Men’s basketball : Cougs close out Southern
Illinois Univ-Edwardsville
WSU gets
things done at the line in nonconference victory
By Colton Clark, Lewiston Tribune 12/20/2018
PULLMAN —
Washington State men’s basketball seems to have generated many more questions
than it’s answered this year.
One of the
legion of underlying queries — can the Cougs systematically take care of
business vs. crews slated on one of the nation’s least difficult nonconference
schedules?
It hasn’t
been answered in the affirmative all too often, but on Wednesday night at
Beasley Coliseum, Wazzu at least demonstrated conviction, even if it came with
a splash of dubiety, in its 89-73 win over Southern Illinois
University-Edwardsville. The holiday break game drew about 500 spectators.
“I feel
like we can close out games better,” said guard Ahmed Ali, who had 12 points
and five assists. “We’re just giving these opponents a chance to come back. …
We shouldn’t do that; we should just kill them from the jump and not even let
them have that option.”
SIUE may
have made a game of it way late, but it never was truly in striking distance.
For the second straight bout, WSU buttoned it up at the line — the Cougs were
28-of-33 and a palpably indignant SIUE fouled 29 times.
“Coach
(Ernie) Kent harps on (free throws),” said forward Robert Franks, admitting
modestly, “we still left some points out there.”
But it
might not have mattered that much. After two key runs and about 12 minutes of
gametime, WSU had manufactured its first double-digit lead on the Cougars —
yes, SIUE is also the Cougars. But these Cougars are the 330th-ranked group in
the country, according to Kenpom.com.
This time,
against a low-major group, Wazzu only stammered somewhat — not enough to
threaten — never lost its 10-plus-point edge and ended up handling the shaky
but gaudy Ohio Valley Conference group via stable execution (51 percent from
the field).
Kent
wasn’t all together gratified by the showing, however, noting how his Cougs
could’ve been more rhythmic.
“I thought
we were OK defensively. There were a lot of breakdowns when we had different
combinations on the floor,” he said. “Usually, that’s a result of not
communicating and guys not comfortable talking because they haven’t been in the
game much.”
WSU (7-3)
used a surplus of formations and divvied up the minutes. Freshman Aljaz Kunc
played early and often, and several relatively obscure looks were trotted out.
No matter,
it only took about 65 percent of a full game for Wazzu’s star in Pac-12 scoring
leader Franks to chronicle his fifth double-double of the year. Fighting
through double — sometimes triple — teams, Franks worked the lanes, finishing
with 18 points.
Albeit,
Kent was perplexed with Franks’ first-half giveaways, but acknowledged that he
can settle frustrations.
“The first
half, he turned the ball over too much … that’s very uncharacteristic of him,”
Kent said of Franks’ five first-half turnovers. “Aside from that, you have to
leave him out on the floor because he’s the calming force.”
Being the
rangiest of all, Franks also nabbed 12 boards, and added five dishes.
Perhaps
the midwest Cougs (2-7) forgot that WSU would like to stray away from the tag
of “one-man show.”
“It’s hard
to take out one player when there’s so many guys that contribute,” said
freshman CJ Elleby, who had eight rebounds and 18 points, many coming on nifty,
inside moves. “I think when they keyed on him, it just opened things up for
everybody else.”
In fact,
it was Elleby who sparked both of Wazzu’s first-period streaks — a euro-step
layin, two blocks and a triple comprised the first, and to ignite the second
run (which pushed WSU out to a double-figure lead), Elleby nailed consecutive
mid-range jumpers.
The final
scratch was a 15-2 Wazzu spree midway through the second, in which Franks and
Ali compiled most of their dimes.
And the
transition run-and-gun off robberies certainly helped. Although both Cougs
turned it over 16 times, WSU scored 10 more points (28) than SIUE after
takeaways.
“Once we
started getting stops, getting out and running and sharing the ball, that’s
when it kinda swung in our favor,” Franks said. “I think that helped us — just
moving the ball and getting stops on the defensive end.”
SIUE
pulled within 10 with two minutes left — mostly stemming from David McFarland’s
24-point day. But McFarland and another Coug fouled out (SIUE had two
technicals).
Kent said
he advises his team to remain quiet and simply shoot free throws in those
situations, and WSU was evidently attentive. Yet, it’s not as if this was some
oddity.
“You
should see our practices,” Ali said. “We compete really hard in practice, so
we’re used to teams being this chippy.”
SIU-EDWARDSVILLE
(2-7)
B.Jackson
6-12 0-1 13, Uzuegbunem 1-4 0-0 2, Williford 2-5 1-2 6, McFarland 10-14 0-3 24,
Williams 3-7 1-2 9, D.Jackson 1-1 3-5 5, Awet 1-3 0-0 2, Kinchen 5-11 1-2 12,
McCoy 0-7 0-2 0, Ellis 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 29-65 6-17 73.
WASHINGTON
ST. (7-3)
Franks
6-13 5-6 18, Elleby 8-13 1-3 18, Cannon 0-3 6-6 6, Robinson 2-3 2-2 7, Skaggs
1-3 4-4 7, Cooper 2-2 0-0 4, Kunc 3-6 0-0 7, Pollard 2-4 3-4 7, Wade 1-1 1-1 3,
Ali 2-5 6-7 12. Totals 27-53 28-33 89.
Halftime_Washington
St. 46-32. 3-Point Goals: SIU-Edwardsville 9-28 (McFarland 4-8, Williams 2-4,
Williford 1-2, B.Jackson 1-2, Kinchen 1-6, Awet 0-1, Uzuegbunem 0-1, McCoy
0-4), Washington St. 7-24 (Ali 2-5, Robinson 1-2, Elleby 1-3, Skaggs 1-3, Kunc
1-3, Franks 1-5, Pollard 0-1, Cannon 0-2). Fouled Out_McFarland, Ellis. Rebounds:
SIU-Edwardsville 29 (McFarland 7), Washington St. 36 (Franks 12). Assists:
SIU-Edwardsville 13 (McCoy, Ellis 3), Washington St. 11 (Franks, Ali 5). Total
Fouls: SIU-Edwardsville 29, Washington St. 14. Technicals_Williford, Ellis. A:
1,776 (11,671).
:::::::::::
Robert
Franks’ big night guides Washington State to nonconference men’s basketball win
Wed., Dec.
19, 2018, 10:10 p.m. AP story at Spokane S-R website
PULLMAN –
Robert Franks scored 18 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for his fifth
double-double of the season as Washington State beat Southern Illinois
Edwardsville 89-73 in nonconference men’s basketball on Wednesday night.
CJ Elleby
added 18 points and eight rebounds for Washington State (7-3).
David
McFarland scored 24 points and grabbed seven rebounds before fouling out for
SIUE (2-7). Brandon Jackson added 13 points and five rebounds.
Elleby
helped spark a 10-0 run with a fast-break layup and an emphatic block on the
other end, setting up Pollard for a layup. Ahmed Ali added a 3-pointer on their
next possession.
WSU
created some distance after a 15-2 run over the course of 3 minutes, 47 seconds
to build a commanding 16-point lead with 5:19 remaining in the first half.
During the
run, Franks had back-to-back buckets underneath the rim and Davante Cooper
capped the run with another layup in the lane off an assist from Ali.
WSU shot
57 percent from the field in the first half, knocking down 16 of 28 shots.
Ali lifted
WSU in the second half, hitting a 3-pointer while being fouled. Tyresse
Williford picked up his fourth foul on the play for SIUE while being called for
a technical arguing with officials.
Ali made 1
of 2 technical foul shots and made another free throw to complete the
four-point play. Franks capped a 7-0 run after making two free throws on the
next possession to give WSU a 64-45 lead with 12:35 remaining.
The
frustration for SIUE continued after Christian Ellis picked up his fifth foul
before being ejected.
Big
picture
SIUE: SIUE
is on its longest road trip of the season, traveling nearly 4,500 miles across
the country.
Washington
State: WSU remains undefeated on its home court, but its next home game is
against California on Jan. 17.
Up next
SIUE plays
CSUN on Saturday.
Washington
State plays San Diego on Saturday.
:::::
Football: Atypical
Leach QB headlines Cougars’ crop
By DALE
GRUMMERT Lewiston Trib 12/20/2018
When asked
if his newest quarterback reminded him of anyone from his past, Washington
State football coach Mike Leach backpedaled all the way to the mid-1990s when
he was offensive coordinator at Valdosta State.
He also made
a quick allusion to the Oklahoma Sooners of 2002 — an unpleasant memory for his
current employer.
Suffice to
say Gunner Cruz, with this long limbs and effortless deep-passing strength,
isn’t a typical Mike Leach quarterback. He headlines an early-signing class
announced Wednesday that includes no fewer than 16 high-school signees and
three junior-college transfers, all of them boasting at least three stars from
recruiting services.
In other
words, the Cougars appear to be adjusting quickly to the early signing concept,
introduced by the NCAA last year as a supplement to the traditional signing
window in February.
“As good
as the class was last year, which I thought was a good one, I think this one’s
an even better one,” Leach said.
The Wazzu
boss, who’ll cap his seventh year at the school with an appearance in the Alamo
Bowl on Dec. 28, generally stresses accuracy and crisp footwork over prodigious
arm strength when he recruits quarterbacks. He’s stepping outside that mold
with the gangly but rocket-armed Cruz, who’s listed at 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds,
is still growing according to Leach, and might eventually prove a boon to the
Cougars’ vertical passing game. He threw for 3,598 yards and 30 touchdowns last
season for Casteel High in Gilbert, Ariz.
Asked for
comparisons from his coaching career, Leach first mentioned Nate Hybl, whom he
recruited as Oklahoma offensive coordinator before the coach jumped to the
Texas Tech helm in 2000. Hybl went on to lead the Sooners to a 34-14 win over
Washington State in the 2003 Rose Bowl.
The only
other QB he mentioned in reference to Cruz was Lance Funderburk, who’s among
the best to play that position for Valdosta State at the NCAA Division II
level.
For Cruz,
who’s expected to redshirt in 2019, the acid test will probably be his
leadership abilities, Leach suggested.
“He can do
all the stuff,” he said. “I mean, he’s bigger than most that I’ve recruited.
He’s got a stronger arm than most, yet still has good feet. He’s an extremely
talented guy and we’re excited to watch him as he comes out to lead the unit.”
Cruz is
one of seven members of the class who will enroll in January, the highest
number of Leach’s career, he said. All three JC players are in that category.
The coach
placed a premium on finding defensive backs and linemen on both sides of the
ball, and the DB’s he snagged are unusually tall for Wazzu. They include 6-1
Armauni Archie, who appears to be one of the top acquisitions; 6-2
junior-college transfer Bryce Beekman; a 6-footer who grayshirted last season,
Gatlin Grisso; and 6-2 Derrick Langford.
Among the
three offensive linemen in the bunch is a highly regarded recruit from nearby,
6-7, 280-pound Patrick Utschinski of Walla Walla. Yet the crop reflects Leach’s
increasingly broad recruiting parameters, representing nine states and
including just two players from Washington.
Already
loaded with receivers, the Cougars took only two this time: the rangy Donovan
Ollie of Texas and slotback Billy Pospisil of Colorado, a former teammate of
WSU running back Max Borghi.
The class
also includes two running backs, headed by a 6-1, 215-pounder from Ohio, Jamir
Thomas, whose mentors include former WSU strength coach Rob Oviatt.
Speaking
of unusual, the crop features a long-snapper, Simon Samarzich, a pupil of
Lewiston-based long-snapping guru Chris Rubio. Leach, who rarely offers
scholarships to freshman kicking-game specialists, calls Samarzich the best
prospect at his position in the country.
==HIGH
SCHOOL SIGNEES
ARMAUNI
ARCHIE, cornerback, 6-1, 175, El Cerrito High, Vallejo, Calif. … consensus
three stars ... all-county first team.
JOUVENSLY
BAZILE, running back, 5-10, 180, Golden Gate High, Naples, Fla. … rushed for
1,358 yards and 14 touchdowns as senior ... consensus three stars.
TRAVION
BROWN, outside linebacker, 6-3, 215, Linfield Christian High, Temecula, Calif.
… four stars by 247sports, which ranked him 20th among OLB’s nationally.
GUNNER
CRUZ, quarterback, 6-4, 215, Casteel High, Gilbert, Ariz. … passed for 3,598
yards, 30 touchdowns and five interceptions as senior ... consensus three stars
... ranked No. 14 among pocket passers in country by 247 ... will enroll in
January.
MA’AKE
FIFITA, offensive lineman, 6-5, 240, Glacier Peak High, Snohomish, Wash. …
three stars by 247 ... two-way all-league.
TYLER
GARAY-HARRIS, defensive lineman, 6-5, 230, Bishop O’Dowd, Oakland, Calif. … 77
solo tackles and 11 sacks as senior ... consensus three stars.
KONNER
GOMNESS, offensive lineman, 6-4, 270, San Joaquin Memorial High, Fresno, Calif.
… consensus three stars ... league Lineman of the Year.
GATLIN GRISSO
, defensive back, 6-0, 185, Aubrey (Texas) High … three stars by ESPN and 247
... grayshirted last season and will enroll in January.
ROCKY
KATOANGA, linebacker, 6-2, 205, El Camino High, Oceanside, Calif. ... three
stars by 247 ... grayshirted last season and will enroll in January.
COSMAS
KWETE, defensive lineman, 6-3, 220, Central High, Phoenix … 54 tackles and
eight sacks as senior ... consensus three stars ... born in Republic of Congo
and grew up in Zimbabwe.
PENI
NAULU, linebacker, 6-1, 210, Kapolei High, Waipahu, Hawaii … consensus three
stars ... rated No. 11 overall prospect in Hawaii by 247.
DONOVAN
OLLIE, wide receiver, 6-3, 205, Wylie (Texas) High … caught 65 passes for 904
yards and 11 touchdowns as senior ... consensus three stars.
BILLY
POSPISIL, wide receiver, 5-11, 190, Pomona High, Arvada, Colo. ... caught 39
passes for 551 yards and eight touchdowns as senior ... consensus three stars
... rated No. 6 overall prospect in Colorado by Rivals ... will enroll in
January.
SIMON
SAMARZICH, long snapper, 6-0, 200, Upland (Calif.) High … named No. 1
long-snapping prospect nationally by Chris Rubio ... three stars by 247.
JAMIR
THOMAS – running back, 6-1, 215, Washington High, Massillon, Ohio … rushed for
1,918 yards and 24 touchdowns as senior ... four stars as a linebacker by ESPN.
PATRICK
UTSCHINSKI, offensive lineman, 6-7, 280, Walla Walla (Wash.) High … four stars
by 247 and three stars by ESPN ... rated No. 8 overall in Washington by 247.
==JUNIOR-COLLEGE
TRANSFERS
BRYCE
BEEKMAN, safety, 6-2, 190, Arizona Western, Scotlandville High, Baton Rouge,
La. … consensus three stars ... rated No. 4 among JC safeties nationally by
ESPN ... will enroll in January.
DANIEL
ISOM, cornerback, 5-10, 180, Iowa Western CC, St. Louis (Mo.) High … three
stars by ESPN and 247 .. ranked 8th among JC corners in country by ESPN ...
will enroll in January.
DERRICK
LANGFORD, cornerback, 6-3, 190, City College of San Francisco, El Cerrito
(Calif.) High … three stars by ESPN and 247 ... ranked No. 14 JC cornerback by
247 .. will enroll as true sophomore in January.
::::::::::
WSU
FOOTBALL
Washington
State keeps CB Armauni Archie, but loses DT Dejon Benton on first day of early
signing period
UPDATED:
Wed., Dec. 19, 2018, 9:42 p.m.
By Theo Lawson S-R of Spokane
PULLMAN –
Twice on Wednesday, Washington State’s coaching staff found itself playing
defense against rival programs from the Pac-12 Conference.
Signing
day is rarely a breeze for college football programs, although the first couple
of hours of the early period had been relatively uneventful for the Cougars.
Then, at
7:25 a.m., cornerback commit Armauni Archie announced on Twitter he’d been
offered by Justin Wilcox and the Cal Golden Bears – the closest Pac-12 program
to his home in El Cerrito, California.
For a few
hours, the news caused some unrest among WSU fans, and presumably much more for
the coaches mulling around the fourth floor of the Cougar Football Complex.
As it
turned out, the Cougars didn’t need to worry on the Archie front. The
three-star corner ultimately signed his National Letter of Intent with WSU and
Cal’s efforts were all for naught.
But the
Cougars weren’t so lucky with Dejon Benton.
The
three-star defensive lineman, who also hails from the Bay Area, pledged to WSU
in early November. But Benton snagged a late offer from USC and the Trojans
flipped the Pittsburg High product Wednesday afternoon, similar to the way they
pilfered wide receiver Deontay Burnett from the Cougars a few years back.
Otherwise,
it was another workmanlike signing day for WSU.
The
Cougars received 19 national letters of intent, which still leaves a handful of
spots vacant. Some of those might be filled before the early signing period
closes Friday, and the others will be accounted for on Feb. 6, the next important
date on the recruiting calendar.
“I did
feel like as good as the class was last year, which I thought was a good one, I
think this one’s an even better one,” WSU coach Mike Leach said.
The
Cougars didn’t sign every player who was orally committed to them when the day
began – Benton decided on USC, while offensive lineman Hunter Hill and safety
Don Chapman didn’t offer any hints as to if, or when, they’d be signing – and
they had just the ninth-ranked class in the Pac-12 (247Sports) by the time it ended.
But those
credentials aren’t important to Leach, anyway. WSU has won 36 games over the
past four seasons, mostly with former three-star prospects on the field.
“Well,
stars are artificial on its face,” the coach said Wednesday afternoon. “You’ve
got recruiting services and media bases and stuff that assign these stars and I
don’t recall ever calling, in my entire career – which probably is 30 years
now, maybe even more. I don’t recall ever calling any of those individuals and
asking them what I should run on third down, so I certainly don’t ask them who
can play.
“I mean
some of that’s a little bit like saying if I lived next door to a doctor, then
I ought to be able to do surgery.”
So far,
the 2019 class is made up exclusively of three-star recruits. The 19 players
who inked with WSU come from 10 states. More than 25 percent are defensive
backs – a position of high priority for a team that will see two of its
starting corners graduate. The Cougars also have two more places to fill in the
secondary since freshmen D’Angelo McKenzie and Myles Green-Richards left the
program.
Safety
Bryce Beekman and corners Daniel Isom and Derrick Langford could provide some
immediate help. All three are coming to the Palouse from junior colleges and
Isom has prior FBS playing experience at Northern Illinois.
They’re
also a good example of the emphasis WSU has placed on recruiting height and
length to its secondary. Isom is 5-10, but Beekman and Langford both stand at
6-2 and Archie is 6-1.
“We have
two corners leaving and we’re lucky enough to get some tall guys that ran well
enough,” Leach said. “And then also we’ve had some success with junior college
DBs, with Shalom (Luani) and Robert Taylor and Treshon (Broughton).”
Isom,
Beekman and Langford are also three of seven players who plan to enroll in
school in January, allowing them to participate in spring camp. The others are
linebacker Rocky Katoanga, safety Gatlin Grisso, quarterback Gunner Cruz and
receiver Billy Pospisil.
Katoanga
and Grisso are longtime WSU commits who grayshirted last year because of
injuries. Cruz and Pospisil are high school signees who’ve elected to graduate
early. That’s almost always advantageous for players, Leach insists.
“I do
think they get bigger or stronger. They all end up having to work harder than
they thought they were able to,” Leach said. “Because you’ve got guys here
who’ve run, lifted and conditioned for up to five years that are in awfully
good shape. But of course, they didn’t start the way they are now.”
Another
position of priority for the Cougars was the offensive line. They brought in
three players to fill that need: Konner Gomness of San Joaquin Memorial
(Fresno, California), Patrick Utschinski of Walla Walla High and Ma’ake Fifita
of Glacier Peak (Snohomish, Washington).
The
Cougars also picked up a few running backs with interesting backstories.
Jouvensly
Bazile, a speedster from Naples, Florida, originally hails from Haiti and will
make a cross-country move to play in WSU’s backfield. Bazile has also been
guaranteed a chance to walk on to the Cougars’ track and field team.
Jamir
Thomas, meanwhile, inked with WSU despite having never stepped foot in the city
of Pullman.
The
Washington High (Massillon, Ohio) product was a highly coveted linebacker in
Big Ten county, but he elected to join the Cougars because they were offering
an opportunity to play running back. Thomas’ strength coach at Washington is
Rob Oviatt, who previously worked with Leach at WSU and before that, at
Kentucky. Because of an injury, Thomas never made his official visit to WSU but
intends to next month, according to Leach.
::::::::::::
Washington
State's Mike Leach Believes in Ghosts, Trump and His Air Raid Offense
By Matt
Hayes, Bleacher Report 12/20/2018
PULLMAN,
Wash. — You're damn right Mike Leach believes in ghosts. But more on that
later.
We've only
just begun walking and talking on his daily three-mile path to the office, and
knowing Leach, it could go in any of a billion different directions.
"Once
we hit this hill," Leach says on a perfectly crisp day in The Palouse,
"you can see everything."
And he can
say almost anything.
Donald
Trump and Howard Stern. Goths and ghosts. Led Zeppelin and Van Gogh.
People and
places and history come to life walking through the outskirts of town and into
the heart of the Washington State campus, each connecting to Leach's
transformation of a struggling Pac-12 outpost into one of the sport's elite. The
man leading the way this November morning has taken this middle-of-nowhere
place in the college football landscape and made it somewhere.
Take a
walk with Leach and delve into the brightest X's and O's thinker of our
generation. A wonderfully easy and eclectic amalgam of brilliant football
tactician, everyday dude, night owl, seeker, student and believer—and a
defining dose of I don't give a rat's ass what you think.
He offers
a kaleidoscope of thoughts from attention deficit disorder to pure genius, from
attacking a quarters defense to sneaking up on the paranormal. It's all here.
Those who
love him, those who hate him, those who still owe him money.
Make no
mistake, Leach isn't for everyone. From his brash talk to his stinging bravado,
he's not afraid to speak his mind—even if his being controversial costs his
university $1.6 million in donations.
"You
made the walk with him?" Leach's longtime friend Hal Mumme says. He stops
and laughs.
"What
was that like?" he says, rhetorically, still laughing.
Like
nothing you could imagine.
Up off
Skyline Drive, at a pretty good incline, is Farr Cemetery. Legend has it that
years ago, after a bout of vandalism, local leaders decided to take the
headstones of some of the founders of Pullman and store them in the basement of
city hall.
Years
later, other politicians decided to bring them back—only to realize they didn't
know where each should be placed. So they tucked them in an enclosure area
inside the cemetery. It's the reason locals swear the cemetery is haunted.
"It's
like something out of Dark Shadows," Leach says. "I saw some goths
lurking around [outside the cemetery] one day. I don't know if they were
playing Halloween or if they were actually witches. I said, ‘Hey, there's a
cool cemetery over there.' They kind of glared at me. Didn't seem like fun
people."
This, of
course, begs the question: Does Leach believe in ghosts?
The answer
is a fascinating soliloquy that begins with the woman at the coffee shop on the
strip who once claimed the theater next door was haunted, and how he has heard
that nearly everyone in England believes in ghosts and the majority in America
don't, and ends with how one day Leach will own his own theater where there
will be nothing but John Wayne and Hitchcock rolling off the projectors.
"So I
ask if I can go in the theater and look," Leach says. "She says,
‘Sure, but I'm not going in there with you. You go by yourself.'"
He is
asked if he saw a ghost.
"If I
did, no one would believe me," he says. "I don't think they
necessarily do nearly as much haunting as people think. If you believe in the
Bible, pretty much part of the deal that goes with it is ghosts."
And he's
just getting started.
"You get these Satanists types that don't
believe in God. OK, so you realize you don't get Satan if you don't get God,
right?" he continues. "Or atheists that want to believe in ghosts.
Wait, wait, wait. You can't have a two-way go on that. You want to be agnostic,
be an atheist, fine. But you don't bring ghosts along with you."
Leach
walked into this ghost town of a program in 2012 and couldn't believe what he
saw. In this age of multimillion-dollar television contracts and programs
building lavish stadiums and football facilities, Washington State had, by far,
the worst setup among Power Five schools.
Martin
Stadium in Pullman was smaller and less extravagant than some high school
stadiums in Texas—where three years earlier Leach completed the greatest run in
Texas Tech history by getting fired for what Tech officials determined was
mistreatment of a player (he's still trying to get $2.4 million he says the
university owes him from wrongful termination).
The
Washington State program had a history of losing sandwiched around a couple of
one-off Rose Bowl runs in the previous two decades that made everyone think it
can and should be done all the time. The team had recently failed to meet
Academic Progress Report (APR) standards set by the NCAA and lost multiple
scholarships because of it.
The
previous two coaches relied so heavily on recruiting junior colleges and taking
risks on players with character issues, Leach's first roster was a cast of
malcontents and misfits. If that weren't enough, there were the working
conditions.
The
football team shared space with the university: The classrooms used for
Psychology 101 were the same classrooms used for position and team meetings.
And get
this: Leach's office was in the middle of a hallway.
"There
would be professors waiting outside the classroom door with their students,
staring at their watches, wondering why the football team was still in the
room," said Dave Emerick, Leach's right-hand man—chief of staff for
football—at both Texas Tech and Washington State. "Anything you wrote on
that grease board was wiped off the moment you left."
Why would
anyone coach here? Because then-WSU athletic director Bill Moos, the driving
force in reshaping Oregon's football program, promised Leach he would do the
same at Washington State.
Leach
never visited Pullman during the hiring process. Moos traveled to Key West,
where Leach has a second home, to sell the product. Leach hopped on his bike in
a T-shirt and shorts and met Moos for dinner and then took the job, sight
unseen.
Nine
months after he arrived, an $80 million renovation of Martin Stadium was
complete, and four months after that, Moos got approval for a $61 million
football-only facility.
"I
knew if we had the right coach, everything would work," said Moos, now the
athletic director at Nebraska. "Mike showed up, and everything
changed."
Leach
likes to use the three-mile walk to feed his voracious appetite for knowledge.
He's a big reader, from history to biographies and an occasional nice, fat
conspiracy theory (one day, he says, we'll know who really shot JFK).
But he's
not pulling out a book on a walk, so he's 21st-centurying it: He's listening to
a podcast.
"I
listen a lot to Howard Stern," Leach says. "Not the show, the
interviews. He has a separate podcast of just interviews. They're fantastic.
I'm on Robert Plant now, and it's pretty interesting how Led Zeppelin came
together and how they stayed together. They didn't necessarily like each other.
When they weren't touring, they didn't want to be around each other. It
couldn't be all band, all the time."
This is
when the subject turns to coaches, and those who are consumed with the job and
burn out, and those who take themselves way too seriously. There's more to life
than football, Leach says.
He sure as
hell isn't sleeping on the couch in his office or up at three in the morning
trying to find the perfect player. He's up at three, all right—but reading and
researching and experiencing life.
He's not
in the office at 5 a.m. or grinding through an 18-hour day. He gets in when he
gets in (depending on how far off the beaten path he roams on the walk), and
the work gets done and games get won.
It is here
where we see the connection to where it all began, a story that has rarely been
told, but one that—more than anything—describes how the man who never played
college football, has a law degree from Pepperdine and was raised a Mormon
helped devise an offense that was ridiculed as a "gimmick" at first,
was later copied all over college football and now has made it all the way to
the stoic and stodgy NFL.
Leach was
working as a defensive ends coach at College of the Desert in 1988 making
$6,000 (if he agreed to watch the rec center during weekday evenings), and
Mumme had an opening on his staff at Iowa Wesleyan. Leach was the only coach
who applied.
How about
that for dumb luck?
They had
so much success in their first two years together, in 1989 and '90, that other
private schools in the Midwest eventually refused to play them, forcing
Wesleyan to play a more difficult schedule as an independent.
So despite
having their best team returning for the 1991 season, one cold and dreary March
morning, Mumme told Leach to find a recruit in Florida so they could get out of
town and clear their heads. Leach found a kicker in Key West, so they drove
four hours to Chicago, hopped on a plane to Orlando and drove to the Keys.
This,
everyone, is the birth of the Air Raid offense.
"You
have to remember, we're still huddling on offense, nothing fast or tempo,"
Mumme said. "We land in Orlando, and Mike says the guy that taught him
offensive line techniques was working for a spring league team there and we
should go see him. So we go over to their practice, and the head coach is Don
Matthews, a legend in the CFL [Canadian Football League]. I ask him to show me
his best drill. They have this two-minute drill called Bandit, and it was unbelievable."
Mumme
stops here because he can't sell this enough: But for that random trip to
Orlando and the Orlando Thunder practice—and, really, the need to just get out
of the cold and recalibrate—they never would have invented the Air Raid
offense.
"They've
got this tempo thing down to a science," Mumme continues. "Offense on
one sideline, defense on the other. They're spotting the ball as fast as they
can. I'm looking at Mike, and I say, ‘This is the edge we need right here. Not
just for the last two minutes of the game, all the time.'"
They
returned to Wesleyan, and the 1991 season opener was against Truman State. Two
quarters in, they were down 24-7, and as they walked to the locker room, Mumme
felt the arm of his quarterback around his back.
"We
played two quarters and Truman was dog tired. You could see it," said
Dustin Dewald, Mumme's record-setting quarterback at Iowa Wesleyan. "I
told Hal, ‘Don't worry, we're winning this game. They're worn out.' The offense
was a game-changer. I knew it after two quarters."
Two hours
later, they were celebrating a 34-31 win with an offense equal parts Run and
Shoot from the old USFL days, the Bandit two-minute drill from the Orlando
Thunder and a whole lot of tweaking from Mumme and Leach.
"Don't
kid yourself," Mumme says. "Mike is the reason the offense is what it
is."
"This
is where the journey gets tough," Leach says, and the huffing and hiking
begin as the trek reaches campus and winds 800 yards over a quickly increasing
double-digit percentage incline.
He tracked
a raccoon for a couple of miles on one of his walks, he says between deep
inhales, just to see where it lived (in the corner of a backyard behind a
suburban home). He has seen a herd of deer in the snow, and owls and foxes and
coyotes. He once walked up on a mountain lion, and if that doesn't flash
mortality in front of your face, nothing will.
He makes
it to the office on this day, and he and the quarterbacks meet for 30 minutes
before he goes over the practice plan with Emerick. His cellphone rings, and he
begins a pleasant, five-minute conversation—with a person he has never met in
his life.
Wrong
number, right connection.
A year
ago, during what was then his best season at WSU, he got a call from a number
his executive assistant didn't recognize. The caller said Donald Trump was on
the line.
Leach and
Trump met years earlier after Leach read one of Trump's books on a flight to
New York City and was so impressed with his management style, he went to Trump
Tower in midtown Manhattan and asked to see him.
Trump
wasn't in, so Leach left a message and Trump called back and they talked and
built a friendship, and the next thing you know, Trump was announcing Leach's
starting lineup during an ABC telecast of a Texas Tech game, and Leach was
introducing Trump to a political rally in Spokane.
So when
the phone rang in the middle of a staff meeting last year, after Washington
State beat USC for what was then Leach's biggest win in Pullman, it should come
as no surprise that the guy on the other end was the president of the United
States.
"I
walked out and took the call and he congratulated me and we talked for 10
minutes," Leach said. "I mean, this is the president of the United
States calling. So I figure I'll take a shot and asked him if he would say
something to my staff. I walk back in the room and hold the phone up and say,
'Someone wants to say something to you.' He proceeds to tell them it was a
terrific win, you're doing a great job and to go get ‘em!"
This, of
course, leads to another obvious question: What's he like?
"He's
a really warm guy, but I think sometimes that gets muted," Leach said.
"You've got to be quick on your feet when you talk to him. When I first
talked to him, I wanted to ask him a bunch of questions, but he's firing
questions faster than you can answer them. And you better get him interested
early or another question is coming. He wants to know about you. What do you
think of this or that? About anything, not football. He wants to know because
he's curious.
"Regardless
of what side of the [political] aisle anyone is on, it appeared to me that
people wanted something different. That's why he and Bernie [Sanders] were so
popular. People wanted to change gears and get away from what was
established."
Similarly,
Leach found himself bucking the college football establishment this season,
complaining that his Cougars, who won 10 games, somehow weren't selected as one
of the Top 12 teams in the final 2018 College Football Playoff poll.
That
distinction would've come with the opportunity to play in a New Year's Six bowl
on the sport's marquee stage. Instead, Washington State will play Iowa State in
the Alamo Bowl on a random night at a random time in a game that really doesn't
mean anything to anyone other than the teams competing.
This,
Leach says, is the problem with the CFP. And it sets him off like nothing else.
"There's
a certain amount of control tied up in the conferences, and they don't know how
to split the control of a bigger playoff," Leach said. "It's
indisputable that you'll make way more money with a larger playoff. They used
to try to argue that, then gave up on it and tried to throw out academics.
Every other level of college football has a larger playoff and they're graduating
players. So when that doesn't work, then they move to every game means
something and a larger playoff diminishes the regular season."
Now he's
getting worked up, because it's early November and the narrative since October
is the Pac-12 is out of the CFP. No shot at one of those four precious spots.
"Diminishes
the regular season?" Leach continues, elaborating with an anecdote about
how more casual fans like his wife will still find themselves yelling at the TV
over less prominent games without even knowing much about the teams playing.
"So
then they say, ‘How would it work?'—like it's some crazy geometrical equation.
Well, you go down to your local rec center and you ask the guy who has run the
annual softball tournament for years if he has an idea about how to fit 10 or
12 or 16 teams in a tournament. It's not like you're sitting there teaching a
first-grader Egyptian. It's the craziest thing. What do you mean you don't
understand how it would work? You understand perfectly. You just don't want to
do it."
This
season began long before the first snap in September, before spring practice
and before anyone could've dreamed Washington State would've mailed fake
mustaches to Heisman Trophy voters to promote star quarterback Gardner Minshew
II.
It began
on January 16 with the death of Leach's favorite player, projected starting
quarterback Tyler Hilinski. Leach was crushed by Hilinski's suicide, an
unthinkable moment that, to this day, he doesn't understand.
If anyone
on the roster were like Leach, it was Hilinski. Irreverent, dry wit, a blast to
be around. Everyone was drawn to his personality.
"They
were really the same person," Emerick said.
The
three-mile journey on this day is complete, and the doors open to his meeting
room in which quarterbacks begin watching game tape in preparation for the
Arizona game. Minshew, a graduate transfer from East Carolina, nearly signed
with Alabama because he wanted to learn how to coach from the best in the
business, Nick Saban.
Then Leach
called and asked him if he wanted to sit on the bench in his final year of
college football or lead the nation in passing.
"Once
he put it that way, it was an easy decision," Minshew says.
They're
sitting at a large oak table and staring at video cutups Minshew selected from
last season. Leach is telling Minshew which plays he likes and which he
believes will work against the Arizona defense, and Minshew and the other quarterback
are answering Leach's situational questions.
Then one
cutup from last season plays. It's Hilinski throwing crossing routes—a staple
in the Air Raid—against Arizona. He completed 45 passes and threw for 509 yards
in last year's loss to Arizona, replacing ineffective starter Luke Falk.
A silence
fell over the room for nearly a minute while Leach rolled a specific play back
and forth. Back and forth.
Later that
night and at the end of a long day, Leach sat in his office surrounded by the
random collection of who and what he is beyond the field—a mechanical, talking
pirate, framed letters from Trump, a parody Van Gogh painting of Leach in a
straw hat from a man in Texas—while more of who he is and what Hilinski meant
to him began to unfold.
"He
was a guy," Leach says, pausing and collecting himself, "he wasn't
mopey, didn't appear depressed. He was a guy who picked up everybody else. He
didn't have a particular group because everybody was his group."
He looks
out into the dark Pullman night. Snow is on the way, and he's more than 2,000
miles from his flip-flops in Key West.
"You
wonder," Leach says, "if he didn't leave enough time for
himself."
Minshew
never dreamed of playing in the NFL, but after leading the nation in passing
yards per game—just like Leach said he would—the idea of coaching has been put
on hold.
He arrived
in Pullman in the early summer and just wanted to fit in. He wasn't replacing
Hilinski. He just wanted to help a talented team win games.
So he
worked harder than anyone in the weight room. He was the first on the field for
practice and the last off it. He pushed himself to win every sprint.
The team
eventually rallied around him, and by the second week in November, it was clear
Minshew had not only helped the Cougars reach their potential, but he was also
part of the healing process.
As
Washington State won its sixth straight with a rout at Colorado, Minshew found
Leach during a postgame television interview and placed a Minshew mustache on
Leach's upper lip. It sat there, through the entire interview, crooked and
quirky as can be.
With a win
in the Alamo Bowl, this team will set the school record for wins in a season
(11).
"It's
so humbling," Minshew said. "To come into this unique situation and
be taken in by this team and Coach Leach, it's just unreal. I've been asked so
many times what's it like to play here. There's no way to really explain
it."
Like
nothing you could imagine.
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