Letters

WSU football has never been able to attract high caliber players since TV took over unless they were ”tied”  to WSU for some personal reason.

Coach Mike Leach has been paid a disgustingly large salary by athletic director Bill Moos and bonuses for the occasional win.   Results are more of the same.  Top-notch players go to successful programs for exposure and not to be buried in Pullman in a mediocre program. 

 When is Leach going to be sent away? 

 Moos has done a number on former coach Paul Wulff and the alumni!  He built a stadium and facility for the team but he cannot change the location or exposure.  His decisions extend even to basketball.

 When is Moos going to get moosed and sent away?

 Darrell B. Irvin

Spokane

Time to deflate Air Raid boss

A look at some key stats shows the true nature of the Air Raid offense.

No. 1 in the country in passing yards per game (477), 110 yards more than the second-best team in the country. However, 48th in scoring

The Air Raid offense is designed to gain a lot of yards but once you get inside the red zone it is woefully ineffective.

How many field goals did the Cougs have to attempt inside the 20 when they couldn’t punch it in? How many times did they go for it on fourth down and not make it. That’s how you end up only 48th in scoring in scoring despite amassing all that yardage.

Let’s talk defense, or rather the lack of it. I’m sure (former defensive coordinator) Mike Breske and his staff were good coaches but they couldn’t seem to communicate to their players where they should be in key situations on defense. My main memory of this season will be defensive players looking frantically to the sidelines on key plays for help because they didn’t seem to know where they should be lining up or which gaps to cover.

Connor Halliday still has more pass attempts and completions than any other QB in the country and he’s missed a month of games since his injury, but to what point? He threw for 714 in a game and we scored 59 points and still lost.

Was this season worth Leach’s $500,000 pay raise? From 6-6 last year to 3-9 this year is a major step backwards. Maybe Mike Leach should join Breske and his crew in looking for a new job.

Ken Rudy

Millwood

This time, fault lies with Leach

I say, I say, Colonel Foghorn Leghorn, coach Mike Leach of WSU football fame has only one thing to say: “You’re all fired!”

What will he do when he runs out of coaches to blame? The whole WSU football program is a farce. These coaches are the very same coaches the athletic director Bill Moos gave $600,000 performance raises. Leach and Moos are a very questionable pair. How do they think they will ever recruit any talented coaches or players?

It is becoming very clear, the WSU football program is not making good sense. The direction and lunacy begins at the top. The blame starts with the $3 million coach and is underwritten by the no-direction A.D. Why would anyone of coaching talent come to WSU just to be the sacrificial lamb or scapegoat every time Leach’s team loses? Why is it always someone else’s fault?

Thank you, alumni. Please continue to write those checks. Three million is a big bullet to bite in silence.

Larry Snyder

Spokane Valley

For Cougars, life is just not fair

Three years ago four Pac-12 football coaches were hired. Let’s see, how are the other three guys doing? (10-2, 9-3 and 9-3.) But please note: those three have little or no “sizzle,” their cupboards were full (no zombies or empty corpses), they didn’t have to fire any coaches, they didn’t have to “energize the fan base.”

Life is simply not fair.

Clayton Dunn

Spokane

Fans should just show up

For all the whining about the WSU football coaches, let’s grade the football fans at WSU.

I don’t see the WSU halftime evacuation anywhere else in college football. The Apple Cup was typical. Down 14-0 at halftime should constitute a resurgence of support for the second half. Some of the more seasoned fans have seen some of the more memorable and remarkable comebacks in college football pulled off by WSU. Not so in Pullman, based on fan support this year. I don’t see the big comeback against Utah this year happening if the game was in Pullman.

At least twice this year I’ve seen the football team fired up for the second half in the tunnel only to be deflated when running onto the field to a half-empty stadium.

So let’s get rid of the apathy and start supporting the football team like the fans of teams in the higher echelons of college football. Perhaps we will be there soon.

Martin Lehr

La Conner, Washington

EWU men deserve more fans

What is wrong with the students and fans of EWU men’s basketball?

Where the heck are they at game time?

Every night we watch the sports feeds from their arena and no one is in the stands to watch this fantastic team! The upper seats are even covered in green tarps to keep the dust off as if no one has ever sat there.

Come on Eagles! Get down to the game and support your terrific team!

I am a Gonzaga season-ticket holder and I would be appalled and ashamed if our students were that unsupportive of our basketball team.

Tina Johnson

Coeur d’Alene