It’s all academic now
PULLMAN – It is a mess at least four years in the making. It won’t get cleaned up soon. But the bad news delivered to the Washington State University football program last week by the NCAA may by an aberration, a one-year blip. At least coach Paul Wulff thinks so. “As we move forward, past this year, we’re going under the assumption we are going to sign 25 players, our maximum this next February, and we are going to have the ability to be at 85 scholarships,” the first-year coach said Wednesday following the Cougars’ recent loss of eight scholarships next season because of a deficient Academic Progress Rate score.
The APR is a complicated four-year system (see sidebar) instituted by the NCAA in an attempt to make schools more accountable for their athletes’ progress toward graduation.
When a program at a school comes up short, as Washington State’s football team did in the latest round of the APR – covering the 2006-07 academic year – there is the possibility of lost scholarships for one year.
Fall to less than the APR’s magic 925 four-year average number and every athlete who left school ineligible becomes irreplaceable. Literally. The NCAA won’t allow it.
The Cougars fell to less than that number after a horrendous 874 score for 2006-07 – going in WSU’s average was 930 – that included the loss of eight players to grades.
Because of the penalties, however, it will be like they are still in uniform – for scholarship purposes anyway.
The eight are 2003 recruit Paul Stevens (defensive end), 2005 recruits Courtney Williams (defensive back), DeWayne Patterson (defensive back), Arkelon Hall (quarterback), Derek Hunter (offensive lineman), Bryan Tarkington (defensive lineman), DeMaundray Woolridge (running back) and 2006 recruit Darrell Hutsona (running back).
How it came about
After former head coach Bill Doba’s first season ended in a Holiday Bowl win over Texas in December 2003, the Cougars could see the promised land of BCS excellence.
Three consecutive 10-win seasons made it seem within their grasp. But to get there, they needed to recruit the type of player on the radar at USC, Texas, Oklahoma, the powers of college football.
Doba reached for them, and too often fell short – especially in 2005.
They scored a lot of hits that year, players like wide receiver Brandon Gibson, center Kenny Alfred, running back Dwight Tardy, linebacker Greg Trent and defensive lineman A’i Ahmu, the core of next year’s team. Three four-star recruits were included among the 20 players who signed letters of intent.
But there were some misses as well, and the staff had to scramble to fill holes when longed-for upper-tier recruits went elsewhere.
“We had interest from some top kids, and lost them late,” Doba said. “And the seconds had already committed other places. … We just didn’t have the time. I get one visit in the home, and one at the school. How do you tell in one trip if it’s going to work out?
“Had we had more time, maybe we would have found a glitch in their armor, but maybe we wouldn’t have.”
The class also featured six players who failed to keep up their grades and left school, the dreaded 0-for-2 counters in APR parlance, including two of the four-star stars: Hall and Tarkington.
It taught Doba a lesson.
“It makes it difficult to take a chance on a kid,” he said, citing players in the past that thrived at WSU despite academic deficiencies. “You really have to take a close look (anymore) before you can take a chance.”
The news that WSU’s chances failed began leaking out starting in the fall of 2006.
Stevens was suspended indefinitely from the team before that season for an unspecified violation of team policy, never to return to the practice field and out of school the next year. Woolridge was gone from school after the first semester. The news about Williams and Hall came out early in 2007. Hutsona and Patterson were gone in May while Tarkington and Hunter never made it to practice last fall.
“This year, to some degree, I kind of look at the ‘06-07 as the perfect storm,” said Steve Robertello, associate director of athletics/compliance. “We were doing what we needed to do, and all the data kind of reflected it, but you also have a few bad eggs ruin the pot because there is still a lot of individual accountability.
“The academic programs were solid and, as a whole, the football program was pretty healthy academically. … Unfortunately, the 874 is going to stay with us for a while.”
The effect in 2008
Wulff, who will have to live with the restrictions in his first year at WSU, talks down the effects. He doesn’t seem to be just trying to put Estee Lauder on a sow.
“It’s really not uncommon to be under 85 going into a season,” Wulff said, noting WSU took part of the hit last year, leaving two scholarships unfilled. “I talked with (Stanford coach) Jim Harbaugh this past week and I think he said they were going in at 80 or 81 scholarships this year, not because of penalties, but just because that’s where they are at.
“I don’t think, as we move forward, it’s going to have an impact.”
Since Wulff was hired late in the recruiting cycle, when many of the top players in the Northwest had committed elsewhere, it seemed like the right year to take the hit.
“It probably is the best time to take it, because there is obviously going to be a level of cleansing in the first year, year-and-a-half of a program,” he said.
Athletic director Jim Sterk agrees.
“We knew, with the football change in coaches, it could be a smaller class anyway,” Sterk said, “and maybe it wouldn’t impact as negatively.”
Still, the loss of scholarships is going to hurt.
As part of the punishment, the Cougars are limited to 23 new scholarships players this fall. They signed the maximum 25 players to letters of intent in February. Something has to give.
“We have one or two (signees) who are questionable whether they are going to make it (into school),” Wulff said. “If we are still sitting at 24 then we are going to ask one or two to possibly grayshirt (come in next spring). They’ve already been forewarned.”
What’s down the road
Washington State decided not to appeal the NCAA ruling this season. Next year may be different.
“If there are 0-for-2s, we will have a great case for getting a waiver,” Sterk said.
The reason is partly that the groundwork has already been laid.
“We have worked on what we call an APR improvement plan,” Robertello added, “addressing all various factors on how we are going to improve it.
“The NCAA wants a realistic improvement plan. … As long as you are putting a realistic program in place and they think you are moving in the right direction (you will be OK).
“We had to do this with men’s basketball and they found our program to be very acceptable.”
The department’s confidence comes from a series of points:
“Wulff’s recruiting strategy emphasizes students who will better understand the academic accountability. While at Eastern Washington, Wulff’s teams had no trouble with the APR. The Eagles’ four-year average this year was a robust 940;
“The support available for the student-athletes is second to none, Robertello said, and the emphasis is changing. Wulff agrees. “As coaches, we are putting even more of an iron fist on doing things right academically then what (the players) have been used to,” he said;
“The APR has changed the culture of college athletics, and WSU is no exception. Decisions are made about athletes in the program with an eye on the APR effect;
“The football program’s cumulative grade-point average last semester jumped to 2.7, the best in at least the past 30 years;
“Finally, there’s the belief 2006-07 was, as Robertello said, the perfect storm that won’t be repeated.
If the Cougars are assessed penalties next season and ask the NCAA to waive them, there better not be a repeat.
“The NCAA holds you accountable for what you are going to say,” Robertello said, adding if the goals agreed upon with the organization are not met, WSU would be liable for the original punishment plus any new penalties.
So will Wulff guarantee the Cougar Nation this will never happen again?
The first-year coached leaned back in his office chair and chuckled.
“It’s pretty hard to assure it, you know, to guarantee anything nowadays,” he said. “But I can guarantee you will see it improve.”