Tron, your rabid dislike of Walden goes beyond reason, civility or even good taste. You call him an "obnoxious blowhard". That suggests that going on and on about the same things over and over and being obnoxious while doing it is something of which you don't approve. Why then, pray tell, do you do the same? People who live in glass houses, etc., etc.
It is permissible to disagree without all the insults...buffoon, con man, snake oil salesman, bullshitter, obnoxious blowhard...and that isn't even a full list from one CougZone string. Please act as though your children were watching.
My children are still small and I regret nothing I have said on here and they in time will learn not to put up with mediocrity.
That really is the core issue with Walden. He represents the thing WSU is known for in the past in the collegiate athletic world.
Acceptance of mediocrity, poor performance, complacency, nepotism, and narcasim.
I don’t like those things. I hate those things, and I don’t want them at WSU.
So let’s go through the list and how Walden embodies them and why it hurts WSU athletics.
First of all the point of athletics is to compete to the best of your ability in a team or individual competition. As people representing the school it is your duty to perform at the highest of levels as the athletic department in many ways represents the spirit of the Univeristy.
It isn’t just give it your best shot and it’s okay if you just didn’t give it your all for crimson and gray we’ll just let you hang around and chit chat.
It is Win the Day for Crimson and Gray.
So first up.
Acceptance of Mediocrity - Now Walden has a .430 win% at WSU. He had more losing seasons than winning.
Now would you want an Athelete to give 43% effort? Would you want a student to only do 43% of the assignment? No you would not. That would be unacceptable. And that is why Walden is unacceptable.
If you have less than 50% success over a reasonable amount of time we shouldn’t have you on a pedestal at WSU. Below 50% is mediocrity, and we shouldn’t accept that as our standard. This is from us as fans / alumni perspective.
Poor performance - this goes along with accepting mediocrity but is purely based on performance while accepting mediocrity is what happens after poor performance. For example losing more than you win. That’s poor performance. Having USC kneel at the 50 on us. That is poor performance.
Accepting mediocrity is giving Wulff extra time when he was given plenty. Or hiring Walden back at WSU to be around the program after he didn’t win a single game his last year at Iowa State and had a losing season at WSU his last two years.
Complacency - Now this is where Walden really annoys me. Somehow because he won a couple Apple Cups he is supposed to be this revered figure in WSU lore. First of all the guy was 3-6 in Apple Cups. Walden pretends like nobody had beaten UW until he showed up (and so do Waldenites). The truth is we won back to back Apple Cups in 72/73 before Walden was hired in 78, so this “miracle Apple Cup wizard” basically highlights the complacency that if we are losers most of the time it is legendary to win 1/3 of Apple Cups.
Now let’s take about Nepotism and Narcism the two things that embody Walden. He stumped and grandstanded for Wulff. The worst coach in our history and Pac 12 history all because he was a former player. He berated and told everyone that they were stupid for wanting him fired after 4 years of the worst performance in WSU history and then he said Wulff should be given 1 more year with a 4 win acceptable floor...in his 5th year.
He then went on to throw dirt on the new guy (Mike Leach)
Here we had someone who had a less than mediocre past coaching. Insisted we hire a former player of his, when he got his way he did everything to treat everybody poorly who wanted the team to move on and succeed, and wanted to trash the new guy who just got in the door.
Now who was Walden working for here? Was it the growth and success of WSU? Or was it his own selfish ego, interests and friends?
It was the latter.
So as I am holding my 3 year old son right here.
F is for Four hundred winning % over 9 years
U is for under performance
C is for complacency
K is for Keeping around people who around who are self serving instead of serving the success of the program.
W is for Wulff and insisting he be hired and kept after poor performance
A is for Accepting Mediocrity as the Norm
L is for losing not only most of his games at WSU but most of his games at ISU as well
D is for Detracting from a new hire and not even giving the guy a chance
E is for Ego which he put first before the School that gave him a platform.
N is for Narcism and Nepotism something we don’t want at WSU.
F U C K W A L D EN
