Dave Boling: Why Luke Falk could be uniquely qualified candidate in WSU’s coaching search
Luke Falk came to Pullman as a walk-on quarterback.
Now he wants to come back as a walk-on head coach.
The former record-setting Washington State quarterback unilaterally announced his candidacy to fill WSU’s head-coaching vacancy Sunday afternoon via social media.
The job opened recently when Jimmy Rogers, not quite a year into his tenure in Pullman, pulled up stakes and accepted the job at Iowa State.
The abrupt departure, after the usual pledges of deep commitment, was part of what piqued Falk’s interest. Like so many fans, Falk has been vexed by the use of WSU as a coach’s springboard to more lucrative positions.
So, if fealty to the Crimson and Grey is a factor in vetting, well, Falk’s ya boy.
“This program doesn’t need another coach shopping for the next job,” Falk wrote in an online post. “It needs someone who sees Pullman as THE job … that someone is me.”
Indisputably, Falk made a success of himself in Pullman the first time he was a walk-on. He went on to set school records in passing yards and total yardage, and was taken in the sixth round of the 2018 NFL draft by the Tennessee Titans.
His coaching resume is scant, although he’s recently authored a book entitled: “The Mind Strength Playbook.” He’s lived the game, though, and seen what it takes to succeed.
Falk turns 31 near the end of this month, and if they can’t find a place for him as head coach, they could do worse than add him to the search committee or hire him in football support and admin.
Can’t doubt his initiative and energy. By the time we chatted via phone Sunday afternoon, Falk had already contacted many of his WSU connections.
“I heard they were hiring a search firm, and I knew that any search firm would not come up with my name,” he said. “I felt I should shoot my shot. I’ve chatted with a lot of people, so the iron is definitely in the fire.”
I wondered, when hearing a former player without head-coaching experience was interested, if he was just stirring the pot.
Well, Falk is so serious, he’s already constructed a tentative staff of assistants and sent it to WSU.
And from the pitch he told me, some of the points he made might ring a bell to university administrators.
“If we make another vanilla hire, where people are coming here to use us as a stepping stone, we’re not going to get fan engagement, not going to get buy-in,” he said. “We’ll just keep spiraling in this new era of college football, and frankly, that’s chewed us up and spit us out. We need to do something totally different; we need a paradigm shift.”
He would love to reinstall Mike Leach’s Air Raid offense, which helped him set passing records, win games, and draw fans. He also would build a staff with ties and loyalties to WSU, to deepen the connection to the region and fans.
He sprinkled in a few mandated coaching buzzwords: vision, culture, etc.
Asked to elaborate on this “vision,” Falk wanted to keep details close to his vest. There will be other candidates, of course.
Generally, though, he thinks he can be “a uniting force at WSU,” which he thinks has been missing.
Falk didn’t critique Rogers’ quick departure, but that certainly would not be his style.
“No other coach who puts his name in the hat is risking his legacy at WSU, I am,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere. Hey, put me on the lower end of the salary scale, and make some of it incentive based; I love that model.”
After Jake Dickert left for Wake Forest, and Rogers bailed for Iowa State, many fans recalled when they were hired, and how much they professed love for WSU, and what a dream job it was for them.
None of us should ever memorialize those comments in print. Every one of them says that. Somehow, they keep a straight face. And the next guy continues the fallacious legacy. The only time it comes up again is on their way out of town to Winston-Salem or Ames.
Falk has some interesting ideas, and every ounce of necessary passion, although I doubt the new administrators, in a time of huge transition at WSU, have the daring to overlook his lack of experience.
Here’s just one point on that topic: The only way to get total honesty from coaching candidates regarding their attachment to the job would be to hook them up to polygraphs.
If you added Falk to the candidates, only one would pass the polygraph when asked if they intended to stay at WSU long-term, and if they genuinely cared for the university.
Luke Falk.
Maybe that’s not enough. But it’s not nothing, either.
