Larry Scott? Sure. George K? OK. You won't hear me coming to their defense. For me though, as I look back on things, I point my finger at the University, our alumni, and our fan base.
The failure to capitalize on the Mike Price breakthrough era is the single greatest factor in our demise. Compare and contrast how Utah handled their rise to glory with ours and you'll better understand what I'm talking about. 24 hours after we defeated UW in 1997, it should have been made loud and clear that WSU was going to heavily invest in Price, our assistant coaches, and the football program as a whole. It didn't happen. Then, in 2001/2002, we had the opportunity to correct the mistake and double down on my first statement. Instead, we crashed and burned. We had the tiger by the tail. The dream scenario. A charismatic head coach who won at a level never seen before, and arguably the best defensive coordinator in the conference. More importantly, it was a head coach/defensive coordinator combo who worked perfectly together without power struggles. Doba would have worked under Price through retirement. Yes, Price was getting tempted to leave, but money would have solved the problem. I've heard him suggest as much directly.
The next arrow in my quiver is pointed at our cheap, double talking alumni. The fans who love to chug beer, scream GO COUGS, wave flags, and profess "once a coug, always a coug." These are the same fans who never donate to the program or attend games. This is an almuni base that has ranked dead last in athletic giving for decades. But they love their license plate frames and giving advice on how the program should be run. We sold 23K tickets for our homecoming game vs. Cal last year. Take away our games vs. Oregon and UW, and we averaged 22K in Martin Stadium last season. In 2019, the season after our wonderful 2018 year, we averaged just over 28K fans for the first two home games of the season. The 5-year average from 2015-2019, the heart of the Mike Leach era, we ranked dead last in attendance. UW & SC averaged over 66K fans. UCLA and Oregon over 55K. ASU, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Cal, and Stanford averaged just under 50K collectively. WSU? Dead last at 30,300. The donor numbers even worse.
I feel bad for our diehard fans and our season ticket holders, but the vast majority of our social media fans, the one's who keep asking how this could happen. They can piss off. Our University, Athletic department, and alumni are all Mountain West. Always have been.
The failure to capitalize on the Mike Price breakthrough era is the single greatest factor in our demise. Compare and contrast how Utah handled their rise to glory with ours and you'll better understand what I'm talking about. 24 hours after we defeated UW in 1997, it should have been made loud and clear that WSU was going to heavily invest in Price, our assistant coaches, and the football program as a whole. It didn't happen. Then, in 2001/2002, we had the opportunity to correct the mistake and double down on my first statement. Instead, we crashed and burned. We had the tiger by the tail. The dream scenario. A charismatic head coach who won at a level never seen before, and arguably the best defensive coordinator in the conference. More importantly, it was a head coach/defensive coordinator combo who worked perfectly together without power struggles. Doba would have worked under Price through retirement. Yes, Price was getting tempted to leave, but money would have solved the problem. I've heard him suggest as much directly.
The next arrow in my quiver is pointed at our cheap, double talking alumni. The fans who love to chug beer, scream GO COUGS, wave flags, and profess "once a coug, always a coug." These are the same fans who never donate to the program or attend games. This is an almuni base that has ranked dead last in athletic giving for decades. But they love their license plate frames and giving advice on how the program should be run. We sold 23K tickets for our homecoming game vs. Cal last year. Take away our games vs. Oregon and UW, and we averaged 22K in Martin Stadium last season. In 2019, the season after our wonderful 2018 year, we averaged just over 28K fans for the first two home games of the season. The 5-year average from 2015-2019, the heart of the Mike Leach era, we ranked dead last in attendance. UW & SC averaged over 66K fans. UCLA and Oregon over 55K. ASU, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Cal, and Stanford averaged just under 50K collectively. WSU? Dead last at 30,300. The donor numbers even worse.
I feel bad for our diehard fans and our season ticket holders, but the vast majority of our social media fans, the one's who keep asking how this could happen. They can piss off. Our University, Athletic department, and alumni are all Mountain West. Always have been.