Wilson sounds like one of those guys that think they are too elite to practice.......this is exactly what Moos hired Leach to do in my opinion. The player bashing publicly *might* be a little over the top even for the mamby-pambies in this State, kinda like hauling that octupus out of Elliott Bay and whining about it on the news all weekend.


jfc

Wilson quit this summer too and had to be begged back by Jeff Tuell. If you can't hack it at Pullman you won't make it in the NFL. Part of the problem is that the previous regime coddled some of these guys and now that they have been challenged all year to work harder some are folding. I'm not going to say that I would do things the way Leach has but I will say this: he has not at any time singled any player out and said they were not good enough to play. He has kept it about the collective group and the message has been the same, the effort to improve has not been there.

Hey Hank, do you think that Harbaugh built that Stanford program by telling the players how great they are? Do you think he demanded that they put out even more effort than they thought they could? I'll bet he did and I'd be willing to bet that he worked their asses off along the way. You don't get to the top by telling the players how great they are because they will believe you. It will be ugly for the next couple weeks in Pullman but as long as the AD and Pres. support the program it will get fixed. It has too because every time a coach is hired and the program doesn't improve it gets harder to find the next guy willing to take the job.

Being a tough disciplinarian and being an asswipe are two different things.

Mike Leach is an asswipe.

Making all those kids talk at the press conference was of the lowest class. May as well have just locked them all in a storage container.

Fish on...

Todd

And calling out your players whether it be a single player or as a collective group is a great recruiting tool to get better players in the future? Not, with his antics the Coogs will be battling Colorado for the basement of the PAC 12 for years to come.

It was hard enough to even get a blue chip to visit, much less stay...why even visit when you've got such a great guy as a coach?

Harbaugh may be a whiner and a bit over the top, but he's a helluva coach and his players love him...comparing him to Leach is not very fair.

To Leach.

Fish on...

Todd

Huh? I never mentioned the 49ers, I referenced Stanford which was a soft finnese program that was inconsistent at best and a bottom 3rd in the Pac 10 almost every year. Harbaugh made them into the tough smash mouth program they are today and I bet he didn't do it nicely either.

I did say that... in the Hawks 49ers thread. It has nothing to do with the situation at Pullman. Totally different situation.

I actually enjoyed watching Washington beat Cal but you guys are a bunch of a-holes.

I don't know if Leach is actually a dick to his players anymore than anyone else here knows exactly what goes on over there in Pullman. I think it is safe to assume that in all the years he has been coaching college football that if there was a real problem it would have cropped up before now. And before the James kid thing is brought up, the details on that tend to support Leach more than the kid. So far the worst he has done is call out groups of players for under performing. He has not dropped his pants and taken a crap on the floor like Singletary did. He made his linemen sit in a press conference and answer questions about their performance in front of approximately 5 reporters. Big deal. He gives the players extra conditioning for poor performance. OMG. Leach was brought in to change a culture of losing and mediocrity and that can be a very painful process.

He led off Saturday's press conference by saying that HE and all his coaches have to do a better job of coaching them up too. So he isn't just blaming the players, but this team played very similarly last season too. Crushed by OSU, played hard against Stanford and UO, needed a very late bomb to beat U of Col, creamed by Cal and San Diego St and unprepared to play in the Apple Cup. 4 wins in 2011, 2 of which came against Idaho St and UNLV. Pretty much the same deal this year so I don't feel too sorry for the majority of the team except for Tuell and Travis Long. Those guys have towed the line all year.

It did.

Did you notice how Leach was available when you kicked Wulff to the curb? Why do you think he was still available?

Now you know why.............

He was still available for a couple reasons Dan and since you asked I will tell you. 1) Because of all the lawsuits that were underway and 2) because of the James issue and 3) because Mike Leach is a guy who will not fit everywhere in college football. The guy interviewed for the UW job in a pair of flip flops and a Hawaiian shirt. As time has gone by the facts that have come out pertaining to the James case has not supported the kid's version of what happended. BTW, there are rumblings that Kentucky fans would snap up Leach in a heart beat if for some reason he were to be avaialble but that isn't going to happen.

Bud Withers latest column:

The Mike Leach era continued rumbling along toward parts unknown Monday, bumping, grinding and apologizing to no one for its mounting controversies.

In the morning, wide receiver Marquess Wilson, probably the most talented player on the Washington State football team, was suspended indefinitely for a violation of team rules, reported to have left a grueling conditioning practice Sunday night after the Cougars were routed 49-6 at Utah the day before. And Wilson might be gone for good.

By late afternoon, athletic director Bill Moos was rallying to Leach's defense. And by dinnertime, Leach was defending to me what is believed to be a heated exchange in the locker room at halftime involving at least one player and assistant coach.

Forgotten, at least for the moment, is the fact the Cougars are 2-7 in Leach's first year in Pullman and that he stirred passions after the defeat Saturday by calling out linemen for a performance "bordering on cowardice," then directed them to answer media questions as a group.

"We're not changing," Leach said at his weekly news conference in the early afternoon. "This isn't a democracy. We don't say, 'Hey, you 125 guys, how do you want practice to be? What sort of direction do you want this to go?'

"Our standards are what our standards are. If somehow the standards don't appeal to one player or another, that's pretty irrelevant. They're either onboard or off, and I can live with it either way."

The picture I'm getting is that team morale is sagging, concerned parents are in communication with each other, and more than one player has felt disenfranchised enough to call former coach Paul Wulff, now an assistant with the San Francisco 49ers.

In other words, hardly a prescription for a strong finish by a program now 11-47 since 2008, or a don't-worry-be-happy offseason.

"If somebody doesn't pull the rope as hard as everybody else," said Leach, "you shake them off and get new people. It's about as simple as that."

Wilson is — was — WSU's leading career receiver with 3,207 yards. He's likely done, although Leach would only say he's suspended. He never clicked with the new staff, which drove him relentlessly as early as last spring, when Wilson was close to quitting the program.

I'm told the season's boiling point came at intermission at Utah, when the Cougars trailed 31-0 and an assistant coach challenged players.

Leach told me coaches, trying to correct poor first-half technique, "basically circled them up, got in a circle position ... yeah, it was intense and face-to-face, but it wasn't some physical ruckus."

Moos, who spent the day in Spokane at regularly scheduled WSU-related activities, says he had heard "second- and third-hand" about the halftime scene and planned to investigate it further Tuesday.

As for the turbulence since Saturday, Moos said, "I still have questions whether collectively, we know how to win. Football is a tough sport, and you have to have tough players. The way you get players tough is with tough coaches. From my observation, at times we don't play very tough."

The Cougars usually practice Sunday night, but at 4:20 p.m., WSU sent out an advisory it was canceled. Instead, a long conditioning workout took place, and apparently, it was brutal.

"Hey, I've been through those," said Moos, a former All-Pac-8 offensive lineman at WSU. "I've seen them work. That wasn't a punishment session, that was an attention-getting session."

Earlier, Leach defended his action in having trooped linemen out for interviews Saturday, saying, "I don't think it hurts to have them take ownership in the team."

There's been considerable blowback to Leach's penchant for publicly criticizing players. Defending it, he said, "In this era of ridiculous political correctness and stuff like that, there seems to be some dissatisfaction for style points. Typically, if I'm asked a question, I give an honest answer."

A minute later, he was turning sarcastic, saying he'd try to be kind and gentle. And he answered a question by saying, "They're doing everything they can to be successful. We've had a lot of guys participate. They've had a lot of fun, and they're trying as hard as they possibly can. Everybody wants to win really bad."

So there you have it, another bouncy, buoyant day of WSU football. At the lunch hour, during the routine player news conference, senior Travis Long said, "We just gotta keep fighting."

Right now, the fight is within the program, and it won't get better until it isn't.

At this point mediocrity would be a significant step up, unfortunately.

It's a fine line...Leach does seem to have a winning system, and there will definitely be some growing pains in getting the existing players in line with it and then getting new kids in to be part of it, too.

That being said, as noted above, being a stern taskmaster and being a dick are not the same thing, and if he's a dick and players don't respect him, and won't buy into his program...and that's his fault, not their fault.

If they're just being soft because they're not used to having tough practices, then they need to go...but I sincerely doubt that is the problem, nor do I think they are cowards.

Fish on...

Todd

In Leach I think WSU found the last person on the planet who didn't know the Coogs suck.

It's Bush's fault!!

Reading stuff like that makes one appreciate a Coach Riley.
Yeah, I make fun of him and call him Coach Opie, etc., but there is value in keeping the faith during down years.
Mutual respect goes a long way.

And if he says "Jiminy Christmas", look out, you're in trouble.

Pretty hard to believe so many people who claim to know football are whining about how big, bad Mr. Leach is destroying an already downtrodden program with his meanie attitude.

Basically, this comes down to different styles of coaching. Some guys manage to win by being "player's coaches" (Pete Carroll comes to mind), and others do it with a take no $hit, this is MY team attitude. I like to see the nice guys succeed, because I relate to them better personally, but I'm willing to bet that if you took an honest look at the coaches associated with greatness over time, you'd find that a larger percentage are the do it my way or get out of my way guys. Either way, it's safe to say that all successful coaches stick with their own philosophies. It's the only way they can be effective. Leach says something like that in just about every interview I've heard, and the way he's handling his team is consistent with that philosophy.

It's worth pointing out that there is a very important common thread between successful coaches from both camps: they all put the guys who are buying in and busting their butts in the game and sit down the ones who they feel either aren't listening or trying hard enough, no matter how talented they are. Nothing new here. If Marques Wilson doesn't agree with the coach's philosophy, he should transfer (or quit if he's in his last year of eligibility), because as he's learning, questioning the coach won't get him playing time.

So why am I playing the apologist? Well, I don't mean to do that, but as someone who's seen Mike Leach turn a perennially mediocre program (Tx. Tech) into a championship contender in only a few years, I have a lot of respect for his coaching ability, regardless of whether I like him personally or not. Tech was one of my alma mater's in-state rivals, and with Leach at the helm, they went from being a team that could be taken lightly to one that got circled as a turning point on the schedule. His offense is extremely difficult to stop when being run by a team that knows how to use it. Right now, he doesn't have that team, but the players that want to be on that team are working hard and being rewarded with playing time. It will probably take two more seasons to develop a team that can run the system effectively, but if the fans and alums can wait it out, I think they will see a much more competitive team, with a chance to win every game, even if they don't do so every time.

To expect any coach to turn around the long-standing culture of losing that hangs over Pullman today in a single season is plain ridiculous. That's not to say it has never happened, but if a program is serious about getting better, they shouldn't insist on that result. Give this guy until the Fall 2014 season to get his guys on the field and familiar with his system, and then make your judgments. Bill Doba and Paul Wulff seemed like great guys (the kind I like to root for), but the players didn't seem to be responding to them very well. So far, they don't seem to be doing a lot better, but maybe, just maybe, a little tough love and a chip on the shoulder will work, given at least a little more time.

OH... and to be fair to the players, they probably have some serious identity issues, with some of them having been recruited by Doba, having played for Wulff, and now trying to figure out Leach's system. Seems like a lot to ask, and for that reason, I don't agree with Leach's decision to take it out on them. Then again, this has been his M.O., and I think it's good that he chooses to point to entire units, as opposed to individuals, as the ones not getting it done. Whether it's their fault or not, these players aren't getting it done on the field, and telling them anything otherwise probably wouldn't make things better.

Glad I'm not the one trying to right that ship. It's a tall order, for sure.

Exactly right FF and I am glad to see the administration is behind Coach Leach and is supporting him in his efforts to turn this program around. This program was/is a total mess and it is the fault of many people and administrators that are no longer in Pullman. It is going to take a total tear down and rebuild to bring it to the level of competitiveness that it needs to be at in today's Pac 12.

Where would Husky football be today if UW administration had stood behind Don James when things got tough in the 90's? I guarantee it would not have had to go through the long rebuild that it is currently going through.