Blanchette: For first time all week, Cougars learn some lessons
Hey, a party line is a party line.
It wasn’t much of a punch – certainly nothing like the lick the Cougars laid on their stateline neighbors. And in the big-picture sense, the 56-6 drubbing of the Vandals was aloe to the abrasions of a long week that saw the Cougs called out by their coach as un-tough, endure high-volume practices, have four of their brothers formally implicated by the police in alleged assaults and the general downer of bad reviews for both performance and conduct.
The Cougars claimed to be immune to any outside Sturm und Drang and mostly played that way. They didn’t even betray any stress from the new coaching micromanagement, linebacker Dylan Hanser allowing only that workouts had been “intense as they always should be.”
So, what next?
“They’ll probably wish there wasn’t a bye,” said coach Mike Leach.
Meaning he’s planning on continuing boot camp in the extra week the Cougars have to prepare for their Pac-12 debut against Oregon on Oct. 1. Leach felt his players progressed with the coaching staff “on them all the time,” even as he acknowledged some early tightness was due to pressure to over-please.
“Probably so, but that’s not going to change,” he said. “They’re just going to have to learn to adapt to all that. We tried the other approach and I didn’t care for how that worked out.”
And if the team is too gassed from the workload to enjoy the social swirl around campus, so much the better.
A steady drizzle and the 0-2 start to the season conspired to keep the crowd to 28,477, though it’s possible Leach’s Tuesday remarks had a few fans misdirected to the softball diamond at the City Playfields instead. The ones who did make it saw not one but two special teams touchdowns – including the first blocked field goal return in school history, by consensus recollection. They also saw the very unLeachian spectacle of the running backs outgaining quarterback Luke Falk, and a coming-out party for the hard-grinding James Williams, who had 126 yards. And they saw a superior team finally put the hammer down on an overmatched opponent.
In other words, they saw some lessons learned.
For the first time all week.
Forget for a moment that it took a full day after Leach’s screed on the investigations and what he views as a police preoccupation with his players until athletic director Bill Moos weighed in that, no, the police do not have double standard in dealing with the football team.
“I don’t think there’s any targeting whatsoever,” Moos said.
And forget for a moment that it wasn’t until Moos was pressed during an interview with The Spokesman-Review’s Thomas Clouse this past week that concern was expressed for the victims who suffered severe injuries in the altercations. Haven’t heard anything from the president’s office, either.
What was heard was WSU assistant coach Jim Mastro stand up at a Pullman booster lunch on Friday and weigh in with this nuanced take – and a hat-tip to the reporting of the Cougfan.com website here:
“You want a football team that’s relevant here,” Mastro said. “All right, and that’s what you’ve wanted for 10 years. And we’ve got a football team that’s starting to become relevant. And then some people don’t like that. That’s just my opinion. And I think a witch hunt is going on – and it’s not fair.”
Apparently, if you want football relevance, you’re just going to have to deal with a few skulls getting cracked.
It was Leach’s decision Saturday to go ahead and play Robert Barber (who blocked the field goal), Shalom Luani and Logan Tago – three of the four players who will have assault charges forwarded to the Whitman County Prosecutor’s Office next week. Due process fans will cheer. Others may think it’s a bad look for the school, regardless. The latter may get a pound of flesh if Barber’s ouster from school by the University Conduct Board is upheld on appeal.
In any case, Leach’s reputation as a disciplinarian – which Moos touts by rote – has taken a hit, as he still seems more driven by his what-about-the-other-students finger-pointing than with his own team’s conduct.
Oh, and about those other students?
Moos and president Kirk Schulz revealed in the midst of all the ado that as part of a grand plan to get the athletic department out of grand debt – incurred to build grand facilities and hire a grand coach – that they’re going to ask the students to assess themselves a “modest” fee.
To be collected before or after they’re rounded up by the cops?
The players might have just broken into the win column Saturday. But the adults are leading the league in chutzpah.