WSU’s Next Head Coach

After delving into the Dawgs recruiting this weekend, I thought it was time to write a light-hearted, funny post.  Naturally, I landed on the topic of Cougar football. Sorry WSU friends, that’ll be my only Cougar joke in this post.  Truth to be told, the Huskies were just as much of a joke as WSU was before this year.  Luckily, we got rid of the man who might be my least favorite person on the planet (I’m not kidding) and replaced him with someone who has put excitement back into our program.

All of this to say that it’s obvious Paul Wulff has absolutely no idea what he’s doing.  His teams come in to games not prepared, only scoring 3 points in the first quarter this entire year, and they come out of games beaten badly.  Unless something dramatic happens Wulff will leave Wazzu with the worst Pac-10 winning percantage of any coach in history.  His current Pac-10 winning percantage currently sits at a whopping .055. 

 Although he seems to be a good guy (which is more than we could say about Willingham) Wulff just doesn’t seem very smart.  On signing day, Good ‘ol Paul complained about kids switching schools they’re committed to, basically blaming parents for not raising kids to stick with their word.  Welcome to the real world buddy, this is how division 1 football works.  Yeah, it sucks but that’s the way it goes.  These are 17 and 18 year old kids making one of the biggest decisions of their lives, I can understand why they would change their minds.  This is just another drop of water in a pool of reasons that Paul Wulff doesn’t have what it takes to be a division 1 football coach.  I have friends who go to Wazzu who I honestly think could do a better job than he is. 

So where does that leave the Cougars?  Well, I’d be shocked if Wulff isn’t fired after this year.  Ideally, WSU fires Paul Wulff, Oregon gives him a lifetime contract and then the Cougars hire Tyrone Willingham.  Unfortunately my dream world won’t even touch reality here.  So, here are a few coaches that I think should be high on WSU’s list next year. 

Robb Akey (current Idaho headcoach)-  If I were a Cougar fan, I would be up in arms that Wulff wasn’t fired this year and the Cougs didn’t pursue Akey.  Akey hasn’t taken one of the worst college football programs ever and has turned into a bowl game winner.  Sure, he coaches in a conference that is just plain bad but Idaho used to be like a high school team.  Now they’re winning exciting football games (their bowl game was my favorite one that I watched) and stealing recruits from Wazzu.  Akey was defensive coordinator for the Cougars and may have left on bad terms.  I believe that if the Cougars had pursued him this year, they wouldn’t have run into many problems in getting him.  But if Akey continues his Vandal’s success into next year then their may be a little more competition for his sevices.  I think Akey would be a great fit for the Cougs and should be the top target on their list.

Mike (the pirate) Leach

Mike Leach (former Texas Tech head coach)- This is where things start to get interesting.  By now, I imagine all of you have heard how Leach was fired from Texas Tech.  Yeah, he’s crazy and quirky but you can’t argue with the success he had.  Also, it’s hard to ignore the similarities between Texas Tech and Washington State.  Lubbock and Pullman aren’t the perfect places to recruit players to.  Both schools have smaller but very loyal fan bases.  Both have schools in their conference that are much bigger, wealthier and have better facilities than they do.  They have these things going against them but both have proven that they can have success.  Leach’s offensive system is a lot like Wulff’s system, only Leach knows how to run it.  I don’t know if Wazzu’s administration will seriously look into Leach, like I said he’s crazy and no one really knows what goes on inside his head, but if he became coach of the Cougars, speaking as a Husky fan, I would be very concerned.

Mike Price (Former WSU coach; current UTEP coach)- I know this has come up before and the Cougars have said they won’t hire him.  But why not? He’s the best coach in Cougar history.  He took them to had 3 consecutive 10 win seasons.  Price took Wazzu to two Rose Bowls.  He knows the school and knows how to coach there.  Some could argue that he’s lost his knack for coaching since he hasn’t had much success at UTEP.  I think those people need to realize he’s coaching at UTEP.  The Beatles were great musicians but they wouldn’t have been a good band if they didn’t have instruments.  My point, I don’t think anyone could turn UTEP into much of a winner.  I think WSU should swallow their pride and give Price another chance.  Let the reunion begin and let Husky fans, like me, have nightmares about the Cougars returning to halfway relevance. 

These are 3 guys who I think are plausible candidates for the Cougars and who would have me a little bit frightened.  But hopefully they’ll just choose some alum who has no division 1 experience, has no idea how to prepare his team, and has the IQ of  a seven year old (that might’ve been a little too harsh). 

Andrew