I wanted to get to this earlier today, but all of my attention was on the Coeur d'Alene Ironman (unlike other Cougar bloggers, I have to focus on all sports not just one team).

Earlier this year, The Seattle Times published a series of articles called "Victory and Ruins." The special report focused on how corrupt the University of Washington Athletic Department (AD, players, coaches, etc.) was during their run to the 2000 Rose Bowl (if you haven't read these articles...you should).

Now, the Times has turned its attention to Wazzu (not to the level they did to UW, but they dig pretty deep).

Bud Withers and Ken Armstrong teamed up on an article today about the Washington State football program.

Here's an excerpt:

In the past 18 months, at least 25 players have been arrested or charged with offenses that carry possible jail time, court records show. Most were charged with misdemeanors such as underage drinking or possession of marijuana. Thirteen had been arrested or charged before.

This year, one player faced felony charges after hitting a man on the head with a frying pan. Another tried to hurt a teammate by soaking his contact lenses in rubbing alcohol. A third was accused of punching a student, knocking him unconscious and fracturing his cheekbone.

Wulff has two problems, and fixing one could compound the other. If he kicks a wayward player off the team, that could hurt WSU under the NCAA's academic guidelines -- and possibly cost the Cougars another scholarship.

Wulff's challenges hardly end there. Like all WSU coaches before, he must sell recruits on the merits of isolated Pullman -- population 27,030. He must counter the take of Courtney Williams, an ex-defensive back from Los Angeles who left with academic problems.

"WSU is a hard school to go to, man," Williams says. "You ain't got nothin' to do but get drunk and smoke weed, and not go to class because you're too tired from doing what you're doing."

The article goes much deeper into the incident involving Andy Mattingly (and a frying pan), booze issues, Xavier Hicks and much more.

You should definitely read the article if you haven't already.

I wish I had more time, but I have to do a show.

Talk to you soon!

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