Cougars: January 2009

Only six weeks into Steve Sarkisian's tenure as head coach and the Huskies are already looking into recruiting violation. It's centered around Wilson High recruit Desmond Trufant. Seattle P-I's Molly Yanity has the story.

Trufant described a simulated game-day entrance to the field at Husky Stadium through the tunnel, complete with smoke and noise.

In the story published Monday, Trufant said, "I was shocked by what they did. They acted like it was a real game and they had smoke (in the tunnel) and we ran out of the tunnel. It was nice." seattle p.i. 1/21/09

Apparently, that goes against by-law 13.6.7.9. It sounds like it's right out of the movie "He Got Game" when Jesus Shuttlesworth (aka Ray Allen) was introduced to an empty arena during a recruiting visit. You can read the rest of Molly's story right here.

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>> Continue reading: Huskies may have committed recruiting infraction

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The Seattle Times reports Garfield basketball player Tony Wroten junior and the Seattle School District came to an agreement to keep him in school.

District spokesman David Tucker said the Wrotens acknowledged they had not been in full compliance with the district residency rules, but the family had provided evidence since that demonstrates the family -- and most important, Wroten himself -- now resides in the district. -- Seattle Times 1/15/09

Here's the rest of the Times report. It's good both are making some sort of compromise. Especially to give the kid some continuity.

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>> Continue reading: Garfield's Wroten agreement with school district

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Cougars receiver Brandon Gibson is headed to the Senior Bowl January 24th. It's gonna be televised on the NFL Network. A good showing by the Cougs all-time leading receiver could go a long way on draft day. Wazzu's press release is after the jump.

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>> Continue reading: WSU's Gibson to the Senior Bowl

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A group of Western Washington University alumni are banding together to try to save the program's football team. On Thursday, the school announced it was cancelling the football program after 98 seasons of action. I guess a few people don't want to accept the decision and want to change it. Here's the alumni's website savewwufootball.com. I'm not sure how realistic it is to save it. By the way, it looks like the website just went up. In other words, it's still under construction. WWU's Athletic Director Lynda Goodrich told KING5 Thursday that it's unlikely the program will comeback for some time.

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>> Continue reading: SaveWWUFootball.com begins

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As I'm sure you've heard, the Huskies hired Nick Holt away from USC to become the next defensive coordinator. Holt will make $600,000 his first year and $650,000 in each of the following two seasons. Plus, the Huskies will pay him a $200,000 retention bonus up front, but he will have to pay it back if he leaves early. So Holt gets $800,000 right off the bat.

WSU head coach Paul Wulff makes around $600,000 per season. According to Cougfan.com, his assistants will make $1.13 million total per season. His co-defensive coordinators Chris Ball & Jody Sears will make $170,000 & $140,000 respectively. Ball and Sears are also responsible for two other position coaches. So if you average their salary out, the d-coordinator is making 155 grand. Add that salary to Wulff's and you get $755,000. That's still less than what Holt makes in his first year, including his bonus.

The Huskies football coaches salaries come from the Athletic Department. They're supposedly funded by ticket and tv revenues, merchandise, boosters, and more. They say they don't use any tax dollar to pay the football coaches. I'm not privy to their books, so I've got to take their word for it. Plus, if they did use tax payer dollars, there would be a huge investigation, probably jump started by KING 5's Get Jesse.

If the athletic department is using all that dough for coaches, is all right for them to ask the State Legislature for money to remodel Husky Stadium? Is it fiscally responsible for them to pay like it's a BCS championship contender when they've had five straight losing seasons, including a last season's 0-12 record? Or do they have to pay to get competitive? Do they have to spend money to make money?
We will see on how he reponds and the football players respond next season after they get pounded by another team. Oh by the way, the Huskies open up with LSU September 5th at Husky Stadium.

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>> Continue reading: UW's Holt salary too much?

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