For the second week in a row, Bill Moos spent the majority of his time on Cougar Calls addressing Marquess Wilson. Last week, Cougar Calls came in the wake of news that Wilson walked out of practice, with Moos lending some insight while also backing his coach. This week, the focus was on Wilson's letter and allegations of abuse.
After listening to Moos, I heard no indication that his support for Mike Leach was wavering. Moos again supported Leach and the Cougar head coach's ways, saying the team needs discipline and that discipline is provided. There will be an investigation, of course, and the wheels began to turn shortly after the letter was sent -- Larry Scott was in Pullman and Moos spoke with him on Saturday.
Once again, Moos said Wilson just needed to work harder while he was with the team. "Of all the talent Marquess has," Moos said. "his effort hasn't always been what it could and should be." Discipline is a big deal to Moos, and he expects his programs to have it.
"I think young people today crave discipline," Moos said. "They just don't know it. There's gonna be discipline in Cougar athletics"
In response to a caller who complained about Leach singling out players, Moos correctly pointed out that Leach has never called out an individual and always takes responsibility himself first. This is true and has been lost in the sound bytes. Leach doesn't say "so-and-so is awful," but instead calls out the effort of entire units or speaks in broad terms. And he and his coaches have been taking responsibility, saying their shortcomings are leading to lapses on the field.
As for the allegations themselves, Moos was surprised by the letter and its timing. He said he found out about the letter just hours before the game and immediately assembled his team to put a plan in place. Leach's chief of staff, Dave Emerick, was in the meeting, as well as senior members of Moos' staff. They decided to release a statement, because the allegations needed to be addressed, and Moos made the decision to tell Leach so he wasn't blindsided in an interview.
From the sounds of it, Moos doesn't feel anything that happened crossed a line. "I have members of my staff that are in all aspects of practice, locker rooms," he said, adding that he's not involved himself but does have a finger on the pulse of all his programs.
"Student-athlete welfare is always at the top of my list of my priorities," Moos added. "Football is a tough game. Tough players are the result of tough coaches." With regards to workouts he said, "Our practices are an hour and a half. They are intense, but they're the same every single day."
"If we're not getting their attention and effort, we'll get their attention and effort," Moos said when discussing coaching methods. "I'm all for it"
Moos also talked about stability and ways coaches instill discipline. The hallmark of a stable program, Moos said, is stability within the coaching ranks.
"Ideally you don't have a lot of turnover in your coaches ranks," Moos said. He said that quick fixes solve nothing, as well, adding ""We don't have any quick fixes. I've seen quick fixes before and they create more problems than we're seeing now"
As far as the timeline of an investigation, Moos would like to have this done and out of the way before the end of the week. He sounded confident that would be the case, which tells me he's also confident there's been no wrongdoing.
Moos went out of his way to praise Leach, his methods for instill discipline and maintained that nothing he's seen or heard crossed the line to abuse. He called Mike Leach "old school," and connected him to Chip Kelly, a coach Moos also said has an old school way of discipline. There was no wavering or hedging: It was clear Moos is happy with his head coach, even in the wake of all this.