I agree. When the P12 financial distribution was announced, it wasn't Moos only that was telling the story. Everyone knew, Moos was instrumental in making sure the "windfall" would be distributed evenly between the 12 schools. If not, I think it could be just as likely that the money wouldn't be distributed equally. Remember we've been the doormat for the Pac in so many ways, for so many years (decades). How many years was USC the bully? Wouldn't go down to Pullman? Stuff like that?I don't think he was a messiah. I think he walked into a room full of conference ADs with respect and influence ahead of him. Something that no recent WSU AD has had. No longer were other schools gonna take what WSU leadership had to say with a grain of salt or even ignore them altogether. Don't be fooled. There is a pecking order of influence in ADs in the room. Do you really think anyone gave two flying shitz what Jim Sterk had to say??? I don't.
Moos brought more to WSU then right place and right time.
Now, I agree with Patrol that there is a give and take, and Moos was no "Messiah". But credit is given where credit is due. He wasn't perfect and he had holes in his toolbox. If he had a larger budget, maybe he'd have been able to hire people around him that would have made him look better? I don't know. That's what normal leaders do. It's rare for a leader to be everything to everyone. So you hire people around you that will make you look good. He either didn't hire those people, thus he didn't fill his toolbox with other peoples talents. Or he didn't have the budget to hire those people.
Either way, he was human. IMHO, at this stage of evaluation, he was better for WSU than worse. By a long shot.
To me, he saw a revenue stream that was dying. Football. That stream isn't a branch of the financial tree of WSU Athletics. It's the trunk. It needed to have an infusion. He did that. For better or for worse.
EDIT: and I'll add. While he infused football, he didn't ignore the other sports. He tried (and failed) at basketball. He succeeded at keeping soccer going. He moved on a new Track coach. That seems to start gaining speed. On that note, did anyone see "Juice", our 4star WR out of Texas, did an incredible Long jump. Record holder. He'll be on our Track team as well. Anyways. Not trying to be a Moos cheerleader but the slamming of him here, and other places is misplaced, IMHO. Revised history, in much of the comments.