Photos. Artist drawing of
proposed Cougar Baseball Clubhouse. Senior Bowl #60 Andre Dillard, WSU offensive
line coach Mason Miller, #16 Gardner Minshew.
WSU Regents to consider
taking on new debt to help pay for Cougar Baseball Clubhouse
From Pullman Radio News 1/23/2019
Washington State
University’s plan to take on new debt to help pay for a Cougar Baseball
Clubhouse goes to the regents this week.
The regents were first told of the proposal in November. The board is now being asked to approve the
project’s construction and financing plan, which includes taking on new debt
through the sale of bonds.
The Cougar Baseball
Clubhouse is expected to cost 10 million dollars. The project will be paid for with donations
to Cougar Athletics. The department has
secured 4 million dollars for the work and has pledges for another 2.5 million
dollars to be collected by this Summer.
The remaining 3.5 million dollars in donations needed for the project
would be collected by June of 2025.
The regents are being asked
to cover the yet-to-be-collected, 3.5 million dollars in donations with debt
financing through the sale of bonds. The
interest rate on the bonds is not to exceed 5.5%. To reduce the risk if donations are not
collected in time to cover the debt payments, the WSU Office of Finance and
Administration has established a checkpoint date of August 1st. The bond sale will not proceed until the 2.5
million dollars in current pledges are collected by WSU Athletics.
Cougar Athletics is
currently running a multiyear annual budget shortfall. The department has a plan to end its deficit
spending by 2023. Cougar Athletics
accumulated debt is estimated to reach 85 million dollars by then. WSU President Kirk Schulz has stated on
several occasions, that athletics will pay back it’s accumulated debt.
The proposed clubhouse for
Cougar baseball would be constructed at Bailey-Brayton Field. The facility would include locker rooms,
pitching lab, academic area, team meeting rooms and space for equipment and
training.
The WSU Regents are set to
consider approving the project’s construction and financing plan during their
retreat in Seattle on Friday. The
proposed timeline calls for the clubhouse to be completed in August of next
year.
You can read the entire
financing plan request to the regents here https://regents.wsu.edu/meeting-dates/Jan%202019%20Retreat/AI2.pdf
……..
Coug Taylor McCoy: PAC-12
SWIMMER OF THE WEEK
From WSU Sports Info
For the first time in her
career, sophomore Taylor McCoy was named Pac-12 Swimmer of the Week as
announced by the conference office Wednesday morning.
McCoy nabbed the conference
honor after posting three individual wins against No. 14 Arizona earlier this
month, making her the first Cougar to earn Pac-12 Swimmer of the Week in
program history.
McCoy leads the team with 13
individual first-place finishes this season. The Pullman, Wash. native also
owns team-bests in the 100 and 200 back and 200 and 400 IM. Currently sitting
in the WSU All-Time Top-10 in the 200 back (second), 400 IM (sixth), and 100
back (ninth), the sophomore backstroker has been a driving force in the pool.
McCoy's time of 1:56.86 in the 200 back is fastest sophomore time and ranked
the 14th-fastest time in the Pac-12, while her time of 4:20.81 in the 400 IM is
25th in the conference.
"Taylor is one of our
quiet leaders in the classroom, pool, and weight room," said head coach
Matt Leach. "We are ecstatic for her and for her teammates that help push
her every day. I think it shows that the program is continuing to head in the
right direction, which puts family first, academics second, and competing at a
high level third. Great job Taylor and Cougs! Keep it up. Go Cougs!"
………………
WSU track & field looks
to keep the momentum rolling in third week of indoor action.
From WSU Sports Info
UW Invitational
Friday-Saturday, Jan.
25-26 |
Seattle | Dempsey Indoor
Friday Events Start: 1:00
a.m.(PT) | Saturday Events Start: 10:00 a.m.(PT)
New Mexico Invitational
Saturday, Jan. 26 |
Albuquerque | Albuquerque Convention Center
Field Events Start: 8:30
a.m.(PT) | Running Events Start: 11:00 a.m.(PT)
COUGARS SPLIT SQUAD TO
SEATTLE, ALBUQUERQUE
>> Washington State
will compete as a split squad in the upcoming week, as the Cougars will first
be at the Washington Invitational in Seattle, Friday through Saturday, Jan.
25-26 inside the Dempsey Indoor Facility. WSU Track & Field will then also
be competing Saturday at the New Mexico Invitational, held at the Albuquerque
Convention Center.
:::::::::::::::::
Washington State’s Mason Miller is in a familiar position as
another pupil – Cougar tackle Andre Dillard – rises up NFL Draft boards
Wed., Jan. 23, 2019, 7:20 p.m.
By Theo Lawson Spokane S-R
MOBILE, Ala. – An offensive guard from the University of
Nevada was selected with the 33rd overall pick of the 2018 NFL Draft. An
offensive tackle from Washington State could be taken off the board that early
this year – perhaps earlier.
Mason Miller would like to take full credit for molding
Austin Corbett and Andre Dillard into the blocking machines they’ve become, but
truth is he only spent a brief amount of time with both players. Miller’s time
with Corbett in Reno lasted just one year and by the time he took WSU’s
offensive line job last spring, Dillard was already entering his senior season.
But you can bet both players still come up with Miller’s
making his recruiting pitches these days.
“I’ve had two in a row and most people don’t get that in a
lifetime, so I’ve kind of been laughing about it here recently,” Miller said
Wednesday. “I guess I’m the closer, I’m trying to figure it out. It’s a unique
deal, it’s obviously pretty special to get to coach two guys like that and then
watch them evolve.”
This time last year, Miller was preoccupied with filling a
few more recruiting holes for Nevada when Corbett participated in the Senior
Bowl, the weeklong showcase for the country’s top college football players
that’s held every January in Mobile, Alabama.
But Miller’s scheduled opened up this year, so he extended a
recruiting trip to Dallas to watch Dillard play in the 2019 Senior Bowl. After
just two days in Mobile, the WSU left tackle, by a few different accounts, has
already become one the most-coveted offensive lineman on site.
Understanding that Miller’s a biased party in this ordeal,
the WSU assistant wholly agreed Dillard not only held his ground against some
of the top defensive linemen in the country, but played as well or better than
any of his peers on the offensive line.
“I’m a proud papa, so I’m going to tell you hell yeah he
did,” said Miller, who wore an anthracite Cougar hat to Wednesday’s practice,
held inside South Alabama’s indoor practice facility because of severe
rainstorms.
Dillard’s one of 10 offensive linemen on the South team and
rotated in and out of throwing drills Wednesday, occasionally protecting the
blind side of Washington State teammate Gardner Minshew.
“I thought he did better in the run game than people
probably would expect him to do,” Miller said of Dillard. “He’s so quick and he
gets two feet in the ground really fast. He went up against an SEC defensive
lineman and gave him all he wanted. Which, watching him go up against the
(Jonathan) Ledbetter kid (Georgia), who I think is a really good football player
and watching him scoop an Alabama three-technique, to me I was just like, I’m
watching that going, ‘All right, he belongs here.’ And there’s no question he
does.”
Dillard’s attracting much of the same buzz Corbett did this
time last year – and for many of the same reasons, Miller believes.
Corbett was under Miller’s tutelage during a stellar 2017
season in which the offensive guard – now primarily a center for the Browns –
was named a semifinalist for the Burlsworth Trophy. The OL coach has connected
Dillard and Corbett multiple times over the phone throughout the pre-Draft
process.
“Number one is, neither one of them ever talked about it and
I think that’s a missed piece,” Miller said.
“You hear all these kids today talking about going to the
league. Those two never talked about it almost to the point it annoyed them to
talk about it. … When you get that tunnel vision going, it really enhances your
play.”
Dillard wasn’t unpolished when he came into his senior
season and many analysts projected him as a third- or fourth-round NFL Draft
pick. But Miller may have helped him climb a few rounds, refining Dillard’s
footwork and spending lots of time teaching him how to engage defenders with his
hands.
“That’s something I learned before the season with our new
(offensive line) coach,” Dillard told Cover1 Tuesday at the Senior Bowl. “I
just for some reason had never tried that before and I’d just kind of done the
whole backpedal, two-hand punch every single time for two years and kind of
added some variety.”
Miller drilled fresh techniques and new moves this year. The
product was an offensive line that gave up just 13 sacks in 2018 – an average
of one per game – and helped key Minshew’s record-setting passing season.
“We do a lot of independent hand movements, hand placement,
punching techniques,” said Miller, a former Valdosta State running back who
spent a large part of his coaching career at NCAA Division II and III schools
before climbing to the FBS and Nevada in 2017. “And I tell people, I’ve been
doing this for a long time with those guys. I just happen to have freak shows
doing it now.
Like Corbett before him, Dillard comes from an Air Raid
system that puts its offensive linemen in notably wider splits – an idea
hatched long ago by WSU coach Mike Leach and Air Raid founder Hal Mumme. While
Minshew adjusts to more traditional NFL concepts this week at the Senior Bowl,
such as taking snaps under center, Dillard will need to show scouts he can play
within closer proximity to his fellow blockers.
That’s supposedly for an obstacle for Air Raid O-linemen,
but Miller would point to a few who’ve made the transition successfully. Former
Texas A&M offensive linemen Luke Joeckel played in a high-volume passing
offense and Corbett, who played in Matt Mumme’s Nevada Air Raid, was one of the
first 40 players off the board last season.
“I kind of think that’s like the dumbest thing I’ve ever
heard,” Miller said. “… The guy learned how to move in a three-foot space and
cover somebody up that was faster than him, so we’ve just enhanced their
ability to move their feet. I think the biggest challenge is they just step on
each other a little bit, but they’ll get used to it.”
If early reports from the Senior Bowl are accurate, Dillard
already has.
::::::::::::::
Stepping into new world at Washington State helped prepare
Gardner Minshew for Senior Bowl experience
UPDATED: Wed., Jan. 23, 2019, 5:13 p.m.
By Theo Lawson S-R of Spokane
There’s no starting job on the line for Gardner Minshew in
Mobile, Alabama, but it isn’t hard for the Washington State quarterback to
notice a few similarities between his week at the Senior Bowl and the lead-up
to the Cougars’ 2018 football season.
In a nutshell, Minshew is taking snaps alongside
quarterbacks who desire the same thing he does. Not QB1 in this instance, but a
highly-coveted NFL contract that could be partially influenced by how well
Minshew throws a football in front of pro scouts this week.
It should be a high-pressure moment for any NFL hopeful and
next to February’s Scouting Combine, it’s easily the most crucial job interview
each will have before April’s NFL Draft.
But, no surprise to anyone who watched him in crimson and
gray this year, Minshew entered the week even-keeled as always.
“Man, my biggest
thing is to go down there and just be myself,” the WSU QB said on the phone
Saturday. “Have the energy, lead the guys, be the one that the guys want to
follow. Kind of prove that I don’t just belong with these other quarterbacks,
that I deserve to be the one that’s taken. It’s going to be extremely
competitive and I’m fired up for it.”
Growing up roughly three hours north of Senior Bowl
headquarters in Mobile, Alabama, Minshew took a liking to the college all-star
game at a young age and over the last few years, he’d make a point to watch
weekly practices on television to study tendencies and habits of the
participating players.
Minshew, representing the South team with Washington State
left tackle Andre Dillard, already went through one of those practices Tuesday
at Ladd-Peebles Stadium, along with an official weigh-in and a podium
interview.
Inclement weather pushed Wednesday’s Senior Bowl practice
indoors, but a two-hour session taking place from 1-3 p.m. inside South
Alabama’s enclosed facility will still air on ESPNU and NFL Network. Teams will
practice outside once more Thursday, from 1-3 p.m., before the game takes place
Saturday (11:30 a.m., NFL Network).
“It’s something I’ve
never gone to, actually gone down to it, but I watch it every year,” Minshew
said. “I’d always think it’d be so cool to see and even the past several years
I’ve watched the practices every day trying to learn how they operate, how they
do it and now to be in it, it’s awesome.”
Leading up to the Senior Bowl, Minshew had been training at
XPE Sports in Boca Raton, Florida, with owner Tony Villani. He’s also working
with a QB-specific trainer, former NFL player Ken Mastrole.
Minshew is one of four players who’ll split quarterback reps
for the South team, along with Buffalo’s Tyree Jackson, West Virginia’s Will
Grier and Auburn’s Jarrett Stidham. He’s also competing indirectly with four
signal-callers who’ll suit up for the North: North Carolina State’s Ryan
Finley, Duke’s Daniel Jones, Penn State’s Trace McSorley and Missouri’s Drew
Lock.
In front of NFL scouts, draft analysts and reporters who’ll
dissect Minshew’s every move, the WSU quarterback will have to demonstrate he
can take snaps under center and run an offense that isn’t predicated on the Air
Raid patterns he mastered during a 4,700-yard passing season with Mike Leach
and the Cougars.
But every QB will encounter his own obstacles this week.
Some may struggle to adapt to wide receivers they haven’t spent four years
throwing passes to. Others will find it difficult to communicate with the
constantly changing offensive line rotations that’ll be pieced together in
front of them.
And Minshew? If his lone year in Pullman is any indication,
the WSU QB seems to thrive in those situations.
“There’s no doubt,”
Minshew said. “That experience helped me so much. Coming in, getting to know
people on short notice, making good first impressions, getting to know some of
these guys real fast and then finally just proving yourself to them that you
deserve to be the guy.”
He added: “I think the experience of coming in and having to
be kind of self-assured and confident, to walk into a completely new team that
you don’t know anybody and try to earn their respect and earn their job, I
think that kind of confidence also is something that kind of has developed.”
Cougar teammates raved about Minshew’s leadership and the
manner in which he elevated everyone around him. The grad transfer QB had spent
less than two months in Pullman when he asked captain Peyton Pelluer if he
could address the group in a team meeting.
Minshew’s arm strength, accuracy and decision-making will
speak for itself in Mobile, but he believes NFL scouts are also examining the
intangible qualities that have nothing to do with raw athletic ability.
“That’s the biggest
thing is it’s really more so, more than anything you do on the field, it’s how
you carry yourself and how you work with a team, how you take control of the
huddle at the line of scrimmage, how you operate,” he said. “I think that’s the
things you can really see in a short time because nobody’s going to be 100
percent throwing the ball. You’ve got new receivers, different plays, you’re
all kind of getting used to that but they’re really trying to see the things
you can control.
“Your leadership, your work ethic, your practice habits. So
that’s what I’m fired up to show them.”
::::::::::::::::
Stepping into new world at Washington State helped prepare
Gardner Minshew for Senior Bowl experience
UPDATED: Wed., Jan. 23, 2019, 5:13 p.m.
By Theo Lawson Spokane S-R
There’s no starting job on the line for Gardner Minshew in
Mobile, Alabama, but it isn’t hard for the Washington State quarterback to
notice a few similarities between his week at the Senior Bowl and the lead-up
to the Cougars’ 2018 football season.
In a nutshell, Minshew is taking snaps alongside
quarterbacks who desire the same thing he does. Not QB1 in this instance, but a
highly-coveted NFL contract that could be partially influenced by how well
Minshew throws a football in front of pro scouts this week.
It should be a high-pressure moment for any NFL hopeful and
next to February’s Scouting Combine, it’s easily the most crucial job interview
each will have before April’s NFL Draft.
But, no surprise to anyone who watched him in crimson and
gray this year, Minshew entered the week even-keeled as always.
“Man, my biggest
thing is to go down there and just be myself,” the WSU QB said on the phone
Saturday. “Have the energy, lead the guys, be the one that the guys want to
follow. Kind of prove that I don’t just belong with these other quarterbacks,
that I deserve to be the one that’s taken. It’s going to be extremely
competitive and I’m fired up for it.”
Growing up roughly three hours north of Senior Bowl
headquarters in Mobile, Alabama, Minshew took a liking to the college all-star
game at a young age and over the last few years, he’d make a point to watch
weekly practices on television to study tendencies and habits of the
participating players.
Minshew, representing the South team with Washington State
left tackle Andre Dillard, already went through one of those practices Tuesday
at Ladd-Peebles Stadium, along with an official weigh-in and a podium
interview.
Inclement weather pushed Wednesday’s Senior Bowl practice
indoors, but a two-hour session taking place from 1-3 p.m. inside South
Alabama’s enclosed facility will still air on ESPNU and NFL Network. Teams will
practice outside once more Thursday, from 1-3 p.m., before the game takes place
Saturday (11:30 a.m., NFL Network).
“It’s something I’ve
never gone to, actually gone down to it, but I watch it every year,” Minshew
said. “I’d always think it’d be so cool to see and even the past several years
I’ve watched the practices every day trying to learn how they operate, how they
do it and now to be in it, it’s awesome.”
Leading up to the Senior Bowl, Minshew had been training at
XPE Sports in Boca Raton, Florida, with owner Tony Villani. He’s also working
with a QB-specific trainer, former NFL player Ken Mastrole.
Minshew is one of four players who’ll split quarterback reps
for the South team, along with Buffalo’s Tyree Jackson, West Virginia’s Will
Grier and Auburn’s Jarrett Stidham. He’s also competing indirectly with four
signal-callers who’ll suit up for the North: North Carolina State’s Ryan
Finley, Duke’s Daniel Jones, Penn State’s Trace McSorley and Missouri’s Drew
Lock.
In front of NFL scouts, draft analysts and reporters who’ll
dissect Minshew’s every move, the WSU quarterback will have to demonstrate he
can take snaps under center and run an offense that isn’t predicated on the Air
Raid patterns he mastered during a 4,700-yard passing season with Mike Leach
and the Cougars.
But every QB will encounter his own obstacles this week.
Some may struggle to adapt to wide receivers they haven’t spent four years
throwing passes to. Others will find it difficult to communicate with the
constantly changing offensive line rotations that’ll be pieced together in
front of them.
And Minshew? If his lone year in Pullman is any indication,
the WSU QB seems to thrive in those situations.
“There’s no doubt,”
Minshew said. “That experience helped me so much. Coming in, getting to know
people on short notice, making good first impressions, getting to know some of
these guys real fast and then finally just proving yourself to them that you
deserve to be the guy.”
He added: “I think the experience of coming in and having to
be kind of self-assured and confident, to walk into a completely new team that
you don’t know anybody and try to earn their respect and earn their job, I
think that kind of confidence also is something that kind of has developed.”
Cougar teammates raved about Minshew’s leadership and the
manner in which he elevated everyone around him. The grad transfer QB had spent
less than two months in Pullman when he asked captain Peyton Pelluer if he
could address the group in a team meeting.
Minshew’s arm strength, accuracy and decision-making will
speak for itself in Mobile, but he believes NFL scouts are also examining the
intangible qualities that have nothing to do with raw athletic ability.
“That’s the biggest
thing is it’s really more so, more than anything you do on the field, it’s how
you carry yourself and how you work with a team, how you take control of the
huddle at the line of scrimmage, how you operate,” he said. “I think that’s the
things you can really see in a short time because nobody’s going to be 100
percent throwing the ball. You’ve got new receivers, different plays, you’re all
kind of getting used to that but they’re really trying to see the things you
can control.
“Your leadership, your work ethic, your practice habits. So
that’s what I’m fired up to show them.”
::::::::::::
Inside linebackers coach Ken Wilson becomes fourth
Washington State assistant in four years to leave Cougars for Oregon
UPDATED: Tue., Jan. 22, 2019, 6:45 p.m.
By Theo Lawson of Spokane S-R/Inland Empire
PULLMAN – Next season, Washington State coach Mike Leach
will face an Oregon team now featuring three of his former assistants.
For the fourth time in four years, the Ducks have hired away
one of Leach’s position coaches, reportedly agreeing to a deal with longtime
WSU inside linebackers coach Ken Wilson.
Wilson, who joined the Cougars from Nevada in 2013, had been
the longest-tenured member of Leach’s staff. The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman was
the first to report the news and Wilson later confirmed it, changing his
Twitter profile picture to an Oregon helmet and his bio name to “Coach Ken
Wilson UO.”
According to Wilson’s Twitter bio, he’ll serve as the Ducks’
outside linebackers coach, though the school has yet to make an official announcement.
Wilson also penned a heartfelt thank-you note to WSU,
writing “Thank you especially to our great student-athletes past and present
that I had the chance to work with in my time with the Cougs. Your hard work
and dedication to building this program has been exceptional. I am honored to
have been a small part of the build.”
It’s been five years since Oregon has beaten WSU on the
gridirion, and this marks the fourth consecutive offseason in which the Ducks
have poached an assistant from Leach and the Cougars.
Former Oregon coach Mark Helfrich hired inside receivers
coach David Yost (now the offensive coordinator at Texas Tech) to work with the
Ducks quarterbacks in January of 2016. Helfrich’s replacement, Willie Taggart,
brought WSU defensive line coach Joe Salave’a to Eugene nearly a year later,
and one of the first hires for current UO coach Mario Cristobal was Cougar
running backs coach Jim Mastro, who just finished his first year as running
backs coach/run-game coordinator.
Salave’a, Mastro and Wilson will all be on the UO sideline
when the Cougars visit Autzen Stadium on Oct. 26.
Wilson is the first assistant coach to leave the Cougars
this offseason, though another staff member, WSU director of football
operations Antonio Huffman, was hired as Texas Tech’s chief of staff earlier in
the month. Five WSU assistant coaches and head strength/conditioning coach
Jason Loscalzo left the program last offseason.
In his six seasons with the Cougars, Wilson helped push
forward the “Speed D” movement former defensive coordinator Alex Grinch
introduced in 2015. WSU’s scoring defense improved in five of Wilson’s six
years on the Cougars’ staff: 38.6 ppg (2014), 27.7 ppg (2015), 26.4 ppg (2016),
25.8 ppg (2017) and 23.1 ppg (2018).
Wilson came into the program with WSU linebacker Peyton
Pelluer and now leaves at the same time as Pelluer, who became the
longest-tenured player in school history this season and finished his career
with 352 tackles. In addition to Pelluer, Wilson oversaw the careers of a few
other All-Pac-12 linebackers, including Jeremiah Allison and Jahad Woods, who
earned all-conference honorable mention after the 2018 season.
#
