Football ... John
Blanchette: Let’s boost Washington State’s status by packing it in with Pac-12
By John
Blanchette, Spokane S-R 11/28/2018
It sounds
as if Mike Leach and athletic director Pat Chun are going to the mattresses to
try to rub out the Barzinis, Tattaglias and Cuneos – otherwise known as
Florida, LSU and Penn State – muscling in on what they believe to be Washington
State’s New Year’s bowl turf.
Both were
on the horn nationally on Wednesday to beef about the latest College Football
Playoff rankings, which dropped the Cougars five spots after their Apple Cup
thud.
That
leaves the 10-2 Cougs behind four three-loss teams – one of them Washington,
which is sort of inevitable when you get smoked head-to-head on the season’s
last weekend – and, mathematically, bumped from the bowl season’s business
class and back to coach.
Now, San
Antonio’s a swell spot and all, but …
All the Cougs
can hope for is a little help from Utah in the Pac-12 championship game and for
Oklahoma to beat Texas. Or for the 13-member selection committee to barter back
its soul from the Southeastern Conference.
Only
kidding. Try to keep a straight face while suggesting oddsmakers would make the
Cougs favorites in a game against Florida or LSU – never mind Alabama or
Georgia. And those Vegas guys are way smarter than any committee.
Still,
whatever gains Wazzu has made in stature over the past four seasons, you have
to think the way this year unfolded made for its best shot at one of the chichi
bowls, even with the same old pratfall against the Huskies. Really, how often
can you expect to pass this way 10-2 again?
So maybe
it’s time for the Cougs to take the nuclear option.
Maybe it’s
time to serve papers on the Pac-12.
Yes, of
course, it’s crazy – not just crazy, but institutional suicide. Pac-12
membership means too much to an outpost on the Palouse. There’s the prestige
and the TV money and the rivalries and the TV money and the academically
like-minded schools and the TV money – and it should be mentioned the Cougs are
$68 million in debt and can’t live without the TV money.
And
besides, who else would have them?
But
really, at this point, does it matter?
Would the
Cougs have been served any worse this season marooned in one of the Group of 5
conferences like the Mountain West than they were by both their Pac-12 brethren
and the conference leadership – if that’s what you can call what Champagne
Larry Scott provides for the $4.8 million a year he banks.
Wazzu can
wail about SEC/Big 10 infatuation all it wants, but with a Pac-12 athletic
director (Oregon’s Rob Mullens) chairing the CFP committee and two other members
from within the footprint (former USC player Ronnie Lott and Arizona State
instructor Paola Boivin, a longtime sports writer) involved, there’s plenty of
West Coast representation.
The ugly
truth is this: The Cougs were let down by the company they keep.
Start with
competitiveness. The Pac-12 may be at its lowest ebb relative to the rest of
the FBS world. The 1-8 bowl record last year was just the beginning. This fall,
the conference went 3-6 against other Power 5s – the wins coming against 7-5 Michigan
State (ASU), 4-8 Nebraska (Colorado) and 2-9 North Carolina (Cal). Leach is a
good soldier to trumpet that the low end of his league is better than the low
ends of the other leagues, but is that the trophy you really want on the
mantel? And shall we mention the 0-6 report card against other CFP Top 25
teams?
And
there’s sabotage, accidental or conspiratorial. Bad enough that officials on
the field missed the targeting incident that could easily have changed the
outcome of WSU’s loss at USC, but the buttinski ways of Scott’s lieutenant,
Woodie Dixon, with the replay center may have dissuaded them from even thinking
about a flag.
Finally,
there’s the nine-game conference schedule.
This one
is maybe not as persuasive. Nine’s a grind, yes, and the SEC and ACC play just
eight. But the Big Ten also plays nine. And the fact is, all of the three-loss
teams ahead of the Cougs in the CFP rankings played a Power 5 nonconference
opponent. Penn State – on top of its nine conference games – beat ACC Coastal
champ Pitt. LSU beat Miami. And if Florida State is down this year, surely its
game with Florida approximates the intensity of a Pac-12 Conference game.
That said,
it doesn’t make their schedules any more impressive than the one Wazzu played,
except for this:
The Cougs
played in the Pac-12. Whatever they achieved, people attached an asterisk.
So maybe
they should threaten to leave. Start up some talks with the Mountain West. Hey,
look what it did for Gonzaga last spring. Got the Zags some scheduling
concessions from their league and a pile of back pay.
Who knows?
Maybe Champagne Larry will kick in a mil of his salary toward the Cougs’ debt
service – just to change his own sorry narrative.
:::::::::::::::
==ALERT!
Below is
an edited version of Vince Grippi’s column/blog posting for 11/29/2018 … just
things related to WSU are included.
Vince mention’s
John Blanchette’s column. It’s included in this News for CougGroup report.
Vince also
mentions a column (from the Deseret News of Salt Lake City) about Mike’s
brother. That column is included, too. Datelinee for the column is Payson,
Utah. Payson is in the Provo–Orem, Utah, metro area.
And, Vince
mentions the third of four columns by The Oregonian about the Pac-13. Scroll to
the end of this edition of News for CougGroup for a link to that column. As
with the first two columns, the third column is by John Canzano.
==END OF
ALERT
Grip on
Sports:
Washington
State needs all the help it can get to ascend high enough in the College
Football Playoff rankings and make a top-tier bowl
Thur.,
Nov. 29, 2018, 8:58 a.m.
By Vince
Grippi, Spokane S-R
A GRIP ON
SPORTS • There are many subjects we can delve into this morning, so let’s get
right to it. After all, you’re busy. If you aren’t, lucky you. Read on.
••••••••••
• Let’s
start in Pullman, where head football coach Mike Leach and athletic director
Pat Chun hit the national airwaves yesterday campaigning for the Cougars to
move up at least one spot in the College Football Playoff rankings. That would
allow them to be chosen for one of the New Year’s Six bowls, the big-boys of
the bowl games.
John Blanchette
took up the cause today, examining why the Cougars fell out of the rarified air
and what they can do about it.
Funny
though, though Washington State’s inclusion is in the top dozen is crucial for
the Pac-12 as a whole, the conference’s commissioner has been silent on the
matter. I can’t find any public acknowledgement of the Cougars’ worthiness of
being selected for one of the top bowls. You would think Larry Scott would be
out front, touting the Pac-12’s accomplishments, the nine-game schedule, the
Cougars’ resume and attractiveness. After all, he’s supposed to be the biggest
cheerleader.
Maybe it’s
because he’s under a lot of fire these days. The Oregonian just ran the third
piece of a four-part series on his oversight and it’s once again a scathing
look at his tenure. So maybe he’s decided to keep a low profile right now,
letting things blow over. He did do an interview yesterday with a Utah radio
station but that was focused mainly on the Pac-12 title game, though the
Oregonian series and the conference's problems did come up. But he wasn't
banging the drum yesterday around the nation.
Just when
the conference, and the Cougars, needs him the most.
• Gardner
Minshew picked up more national recognition yesterday, being named as a
finalist for the Walter Camp Award. And he also returned to Twitter, which is a
good thing for those of us who like to laugh.
Minshew
tweeted out a picture of former Oregon quarterback – and Heisman winner –
Marcus Mariota. It seems Mariota has grown a mustache, a fact not lost on
Minshew. You never know who is watching, Minshew wrote. Well, it made me
chuckle.
•••
WSU:
Minshew’s inclusion as a Camp finalist is the one story Theo Lawson has today.
But, as we mentioned, John’s column has a Cougar subject. … This column on
Leach's brother, a Utah resident, taught me some things I didn't know. …
Elsewhere in the Pac-12, money is a problem with the conference, that's
obvious. … The title game tomorrow night feature two teams that play a physical
brand of football. That's been the way at Washington and Utah for a long time.
… California is trying to complete a remarkable turnaround with a Big Game win.
… Arizona had its remarkable turnaround come against ASU, and it was in the
wrong direction. … In basketball, Oregon isn't playing physical enough right
now. … Stanford picked up a win, a revenge win over Portland State. … Arizona
State continues to win. … USC was able to hold off Long Beach State. … Finally,
UCLA defeated Hawaii behind Prince Ali's career-high 23 points.
::::::::::
Dick
Harmon: With Mike Leach attaining legendary status, his family in Payson has
got his Pac-12 back
By Dick
Harmon, Deseret News, Salt Lake City
Published:
November 28, 2018 9:28 pm
PAYSON,
Utah — Pac-12 coach Mike Leach has become a national treasure as his Utah
family enjoys the show. His metaphors, anecdotes and deadpan reeling in of
reporters have become legend.
Without
much effort, the Washington State coach is the modern-day sports world’s Mark
Twain, a quote-machine, storyteller and satirist. His shtick wouldn’t be as
funny if his football teams weren’t explosive and downright successful.
The week
his Cougars were preparing to play Colorado, Leach gave a lengthy speech
extolling the marvels of Colorado’s mascot, a massive buffalo named Ralphie. He
called Ralphie a small buffalo but one that could easily drag his handlers
around the stadium. In the past, Leach has spoken at length to sportswriters
about alien life on other planets and the existence of Sasquatch.
Leach
holds a law degree from Pepperdine University. He never played college
football.
He also
has a fascination with pirates and his office is filled with pirate
memorabilia. He often tells his players to “swing their swords,” and teaches
his teams lessons from pirate life.
"Mike
has always had a dry sense of humor. He’s totally playing those reporters. I
grew up with Mike six years his younger, and he wasn’t very funny to me back
then. "
Mike
Leach's younger brother Tim
Lectured
Leach to his squad, “Pirates function as a team. There were a lot of castes and
classes in England at the time. But, with pirates, it didn't matter if you were
black, white, rich or poor. The object was to get a treasure. If the captain
did a bad job, you could just overthrow him.”
When he
was head coach at Texas Tech and the Red Raiders beat Texas A&M, he
deadpanned, “Sometimes pirates beat soldiers.”
After his
first win over New Mexico in Lubbock, he explained:
”It’s kind
of like doing surgery with a chainsaw instead of a scalpel. We had pieces and
parts flying everywhere. It turned out in our favor. We’ve just got to clean it
up the next time around.”
Six years
Mike’s younger, Tim Leach says his brother’s mind is always churning. “If you
watch him being interviewed, he’s got this look on his face. He’s also thinking
things through."
Tim and
Mike’s parents live in Utah County. A sister, Laura Pexton, who lived in Salt
Lake City, died this past year after a 17-year fight with cancer. “They were
very close,” said Tim of Mike and Laura.
I first
met Tim Leach in 1997 when he invited a group to his home in Payson to watch a
pay-per-view Mike Tyson fight.
“That
fight lasted about nine seconds,” remembers Tim. “It was a lesson to me to
never purchase a Mike Tyson fight again.”
I found
him funny, like his brother Mike, a genuine person who honors friendships, the
opposite of an introvert. Tim owned a Payson real estate company, South Rim
Realty, which he sold to his sister Lindsey. Tim now is a project manager for
Cornaby, a steel fabrication company in Spanish Fork.
“Mike has
always had a dry sense of humor,” said Tim. “He’s totally playing those
reporters. I grew up with Mike six years his younger, and he wasn’t very funny
to me back then.”
A great
example of Mike Leach playing reporters is his three-minute advice to a reporter
who was getting married. He warned of all the women involved playing keep away,
concluding that afterward “things would get progressively better with some
adjustments.”
“Our
family tends to have that dry sense of humor, kind of sarcasm. The thing with
Mike is you have to pay attention to his eyes. He’s always thinking about some
angle. At the end of the day, he might be talking about some John Wayne movie,
but he always relates it back to the topic, sports and a life lesson of some
kind.”
Mike’s
parents, Frank and Sandra, live in Payson. Mike’s son served a mission for The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ogden.
Many BYU
fans fantasize of having Leach return and coach BYU. That will remain a
fantasy.
Growing up
in Cody, Wyoming, Tim remembers how important summer jobs were to his parents.
Some kids worked as busboys and Tim mowed lawns.
“Mike took
on a little league team as a coach that didn’t pay anything, which was a
concern for my dad,” said Tim. He remembers how serious Mike got into it. Mike
broke down the art of stealing bases, got right down to the nitty-gritty, like
how many seconds it took each player to run the bases, how big of a lead he
could take while the pitcher made his motion.
“He just
loved figuring out details like that,” said Tim.
That
attention to detail, the exactness of execution and his attention to perfection
in practices is what has made Washington State one of the best passing teams in
the country. Just like when he was at Texas Tech.
A guy who
hung around BYU football practices and a rugby player for the Cougars, Mike was
fascinated by what he saw with LaVell Edwards’ teams. He later worked under Hal
Mumme at Iowa Wesleyan, Valdosta State and Kentucky before stints at Oklahoma
and Texas Tech.
The Utah
Leach family is loyal, and love watching Mike and Washington State football.
Tim plans an annual holiday vacation around attending WSU bowl games where his
family reconnects with Mike. His son Arthur is a student assistant for the WSU
football team, working with the secondary.
Here’s a
taste of some Mike Leachisms:
On his
first date in Provo with his future wife:
“I had
just finished a rugby game, went to A&W, had a coupon book. She said, ‘What
are you getting?’ She’s looking at the menu, ‘What looks good? What are you
getting?’ I handed her the 2-for-1 coupon book. I said, ‘I don’t know, but
here’s the menu.’ Seems to me we got some kind of bacon hamburger thing. She
got a root beer freeze. I do remember that.”
On dances
in high school:
“All
Scandinavians feel a tiny bit self-conscious, of which I’m one. I’m supposed to
be outgoing and interesting; no, I’ve always been insecure about dancing. I was
when I was in high school.
“They used
to have a segment of P.E. when I was in grade school. I used to get kicked out
when they’d have square dancing.
“I have
always felt insecure about dancing. My wife is a great dancer. But I don’t
dance. I walk in place if I’m forced out there. I don’t have any religious
reservation about it, and I respect people who can dance great. I don’t look
like Elaine from "Seinfeld," but all I’m going to do is tread water
in place and make it go away.
“It’s like in junior high. You want social
interaction. Long story short, if you’re a guy, you want to meet girls and vice
versa. What a horrible social event. So I’m going to burst into dance? No, I’m
not.
“I was
good at dodgeball. I bordered on great at dodgeball.”
Mike
Leach’s Utah roots have been transplanted from Cody to Payson. He knows this
country and has graduated from dodgeball to the big time once again.
Dodgeball
could be seen as the Leach metaphor for doing things different with the pass —
dances being the routine of what others are expected to just do.
::::::::::::::
Coug Volleyball
Earns Six Pac-12 All-Academic Selections; WSU’s McKenna Woodford earns First
Team honors for third straight year.
11/29/2018
from WSU Sports Info
SAN
FRANCISCO – As Washington State Volleyball heads into post-season play this
weekend, the Pac-12 Conference office announced the 2018 All-Academic teams
Thursday, with six total Cougars receiving honors for their work in the
classroom.
To be
eligible for selection to the academic team, a student-athlete must have a
minimum 3.0 overall GPA, have been at the institution for one-full year, and
appear in at least 50 percent of their team's games.
Leading
WSU was McKenna Woodford who earned a First Team selection, her third
consecutive first team pick, as the senior Biological Sciences major has
produced a 3.82 grade point average throughout her career at Washington State.
Woodford was also was named to the 2018 Google Cloud Academic All-District 8
team earlier this season.
Washington
State earned five overall Pac-12 All-Academic Honorable Mention selections as
well which included senior Olivia Coale (Human Development), junior Alexis
Dirige (Psychology), senior Ella Lajos (Advertising), senior Claire Martin(Mechanical
Engineering), and sophomore Penny Tusa (Human Development).
The
Cougars are set to take on the defending Big Sky champions in the opening round
of the NCAA Championship Tournament inside Bohler Gym, with first serve
scheduled for 7 p.m. PT.
:::::::
‘WSU
marching band shows what it means to be a Coug’
Editorial,
Moscow Pullman Daily News Nov 29, 2018
Washington
State University's slogan is "World Class. Face to Face."
And the
Cougar marching band proved it Friday night.
When the
University of Washington marching band bus crashed on Interstate 90 outside of
George, Wash., the night before the 111th Apple Cup, causing minor injuries to
47 of the 56 people on board, it was no secret Cougs would be there to pick up
UW's slack in their absence.
And they
did.
Leading up
to Friday's kickoff between No. 7 Washington State and No. 16 Washington, the
Cougar marching band was hard at work, putting together their own musical
gameplan. Band members showed up several hours before the game to rehearse UW's
anthem - "Bow Down to Washington."
With less
than a day's notice, the band in crimson and gray carried the purple tune in a
wet, white blanket of Pullman snow.
The Cougar
marching band put aside their Husky hatred and practiced the Husky harmony. The
band formed a giant "W" on WSU's football field to represent their
rivals from across the state.
We on this
editorial board - we won't say who - made bets the WSU band would let only the
crickets cheer for those nasty dawgs. They were wrong.
We should
have known WSU and its marching band were better than that.
By playing
the Husky anthem, members of WSU's marching band exhibited sportsmanship and
class to WSU's most-hated rival.
And if it
wasn't for Pullman's first snow of the year to save the Huskies, the air-raid
offense and the Cougs might have been better than UW in the football
department.
However,
even a loss to the Huskies can't shake Cougar pride and values.
Despite
Friday's rotten apples, WSU's marching band showed the entire state what it is
about to be a Coug - it is about much more than winning football games.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Turning
off phones — not pills — key to better sleep for teens
Source: Nov
29, 2018 WSU Insider
Suggested
insomnia solutions include disconnecting from electronics; talking about
nonstress topics; taking time to read, relax and unwind; making sure lights and
electronics are turned off.
By Addy
Hatch, WSU College of Nursing
A growing
number of teenagers in Anne Mason’s psychiatric-mental health nurse
practitioner practice are asking for prescriptions to get sleep medications.
“I’ve got
15‑ to 17‑year‑olds coming in to the
clinic reporting they can’t sleep at night,” said Mason, who’s also
director of the Washington State University College of Nursing’s Doctor of
Nursing Practice (DNP) degree program. “These young men and woman are
describing sleep interruptions not typically seen until late adulthood.”
Sleep
problems in teens have sometimes serious consequences. Daytime sleepiness
interrupts school life and can contribute to depression, anxiety and
irritability. “A lack of sleep also can have a snowballing effect,” Mason said.
“There are negative consequences on physical health, such as obesity, and
possible links to more serious mental health problems like suicidal thoughts.”
The issue
of sleeplessness in teens has risen to an epidemic, according to the Stanford
Children’s Health Sleep Center. In most cases, however, prescribing sleeping
pills to teens is not a good solution, Mason said.
Prescription
sleep medications can have serious side effects including addiction, daytime
sleepiness, depression, memory loss and nighttime behaviors such as
sleep-walking, sleep-eating and even sleep-driving.
Even over‑the‑counter remedies like
melatonin, “PM” analgesics like “Advil PM,”
or diphenhydramine (generic Benadryl), can be inappropriate for young people.
Studies evaluating efficacy and safety of these medications were never intended
to evaluate efficacy and safety in children.
So rather
than immediately prescribe medications, Mason suggests improving “sleep
hygiene.” That’s a catch‑all term for things like
sleeping in a cool, dark, quiet room, and avoiding caffeine in the afternoon
and evening.
But
evidence is piling up that electronics, and especially 24‑7 access to social media,
is a major culprit of sleeplessness in teens.
A Pew
Research Center report this spring found that 95 percent of teens have access
to a smartphone, and 45 percent described themselves as online “constantly.” In
a large 2017 study of over 700 teens, social media access — especially a
cellphone in a teen’s bedroom — was associated with a significant reduction in
sleep time and negative effects on daily functioning, including mood.
“A lot of
these teenagers have a TV, computer, phone and tablet in their room,” Mason
said. “They’re playing video games before sleep that are highly activating, and
they’re Snapchatting with their buddies until midnight.”
Mason, a
mother of a teenager, said she knows parents often struggle to set boundaries
on the use of electronics, especially when parents have the same media habits
as their children. So the key to a better night’s sleep for a teenager might
also include a new set of habits for the family.
“Every
person in the household benefits from setting limits on electronics and
creating a relaxing environment in the evening,” Mason said. “Families are
extraordinarily busy, between parents’ careers and kids’ academic or sports
schedules. Taking the later evening time to disconnect from electronics and
talking to one another about something not stress-inducing, or just being
present like working on a puzzle, can create the mindset for your teen’s and
your best night’s sleep.”
POSTSCRIPT:
Here's
link to what is apparently is third of fourth John Canzano (Oregonian) column
about the Pac-12. Thought it was a two-part series. That's apparently not the
case.
DirecTV,
leaving fans in the dark and limiting the conference's reach
https://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf/2018/11/larry_scott_plays_a_game_of_ch.html#incart_2box
