WSU
volleyball hoping for ESPN GameDay boost for its matches this weekend
UPDATED:
Wed., Oct. 17, 2018, 7:25 p.m.
By Jim
Meehan S-R of Spokane
Whenever
Washington State has a corresponding home football and volleyball weekend, it
assists the volleyball program.
Add ESPN
GameDay’s first visit to Pullman for Saturday’s WSU-Oregon showdown, and the
smile grows wider on Cougar volleyball coach Jen Greeny’s face.
“Just with
so many extra people in town, a lot of the people in the RV lot are looking for
things to do,” Greeny said. “We usually have a pretty good crowd on football
weekends, but this one is extra special, with GameDay coming and just the
excitement around our fall sports in general. It’s great for everybody.”
No. 23 WSU
(13-5, 4-4 Pac-12) entertains No. 14 USC at 8 p.m. Friday and No. 20 UCLA at
noon Sunday. The Cougars played six of their first eight conference matches
away from home, including last weekend’s 0-2 Bay Area road trip.
WSU led
No. 2 Stanford for most of the second game before losing standout Taylor Mims
to a lower-leg injury. Mims missed the remainder of the match and also Sunday’s
loss to California.
Greeny
declined to elaborate on Mims’ injury – “I tend to be like (football) coach
(Mike) Leach in these situations,” she said – but is optimistic Mims will
return soon. Mims ranks eighth on the program’s all-time kills list.
“We did
for sure have our chances at Cal,” Greeny said. “Penny Tusa stepped in and did
a great job, but our middles weren’t playing real well that day. If you have a
starter out, everyone else has to pick up their game. We’re definitely going to
need everyone going forward.”
WSU is
building a strong résumé, with three wins against ranked Pac-12 foes and
another over Arizona State, which cracked the top 25 a few days later.
The
Cougars dropped a pair of five-setters to Washington and Oregon, both top-20
teams, to open Pac-12 play. WSU is No. 17 in the NCAA’s RPI.
“What’s
crazy about this conference is you can certainly be in the middle of conference
just battling, and then still be able to make a run in the NCAA Tournament,”
Greeny said.
:::::::::::::::
ESPN
College GameDay notes: According to report, Klay Thompson will be Saturday’s
guest picker
UPDATED:
Wed., Oct. 17, 2018, 11 p.m.
Spokane
S-R
It appears
that Klay Thompson is getting the call.
On
Wednesday night ESPN play-by-play man Dave Pasch announced that Thompson would
be the celebrity picker for ESPN’s College GameDay Saturday in Pullman.
Pasch
dropped the information while calling the NBA’s Phoenix Suns-Dallas Mavericks
game on ESPN.
Thompson
played basketball at WSU from 2008-11. He now plays for the NBA’s Golden State
Warriors.
Pullman
issues emergency declaration to deal with crowd
::::::::::::
For
Washington State alum in Virginia, it’s a long drive on a long road to GameDay
in Pullman
UPDATED:
Thu., Oct. 18, 2018, 7:33 a.m.
By Theo
Lawson of the S-R of Spokane/Inland Empire
It was
almost midnight on Saturday in Virginia when the text message flashed across
Travis Crawford’s screen. It was concise – just seven words – and an order from
longtime friend Jeffrey Mohn:
“Get your
stuff and get to Pullman.”
Somewhere
down the road, Crawford will share the full story of his 2,721-mile pilgrimage
from Virginia Beach to Pullman. Perhaps to his children, then his
grandchildren. How, on a whim, he stuffed his belongings into a Scion FR-S and
drove four days, stopping in Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Montana, until finally
reaching the Palouse.
ESPN
College GameDay or bust.
Thousands
of Cougar fans and alums are journeying to Pullman this Saturday for the road
show’s first-ever pit stop in Pullman, and a much-anticipated Pac-12 North
clash between No. 25 WSU and no. 12 Oregon. Few will come out of the weekend
with a story as riveting as Crawford’s.
“It’s kind
of nuts,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever had something on this scale come
together the way it has.”
The 2009
WSU graduate recently finished up 5½ years of service with the United States
Navy as an electronics technician. Part of that time was spent in Bahrain,
where Crawford, a fourth-generation Navy sailor, performed satellite
communications for the Middle Eastern area of U.S. naval operations, and the
final two years were spent in Virginia Beach.
Officially,
Crawford’s final day with the Navy is Oct. 29, though he’s currently on
terminal leave, which afforded him the opportunity to travel cross-country for
Saturday’s festivities in Pullman. Swinging the trip financially, however, was
more of an obstacle.
Because
he’d be relocating in Seattle, where Crawford will start work for Radio Holland
in two weeks as an electronic technician, he was expecting a travel advance
from the Navy to cover mileage expenses. The four-figure check that Crawford
was in line for never came.
Eager to
get his buddy to the Pacific Northwest, Mohn chipped in the necessary cash,
telling Crawford, “Pay me back, don’t worry about it, just make sure you’re
here for this thing, because the first time only happens once.”
Mohn was
formerly in the Marine Corps and now lives in Seattle. Both graduated from WSU
in 2009 and have spent countless Saturdays together watching Cougar football in
adjacent seats at Martin Stadium.
“This is
another Coug who himself has done time in the military … and he knows what this
means to me,” Crawford said. “He was right there alongside me most of those
years when he wasn’t deployed himself over in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
“That was
absolutely huge. I have no idea how I’m supposed to thank him for that, but I’m
going to have to figure it out.”
Crawford
finished some Navy paperwork on Monday, hopped into his car around 1 p.m.
Eastern time and started his voyage. Monday night’s stop was Donegal,
Pennsylvania. Tuesday’s was Avon, Minnesota.
“I think I
can throw a rock from one end of town to the other,” Crawford said via phone
Tuesday night from a motel in Avon.
On
Wednesday, Crawford planned to reach his mother’s home in Billings, Montana,
and Thursday he’d make the final leg to Pullman.
The lack
of a co-pilot can make such an expedition tiresome, but Crawford said his Navy
training has helped him concentrate on monotonous tasks for long periods of
time. That and a variety of metal jams.
“Mostly
just my Alice in Chains keeping me company, but some other stuff in there,
too,” Crawford said. “You can’t scream your guts out the whole way. I’ve got to
save something for Saturday.”
Crawford
was fortunate to score a ticket to Saturday’s game. Mohn is a WSU season
ticket-holder, but he’d already promised a second ticket to his mother. So
Crawford went crowdsourcing and stumbled upon a family of Cougar fans on
Twitter who had a spare. They’re not charging him for the ticket.
“I said
‘What do I owe you, how do you want to do this?’ ” Crawford said. “He said,
‘Meet me between the (GameDay) show and the start of the game, ticket’s yours,
no questions asked.’”
“It’s just
kind of piece after piece falling in line.”
Crawford
describes his time in Pullman “an unholy struggle” but assures that Cougar
football Saturdays – even amid some dark years for the program – provided an
escape from whatever he may have been going through.
There were
some rocky moments in the classroom and Crawford, who changed his academic
direction multiple times, says he had seven different advisors in the first
year. Crawford had to apply for readmission because he wasn’t making academic
progress – mostly due to the constantly-changing plans – and eventually had to
swap his engineering major for one in history.
“Even when
classes weren’t going right or some family stuff that was also going on – there
was a lot going sideways that entire time I was at Wazzu, just super tumultuous
– Martin Stadium was my refuge,” he said. “So for that 5-5½ years I was there,
I didn’t miss a home game between 2004 and 2009. Then even the next year I made
every home game in 2010 and I don’t think I have to tell you that is a hell of
a lot of bad, awful football.”
He says
the bond WSU grads have with their alma mater is anything but superficial.
“The place
gets in your blood,” he said. “Jim Walden absolutely got that right.”
A friend
and WSU faculty member has opened up his Moscow home to Crawford for the
weekend. He plans to hit the sheets early Friday night and get to the campus in
Pullman for the beginning of Saturday’s show, which takes place from 6-9 a.m.
A number
of Crawford’s Navy friends around the world are counting on their comrade to
make a cameo on the live broadcast – and he doesn’t want to disappoint.
“Actually
a buddy of mine texted me from Japan and said, ‘Hey I better see you on
GameDay.’” Crawford said. “We’re going to try to make sure we’re there and
hopefully a few sailors around the world are able to see their boy waving the
flag.”
::::::::::::::
Pullman preps for a party
College town hikes its bus services to accommodate crowds;
as many as 100,000 people are expected Saturday
By GARRETT CABEZA Moscow Pullman Daily News Oct 18, 2018
PULLMAN — Thousands of Cougar faithful — dressed in mostly
crimson — lined the streets in downtown Pullman and on the Washington State
University campus Wednesday afternoon to greet College GameDay on its first
visit to Pullman.
The crowd is expected to grow in the coming days, and that
has the city scrambling.
The Pullman City Council declared a public transportation
emergency Tuesday night to ensure there will be enough buses Friday and
Saturday to accommodate the masses. City officials estimate as many as 100,000
people will attend ESPN College GameDay and watch the No. 25 Cougs take on the
No. 12 University of Oregon Ducks on Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for 4:30
p.m.
Transit Manager Wayne Thompson said the emergency
declaration was made so Pullman Transit could provide charter service without
advertising it to private charter providers.
Thompson said WSU contacted two private charter companies
asking to provide more buses and cover additional routes, but they were unable
to provide any services.
With the private buses unable to lend support, Thompson said
the transportation emergency needed to be declared. He even said some Pullman
Transit employees have been called in from vacation to offer the extra
services.
“With such short notice, this was our only option to help
WSU on top of what we already do with our regular routes and our typical
pregame bus shuttles,” Thompson said. “(The declaration) is really required to
allow us to do the shuttle service on short notice.”
He said a public transportation emergency has not been
declared in his seven years working for Pullman Transit.
City Attorney Laura McAloon added the emergency declaration
is simply a technicality to ensure the city is in compliance with Federal
Transit Administration grant conditions.
Thompson estimated the transit service will provide as many
as 12 extra routes over the course of Friday and Saturday.
According to the city of Pullman website, two shuttle buses
will run 5 a.m. to 1:25 p.m. from Lot 3 (located at Terre View Drive and State
Route 270) to the Bustad Hall stop on Stadium Way near Martin Stadium for
riders wanting to attend College Gameday.
Three shuttle buses will run 9 to 11 a.m. from Bailey
Brayton Field to much of Apartment Land, including Brandi Way, Emerald Downs
and the Providence Court areas.
Thompson said the most recent situation like this was almost
two years ago when heavy snowfall forced the closure of Pullman Transit routes.
“This is like nothing we have probably ever seen before and
we think we got an early start on it,” Thompson said.
He said he expects the biggest challenge to be detours and
blocked roads put in place on campus to accommodate the College Gameday stage.
A portion of Stadium Way will be blocked as a result of the College Gameday set
and the large crowd it is expected to draw.
“Any Friday before a WSU football game is busy starting
shortly after noon, but this one is like no other,” Thompson said.
He is hoping for high ridership Friday and Saturday to
prevent traffic congestion.
“There will be congestion,” Thompson said. “It will be
potentially chaotic but we really believe these extra buses will help.”
College Gameday Communications Manager Derek Volner said he
is unaware of a public transportation emergency ever happening as a result of
the show visiting a town.
“I do think it plays into the hype of us coming and the
excitement our fans have and the excitement we have to go there,” Volner said.
“It’s always exciting when the community embraces us.”
The show visits the site of a premier college football
matchup each Saturday. Fans typically cheer in the background of the show’s
set.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
WSDOT reminding Pullman bound motorists about major delay on
usual cross-state route
Pullman Radio News 10/18/.2018
The Washington Department of Transportation is reminding
motorists about the major delay on the normal cross-state route to Pullman. The
agency is replacing a bridge deck on State Route 26 between Othello and US
Highway 395. There is an 18 mile detour in place through Connell which adds
about 15 minutes to the trip.
WSDOT is reminding the public about alternate highway routes
to Pullman from Western Washington. Heavy traffic to and from Pullman is
expected this weekend with fans coming to town for the historic ESPN College
GameDay show from WSU on Saturday before the Cougars host Oregon.
Those potential lane closures and delays on US Highway 195
between Pullman and Spokane for the new passing lanes will end Friday night at
6:00. There will not be any lane closures in those construction zones this
weekend.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::;
USC Trojan football player’s hit on WSU student in Martin
Stadium costs USC $40,000
October 18, 2018 from Whitman County Gazette via Pullman
Radio News
The hit from a Trojan football player on a Washington State
University student at the end of last year’s game in Pullman has cost USC
40,000 dollars. The Whitman County Gazette is reporting that USC settled the
lawsuit from Kyle Departee in July. Video from the end of the 2017 Cougar
victory over the Trojans showed defensive lineman Liam Jimmons knocking down
Departee who was storming the field to celebrate.
The gazette reports that the settlement recently came to
light when Departee’s attorney filed a motion in Whitman County Superior Court
because USC hadn’t paid her client. The redshirt sophomore is listed as a 3rd
string nose tackle for the Trojans this season.
::::::::::::
College GameDay has arrived
By Ty Eklund, Evergreen Oct 17, 2018
Fans and students waited for hours Wednesday afternoon just
outside of Martin Stadium awaiting the arrival of the ESPN College GameDay bus.
Coug fans crowded the sidewalk around Stadium Way to celebrate the arrival of
the ESPN crew.
The fans lined up on both sides of the street with the band
and cheer squad playing music and chanting the WSU theme song with Butch T.
Cougar keeping the excitement up for the buses’ arrival. Go Cougs chants played
tag back and forth with everyone on either side of the street.
These cheers and dances were definitely thrilling and this
was only the prequel to the GameDay show. The long-running show has been viewed
by many students here on campus who are looking forward to seeing it held at
WSU.
“I grew up watching College GameDay with my dad every single
Saturday morning,” WSU senior Joseph Goguen said. “So it’s exciting that I get
to experience that.”
Originally the bus was scheduled to arrive on campus around
noon to 12:45 p.m., but that wasn’t the case. Though the crowd shouted out
times when the bus was supposedly arriving, the ESPN crew didn’t actually
arrive until around 2:30 p.m. By then traffic was slowly stopped as the crowd
grew with zealous fans pouring out into the streets.
As the bus arrived, fans were directed to step aside until
it came to a complete stop. Once it did, it was like throwing a piece of meat
into a piranha tank. Everyone huddled to the bus, chanting and cheering and
pulling out their phones to record the first College GameDay visit to Pullman.
“[Our campus is] going to shine in all of its beauty and
glory and the world is going to get to see it, so this is going to be a
wonderful day for WSU,” Director of Athletics Pat Chun said. “Yet another
historic day in our long and storied history. It’s going to be awesome.”
With all of the excitement from ESPN’s arrival, there has
also been some concern.
It’s estimated that the population of Pullman, which is
around 33,000, may possibly take on crowds of up to 75,000. Though the number
is uncertain.
This prompted the Pullman City Council to issue a state of
emergency and Pullman Transit opened its availability to provide assistance for
crowd travel.
College GameDay’s broadcast starts at 6 a.m. Saturday near
Martin Stadium and the Cougar Pride Statue. Fans are planning all-nighters to
get a chance to be on television next to the GameDay desk with their own
custom-made signs.
“There’s a reason why Cougs call this place home and we
understand that this is everyone’s home,” Chun said. “Our hope is all of our
Cougs treat our guests in our home extremely well, understand this is an epic
day in our history, that this is the type of exposure that’s going to resonate
for years to come at Washington State.”
::::::::::::::::
COUGAR SOCCER No. 22 Cougars take on Sun Devils
WSU looks to snap losing streak against Arizona State
University, has lost last three to conference opponents
By TAYLOR DUNLAP, Evergreen
October 18, 2018
No. 22 WSU soccer will travel to Tempe, Arizona, to face
Arizona State University on Thursday. The Cougars will be searching for a
victory as they have lost the past three games in conference play.
The last time WSU was on the road was two weeks ago when it
traveled to both Colorado and Utah. The Cougars picked up their first two
losses of the season on this road trip, leading to a hard weekend coming home
as their next matchup was against No. 2 University of Southern California.
WSU was looking to upset USC when the teams faced off in
Pullman last weekend but ended up falling just short of the victory by a score
of 3-2. In this game, the Cougars played evenly with the Trojans; however, in
the end it came down to one extra goal that caused the loss for the team.
After this loss, junior forward Morgan Weaver felt there
were many things the team could improve on before facing their next
competition.
“I think execution and being able to finish those simple
goals, you know, sometimes we make the hard ones and not the easy ones,” Weaver
said. “I think that is our biggest thing right now and I think being able to
work on that as a team will show in the games.”
In the past four matchups against Arizona State, the Cougars
have won the past three years and tied once in 2014. The Sun Devils have a
6-5-1 record for the season and recently tied with the University of Colorado
1-1 in double overtime.
Over halfway through Pac-12 Conference play, the Cougars
hope to climb their way out of this slump and get back on a winning streak.
Senior defender Maddy Haro said the team’s mentality has to be different going
into Arizona this weekend.
“Our mentality has to be completely different, we cannot let
off the gas at all,” Haro said. “There’s a couple of things that you just can’t
coach and that’s hard work, passion and determination, and if we bring our full
effort then we can’t be touched.”
With five more teams coming in conference play, WSU will
need to go into the road games over the weekend with a change in focus. The
Cougars will face a challenge in these upcoming games, especially when they
play No. 1 Stanford University on Oct. 28.
The Cougars know the losing streak they are currently stuck
with will vanish at some point. However, they must put in the work and gain a
victory to change this. Head Coach Todd Shulenberger is determined that his
team will break the losing streak soon.
“One of these times we are going to get the next one, so I
would hate to be the next opponent because we’re looking forward to it,”
Shulenberger said.
The Cougars will take on the Sun Devils starting at 11 a.m.
Thursday at the Sun Devil Soccer Stadium.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Football WSU's Willie Taylor, from tiny Georgia town,
overlooked no more
Willie Taylor III, the Pride of Cochran, Ga. (Photo:
Cougfan.com/Whittney Thornton, 247Sports)
BY RANDY ROSETTA/Special to Cougfan.com
SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE of Georgia, there is a growing
faction of fans focused on the Washington State football team. As strange as
that may seem, when one of your sons wanders that far away from home and starts
to shine, it only makes sense.
WSU second-year freshman Willie Taylor III has done just
that this season.
Taylor and No. 23-ranked Wazzu (5-1) are smack-dab in the
national spotlight this week, with ESPN’s GameDay crew in Pullman for its
pre-game show ahead of the Cougars’ showdown against No. 11 Oregon (5-1). The
Ducks slammed the door on Washington’s College Football Playoff hopes with a
30-27 triumph last week and now WSU takes aim at controlling the Pac-12 North
Division with the first of three games against Northern foe.
Helping lead that charge is the 6-foot-4, 235-pound Taylor,
a lightly recruited safety-turned-linebacker who has helped anchor the Cougars’
defense this season. Pro Football Focus this week named him to its All-Pac-12
Mid-Season second team.
He has started in the Cougars' last three games at the rush
linebacker position. Through six contests, Taylor has recorded 14 tackles (two
for loss, including one sack), three quarterback hurries and he has forced a
fumble.
All that for a rail-thin former basketball player who was
stuck in the middle of the Bleckley County High School defense to make as many
plays as he could for a struggling team.
“We played Willie at free safety in high school, which
sounds crazy, but he was so physical and we weren’t very good,” former Bleckley
County coach Tracy White tells Cougfan.com. “So we knew if we left him in the
middle of the field, he would save a lot of touchdowns for us.
“He’s always been so quick and athletic with a lot of speed.
Plus, he’s strong and loves to hit. We almost had to pull him out of practice
because when he hit someone, it sounded like an explosion.”
Not a bad assessment, and one that a lot of coaches might
make about their players.
What makes Taylor a tiger with different stripes, though, is
the distance from his home base to Ol' Wazzu and an unconventional path to get
there.
Bleckley County is a Class 2A school in Cochran, Ga., about
half an hour southwest of Warner Robins and 93 miles from the Atlanta airport.
Might not be nowhere, but it’s in the neighborhood. White joked that Cochran
has grown to a “five- or six-stoplight town."
A few years before Taylor blossomed after sliding his
attention from basketball to football, Tavon Ross helped put Cochran and
Bleckley County on the college football map when he signed with Missouri over
Alabama, Georgia and Miami.
Tied to Ross’ recruitment was then-Mizzou defensive backs
coach Alex Grinch. When he became WSU's defensive coordinator after the 2014
season, White called him and told him he had another promising
diamond-in-the-rough in Taylor.
“He told me send me some film and he’d take a look,” White
said. “A little while later, he called me back and told me he was fixing to get
on a plane to Georgia before he headed to Washington State. That’s where it all
began.”
LIKE ANY HIGH SCHOOL COACH, WHITE has a vested interest in
where his players wind up if they play college ball. He knew and trusted
Grinch, so as soon as he knew there was interest on the coach/recruiter’s part,
he brought Taylor in for a chat.
The bond between White and Taylor is a little deeper than
most. Taylor’s father, Willie Taylor Jr., grew up around White’s father’s farm
where Willie Taylor Sr. worked. So besides the coach-player relationship, there
was also a strong familial pull.
“I wanted to make sure he knew I wanted what was best for
him when we sat down and talked,” White said. “He had gotten some attention
from Georgia State, but they fired (coach Trent Miles) and Willie was sort of
left with nobody recruiting him. So when Coach Grinch told me that he wanted
Willie to come and visit Washington State, I told him I thought he should go
out there and look.
“He knew that it was across the country, but I think it took
a flight getting out there to realize just how far it is away. His parents were
a little leery about him being so far away, and the only thing that changed
mama’s mind is that they got to go on the trip with him. They fell in love with
the place. They came back and felt good about him going out there.”
Willie Taylor III: 3 consecutive starting assignments coming
into Oregon game. (Photo: Cougfan.com/Whittney Thornton)
Two years later after Taylor redshirted in 2017, a whole lot
of people feel good about the small-town Southern kid’s migration to the Great
Northwest.
Last fall, when Taylor was a scout teamer as he redshirted
and transitioned from DB to linebacker, he caught the attention of Cougars OLB
coach Roy Manning.
“From a physical standpoint, he’s got everything you want
from the position,” Manning said.
In fact, before Taylor ever arrived, WSU coach Mike Leach
was giddy about the relatively unknown player the Cougars were adding, telling
a room of crimson partisans during a 2017 recruiting class film run down, “He
is one of the most underrated guys in America. Watch how physical he is. Look
at him chase down the running back. He hits stuff and it just explodes.”
None of those bouquets surprise White.
“A bunch of schools missed out on that kid,” he said. “And I
mean big-time schools in the South. He was pretty skinny when he played for us,
but the talent was always there, the energy was always there, the drive to be
the best was always there. He knew he needed to redshirt to get bigger and
stronger, and he was OK with that.”
THAT HUMILITY IS JUST PART OF WHO Taylor is and how he was
raised. White called his parents two of the humblest, hard-working people he
has ever known, which explains why the love affair between Cochran and Willie
Taylor III is so strong.
Already a feel-good story because a former two-star recruit
is on the cusp of doing big things at a Power-5 school, Taylor has inspired the
growing WSU fan base 2,600 miles away.
“There are a lot of people who keep up with him,” said Von
Lassiter, who takes over as the Bleckley County coach for White after Taylor
had finished playing. Lassiter is also a Cochran native.
“You see some (Washington State) t-shirts here and there and
you can tell it means a lot to have a guy like him perform on the big stage
like he has. He still comes into our weight room and lifts and talks to our
guys. He’s as big a celebrity as we have in Cochran.”
Added White,” Everybody down here is just so proud of him.
We all wish we could go watch him play. It’s a lot easier than it used to be to
keep up with him as long as you don’t mind staying up really later. Him doing
what he has, that’s huge for a place like Cochran.”
::::::::::::::::::::
Sights and sounds from College GameDay's arrival to Pullman
By BRADEN JOHNSON Cougfan.com
PULLMAN -- It took exactly 14 years, 364 days for ESPN’s
College GameDay production truck to roll into Pullman since WSU alum Tom Pounds
started the Ol' Crimson tradition. The show made 216 stops prior to its arrival
in Pullman, but none of that mattered on Wednesday.
For more than three hours, hundreds of students, alumni and
community members packed the edges of Stadium Way and Ferdinand's Lane in
anticipation of ‘Bobby the Bus Driver’s’ stroll past Martin Stadium. By the
time the orange van -- with cutouts of on-air talents Lee Corso, Kirk
Herbstreit and Desmond Howard gracing the sides -- rolled into town, the fan
total had eclipsed the 1,000-person mark with ease.
It would have been a Herculean feat to have kept track of
the number of times the Pullman Police Department and university officials told
the avalanche of Cougs to step back along the curbs as the bus approached Main
Street. Athletic Director Pat Chun played into the scene as well, encouraging
students to wave promotional crimson Cougar flags near the main ticketing
office and wave them in sync.
“We need as many students as we can have in the street,”
Chun said, as the bus approached Colfax.
When the bus finally arrived in Pullman around 2 p.m., the
celebration was both cathartic and impassioned. It did not matter your
graduation year, Greek affiliation, time spent waiting or if you even attended
WSU. To the assembly, ESPN completed the first step of a long-overdue
pilgrimage to the Promised Land.
The production crew’s eyes contained a hybrid sense of amazement
and bewilderment as hundreds of smartphones strained to get a video clip or
selfie of the bus as it sat in park in the middle of Stadium Way. No way the
bus and semi-trucks containing staging equipment could have driven along into
their designated parking spots. To do so, they would have had to plow through
dozens of rows of spectators.
The Cougar Marching Band alternated between renditions of
the Cougar fight song, Fall Out Boy’s
“Light Em Up” and series of chants with the spirit squad. Each time a new tune
was played, the chorus from the crowd raised another decibel.
GameDay finally came home to meet ‘Ol Crimson. Wednesday was
a landmark moment in WSU history, tying together generations of alumni,
undergraduates and soon-to-be Cougars. No matter the delay in getting the
nation's most notorious pregame show to the Palouse. It’s here now, and just in
time for what looks to be the most anticipated football game since the 1997
Apple Cup.
It was like General Douglas MacArthur’s return to the
Philippines three years following his initial escape. Or when 70,000 fans
erupted in the Superdome when Steve Gleason famously blocked a punt that would
be returned for a touchdown in the first football game played in the venue
since Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana. Elements of triumph, sentimentality and
hope were in the air.
Yet the show itself is still three days away. The best is
still to come. On Thursday, the area will largely turn into a construction site
as the staging equipment and lights are set up. The city of Pullman is
expecting to see a crowd double the size of its own population by the time
Friday evening rolls around. Then, the best moment arrives in the wee hours of
Saturday morning starting at 6 a.m. when the GameDay broadcast kicks off.
When Pounds does the ceremonial honor of being the first
alum to hoist ‘Ol Crimson, he will forever be etched in Cougar folklore. And if
Corso indeed fancies WSU to knock off the 12th-ranked Oregon Ducks and dons a
Butch T. Cougar headpiece, the roar coming from edges of Martin Stadium may
register on the Richter Scale.
Wednesday’s opening act still symbolizes much more than a
simple lead into the show itself. It was a total community event. The Pullman
School District let kids out of class at noon, and you can bet the majority of
WSU students present found a convenient excuse to tell their professors that
afternoon lecture was out of the question.
Even though the bus’s expected arrival time was delayed by
two hours, no one seemed to have a care in the world. As everyone stayed glued
to their phones tracking the caravan’s progress – Spokane, then Cheney, into
Colfax and finally, Pullman – there was a palpable sense that everyone was
experiencing the beginning of something bigger than any individual or group. A
tradition started by WSU’s older guard of alumni finally came to fruition
behind a fierce undergraduate support on campus and on social media.
:::::::::::::::::
How many people will be in Pullman on Saturday?
By Cougfan
Cougar fans have waited for Ol' Crimson and GameDay to
arrive together for 15 years. (Photo: CF.C/Whittney Thornton)
HOW MANY PEOPLE will be in Pullman Saturday for what figures
to be the greatest Palouse celebration since the 1915 football team returned
home from Pasadena with the Rose Bowl trophy?
“Nobody knows but I think the rumors that are circulating of
75,000 are way off base,” Phil Weiler, WSU’s vice president of marketing, tells
Cougfan.com today. “I do think this is going to be a different experience than
other GameDay events because people have been waiting years and year for it.
There’s a lot going on that makes this special, but 50 or 60 or 75,0000 --
those are huge, huge numbers that seem unrealistic.”
Weiler is a veteran of five GameDay broadcasts from his time
at Oregon. “The greater Eugene area has a population of about 250,000 and all
those (GameDay) visits were big deals — albeit a little different than the
excitement here right now given the Ol’ Crimson history — but the crowd turnout
was manageable.
For perspective on 75,000, consider that the population of
the greater Pullman-Moscow region is about 86,000. Of course, Spokane — with a
countywide population of 490,000 — is only 75 minutes north and Puget Sound
Cougs will no doubt be heading east in greater-than-usual numbers.
Thee’s another practical matter at work. The geography
around the GameDay set — at the corner of Stadium Way and Ferdinand’s Lane,
northeast of Martin Stadium — can only accommodate so many people (a
guesstimate is 10,000) before sight lines in every direction are blocked. But
then again: does that matter to Cougar Nation?
The Pullman Police Department says they are prepared. “This
is a huge deal and we’re putting all our resources into it,” said Sergeant Jake
Opgenorth. But he assures that the fundamentals of dealing with Apple Cups,
Dads’ Weekend games and the like don’t change for this, they just scale with a
bigger turnout. “We have the drill down, especially with traffic as people come
off campus … We hope everyone has fun and behaves responsibly.” Opgenorth says
he's heard the rumor of 75,000 people coming to Pullman but doesn't know where
it came from.
TO ACCOMMODATE FANS turning out for the GameDay broadcast,
which runs from 6-9 a.m., the CUB will stay open 24 hours starting Friday and
at least a couple of restaurants will always be open throughout. In addition,
the Global Scholars Hall will be open all night, with access to restrooms and a
bagel shop. In addition, the Sparks Building will be open early Saturday
morning for people who are going to and fro the GameDay set to grab coffee.
The Cougars and Ducks, both in the Top 25 and tied atop the
Pac-12 North with 5-1 records, kick off at 4:30 (FoxSports). The game is sold
out but WSU is opening nearby Beasley Coliseum for a viewing party.
:::::::::::::::
WSU flag will wave Saturday in Pullman on ESPN’s College
GameDay, but the streak won’t stop there
Originally published October 18, 2018 at 10:26 am Updated
October 18, 2018 at 10:29 am
Week after week, the WSU flag waved behind the set, with the
goal soon becoming to get the ESPN show to come to Pullman. On Saturday, that
will happen for the first time. Pounds is making the trip up to wave the flag.
By Scott Hanson Seattle
Times
PULLMAN — Fifteen years ago, when Tom Pounds drove 700 miles
from his home in Albuquerque, N.M., to Austin, Texas, to show off his homemade
Washington State University flag behind the set of ESPN’s “College GameDay,” he
had no idea what a tradition it would become.
“It was purely school spirit — a Coug thing,” Pounds said
this week.
It became so much more. Week after week, the WSU flag waved
behind the set, with the goal soon becoming to get the show to come to Pullman.
On Saturday, that will happen for the first time. Pounds is
making the trip up to wave the flag.
That’s pretty amazing considering the humble beginnings. A
couple of weeks after Pounds took the flag to Austin in September 2003, he got
a call from Brent Schwartz in Minnesota. Schwartz wanted to wave the flag in
Madison, Wisc., on Oct, 18, 2003.
Pounds sent the flag to Schwartz, who drove 300 miles to
wave the flag. The flag has been a constant since, with this Saturday marking
217 straight games.
“There were a lot of times early on where I had to sweat it
out,” Pounds said of finding people to wave the flag wherever ESPN decided to
broadcast each week.
Pounds paid for shipping early on, then formed the Ol’
Crimson Booster Club to help finance and coordinate the operation. The streak
could have ended several times the first couple of years, but Andrew Pannek, a
Delta Air Lines employee who could fly for free, took red-eye flights with the
flag and kept it going, waving the flag at 10 straight shows.
In 2010, Pounds said, his upcoming wedding forced him to
pass on club leadership to someone else.
“That was the year I met C.J. McCoy, and I just knew he was
the guy,” said Pounds, who got a degree in electrical engineering from WSU in
1981 and is a high-school science teacher in Albuquerque.
McCoy, a 1998 WSU graduate and an assistant vice president
in the office of Economic Engagement at Lehigh University who is currently
serving a fellowship at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., is still
leading the way, and finally after all these years, the flag will wave in
Pullman.
“I got to tell you it’s surreal, but for those of us who
work on this on a collective basis, we’re just so ecstatic for Washington State
and the Cougs and for WSU football to get to the point where they earned it,”
McCoy said. “We are very, very excited to get the show in Pullman and it
couldn’t come at a more apropos time, right at the anniversary of 15 years
doing this.”
The “GameDay” crew is looking forward to coming to Pullman.
Rece Davis, host of “GameDay” since 2015, was the play-by-play announcer during
Washington State’s 55-21 loss to Arizona State on Halloween night in 2013.
“I’ve experienced a little taste of what Pullman has to
offer, and I have a feeling that Halloween night in Pullman — which is a sight
to see in and of itself — I think it’s going to pale in comparison to what we
have on Saturday,” Davis said.
Washington State coach Mike Leach has good memories of
“GameDay.” He was coaching Texas Tech when the show made its first appearance
in Lubbock, and Leach’s Red Raiders defeated No. 1 Texas 39-33.
Leach said he was not fully aware at that time about the
tradition of the WSU flag, “but I did know that you saw the Washington State
flag up there all the time.”
Leach, who normally hates distractions, says he’s happy the
show is coming to Pullman.
“With the flag tradition that we have, I think it’s
overdue,” he said earlier this week. “We’re excited to have it, our students
are excited to have it. As a team, it is kind of business as usual, but I think
it is a good opportunity for our fans, a good showcase for our university, and
for the game.”
Davis said coming to Pullman means more to him because of
the flag tradition.
“The dedication that Washington State alums have shown, and
the great lengths they have gone to make sure that the flag has flown for 216 —
and will now be 217 — shows is remarkable,” Davis said. “Washington State has
not just made it an effort, they have made it a crusade to be host of ‘College
GameDay.’ Now they’re rolling out that crimson carpet for us and talking about
a gargantuan crowd unlike any ‘GameDay’ has seen before, and we’re thrilled and
honored to be part of it.”
Oh, how things have changed in 15 years. No longer is it
hard to find people to wave the flag. McCoy has plenty of volunteers around the
country. And now, even with “GameDay” finally coming to Pullman, McCoy said the
tradition will continue.
“It started to get ‘GameDay’ to come to Pullman, but it’s
become so much more than that,” McCoy said. ”It’s a part of WSU culture, it’s a
part of ‘GameDay’ and it’s a true tradition that started in a grass roots
effort. There is no doubt that next week we will be there for show No. 218 in a
row.”
Notes
Washington State is the 70th different school to host
“College GameDay,” and Pullman is the 82nd different city to host “GameDay.”
There have been 354 shows.
If analyst Lee Corso picks Washington State, it will be the
57th different mascot head he has donned at the end of the show.
:::::::::::::::::
WSU street closures for ESPN’s College GameDay
Pullman Radio News 10/18/2018
There will be some street closures on the Washington State
University campus for Saturday's historic visit from ESPN's College GameDay.
Ferdinand's Lane is closed through Saturday. A portion of Stadium Way will be
closed today from 1:00 to 4:00 while crews construct the set. Stadium Way from
Wilson to North Fairway Roads will be closed for most of the day on Friday
starting at 9:30 in the morning. On Saturday, Stadium Way will be closed
between Grimes Way and Cougar Way until after the football game.
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