Jacob Thorpe: This idea that WSU should settle for a football coach based on loyalty? Bah humbug!

Ebenezer Coug: “You there! Boy! Who interviewed?”

Ink-stained newsie in rumpled clothing: “Eh?”

Ebenezer Coug: “Yesterday, my fine fellow! Interviewing for the Washington State football coaching position?”

Newsie kid: “Why, Kirby Moore! The well-known and highly regarded offensive coordinator from Missouri!”

Despite the shroud of denials and secrecy that surround coaching searches, multiple reports placed Moore in Pullman on Wednesday. 

Thank goodness. I don’t know if Moore will accept the position, or if he will even be offered (he should). But his arrival in Pullman will hopefully reframe the narrative among WSU fans, who are acting like the Ghost of Christmas Future just showed them a very bleak vision indeed.

WSU fans have understandably been rubbed a little raw by Jimmy Rogers’ abrupt departure, triggering a search for potentially the third football coach in a calendar year. A disturbing idea has settled among the fans I have spoken to and read online. “The next coach must be an alum!” They say. “Someone who played here will stay here!”

How meek, how feeble. Even Tiny Tim had a better outlook. The idea that WSU should hire less than the best coach is to trade a competitive program for a comforting lie. It also perversely turns WSU and Pullman from an asset to lure the best talent into an anchor that forces them to stay.

Enter Moore. Moore didn’t play in Pullman; he starred at Boise State. But he did grow up in beautiful Prosser. And it seems he may want to come back to the Northwest. It is reasonable to assume he has friends and family in the area, that many of his childhood chums went to WSU, and that he has some affinity for the area besides merely climbing the career ladder.

Because, frankly, this is probably a lateral move for Moore. As a well-known offensive coordinator in the SEC, with a brother in Kellen Moore who is an NFL head coach, he is in line for some big jobs. His salary at Mizzou is reportedly somewhere in the $1.3-million range, which is slightly less than what Rogers made as the Cougars’ head coach.

The fever around hiring an alum reached its apex with the extensive chatter the last few days around former quarterback Luke Falk, who tossed his name into the fray on Sunday.

Now, look – I got to cover Falk’s distinguished career at WSU, from walk-on freshman to becoming the winningest quarterback in school history. I think he could find great success in any profession he chooses based on work ethic, leadership, insight and ability to connect with people.

I admire him putting his name forward as a candidate and I believe him when he says he feels ready for the big job.

But come on. The man has spent one season coaching quarterbacks at Division II Wingate University. Falk skipped a few levels going from walk-on to starter during that memorable win at Oregon State after Connor Halliday was injured, and I’m sure he thinks he could do it again.

But that is not a chance a serious university takes with one of the two or three highest-paid gigs in the state, one upon which many jobs and the economy of a region depend.

And hiring an alum before he is ready is no act of kindness. How many of you hear Paul Wulff’s name and think of his failures as a coach instead of his days as an All-American offensive lineman? All of you.

And here is some icy cold water straight from Palouse Falls: With a good enough offer anyone will leave, even an alum. Just ask Michigan, long regarded as one of the premier jobs in college football.

Not even the warm embrace of alma mater could keep Jim Harbaugh in Ann Arbor when the NFL came calling. Being an alum didn’t keep Matt Wells from leaving Utah State, and few seem to think it will keep Kenny Dillingham at Arizona State when the blue bloods start calling.

It is deeply unfortunate for WSU that Rogers got the offer he did, when he did. Further reporting seems to indicate the Iowa State athletic director has just always had an affinity for Rogers, and Rogers always wanted to coach at the lesser school in Iowa. Go figure.

But I humbly suggest to WSU fans they get over this idea of being a “stepping stone” school. They are all stepping stones. Almost no football program is so desirable that a coach may not leave it, and even the most prestigious among them will always have to worry about the NFL.

There are good coaches out there who want to coach at WSU. The Cougars don’t have to settle for a familiar face.