Mike Leach explains reasons for not discussing injuries

PULLMAN – Mike Leach did not give any update on the status of concussed starting quarterback Luke Falk’s health during his weekly press conference on Monday.

Athletic director Bill Moos provided the Falk update on his radio show, but Leach instead focused on his reasons for never addressing injuries.

First, he said, was his reluctance to violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which prevents “covered entities” and “business associates” from disclosing protected health information, even if other coaches do so.

Leach also said he does not consider himself qualified to talk about injuries because of his lack of medical expertise and that he does not want to give potentially valuable information to opponents. Finally, Leach indicated that he sees acknowledging injuries as bracing oneself for failure.

“Somebody is going to play that position no matter what, and the last thing we’re going to do is create a distraction for our team and sing the blues and act like somehow we’re working our way out of a hole because someone else is playing that position,” Leach said. “Because the other person playing the position may be just as good or better than the last one.”

Leach then added, “And I, quite frankly, don’t understand coaches that are constantly talking about injuries because, to me, it smells of hiding behind trying to generate an excuse in case they need one after the fact, if the game doesn’t go the way they hope it does.”

The one exception Leach made to his injury policy was when Connor Halliday broke his ankle against USC last year, clearly ending his college career. In that case Leach not only acknowledged the injury, he put his own leg on a table during a press conference to demonstrate the precise bones that were broken.

During his weekly radio show Monday on KXLY, Moos said Falk’s injury is “not a season-ending or a career-ending injury, so far that we know, but status for the week, we’re not sure.”

Falk was carted off the field after sustaining an apparently blow to the head during the team’s 27-3 win over Colorado on Saturday.

Moos did seem to acknowledge that Falk suffered a concussion when he said “there are policies from the NCAA regarding concussions and we follow those to a T.”

Apple Cup is personal

For Jeremiah Allison, the Apple Cup ceased to be just another game the first time he visited lifelong friend Jaydon Mickens, a wide receiver at UW who has hosted the WSU linebacker each year they’ve been in college.

Although Allison’s Cougars had just won the 2012 Apple Cup, he says he was met with nothing but disrespect from the UW students and players he met, who referred to WSU as the “little brother” school.

“It’s real personal,” Allison said. “They said there’s nothing over in Pullman, there’s nothing but wheat fields. I take this Cougar pride thing serious. This is home.”

Thanksgiving bowling

This week the Cougars can get a taste of both turkey, and what life would be like as professional football players. The Cougars will celebrate Thanksgiving a day early, following Wednesday’s practice with a Thanksgiving feast and games at a local bowling alley. With WSU on break, the Cougars are among the only students left in Pullman.

It’s a big family, a 100-people gathering and it’s our Cougar family,” Gunnar Eklund said. “It’s just football this week, so you don’t have the stress of school and football.”