rated above Huskies. Wm. J. Hiatt Spokane

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Sports fans missed exciting game

Where were all the sports fans?

I just got home from the Washington State basketball game at the Arena (Nov. 25 vs. Colorado State). Real sports fans just missed the most exciting and competitive game in Spokane since the opening basketball game at the Arena. To (Coach Paul) Graham and our Cougars, I apologize for the sorry turnout. Most people in Spokane are duped into thinking the Chiefs or Indians are real entertainment. Well, for the few thousands who were actually there, we know what entertainment is.

Please, Mr. Graham, come up here more often, but do not include Cougars season tickets in the package for Spokane. There were way too many front-row tickets available. Ronald L. Campbell Spokane

A three-game format for WSU, GU

Responding to John Blanchette’s column (Nov. 26), I would suggest a three-games-a-year rotation (for Washington State-Gonzaga basketball games).

I have observed over the years the reluctance of WSU to schedule stiffer competition in the preseason. What ever happened to the adage, you play to the level of the competition? By playing these cupcakes, they do not prepare for Pac-10 competition. They get better competition in practice. By the time they get deeper into the conference schedule, they generally become more competitive.

Then you have to wonder about the Zags’ insistence on playing in their small arena and sacrificing the big bucks they could collect playing in the Arena. They have suggested their home court gives them an advantage over an opponent. May I offer that Gonzaga’s program has risen in stature greatly in the past few years. It does not need that small advantage anymore. It has proven it can go anywhere in the country and compete with anybody.

Often times these two schools have to travel far and wide to play higher-level competition. Most often, those schools will not return the favor. So why travel so far, when you have great competition in your own neighborhood?

I suggest these teams meet three times a year - twice in the Arena and once in Seattle’s KeyArena. I’m sure with the Northwest’s absence of success in basketball, both pro and college, fans will quickly adopt the Zags. It would give both programs exposure in the largest population base in the Northwest. That leads to more television exposure and revenues in the future. Allan LeTourneau Spokane

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