Recapping Bill Moos' Seattle Times Chat

By Mark Sandritter Dec 7, 2011, 4:56pm PST

I was originally planning to save this for tomorrow morning's link post, but after reading through Moos' answers, I thought there was enough there for a stand alone post. Moos touched on a variety of subjects ranging from uniforms, to recruiting to Mike Leach and more.

I'll copy and paste a few of the most interesting responses after the jump, but you can read the chat in its entirety here.

12:02

Comment From Bruce Smith

Mr. Moos, Thank You for coming back to Pullman! Now can we please get rid of those ugly grey helmets?

12:02

Bill Moos:

The grey helmets are here to stay. They're a part of our re-branding of Cougar athletics and are a favorite of our players and fans.

Bruce Smith? Interesting fake name choice Grady.

12:17

Comment From B Graham

Is there any chance the 2012 Apple Cup will be moved to Saturday? Or has the contract already been signed to keep it Friday?

12:18

Bill Moos:

Confirmation of the 2012 Pac-12 football schedule has not been made at this time. We should have confirmation within the next couple weeks.

Just to confirm what Moos said on his radio show, nothing official yet. From all indications, the official 2012 schedule should be out by Christmas.

12:21

Comment From The Truth

Are the plans still on the books to add seats to the east endzone? After the tremendous hiring of Leach we will need them.

12:21

Comment From WazzuCoug80

Bill, looking into your crystal ball, 5 or so years down the road, what is the ideal capacity of Martin Stadium to be competitive in the PAC 12?

12:21

Bill Moos:

Our goal at this time is to fill the seats that we have, build the football operations building in the west end zone and then look into additional seating, most probably in the east end zone.

12:23

Bill Moos:

We can be competitive in the Pac-12 regardless of the size of our stadium because of the new revenue-sharing formula that equally divides the television money among all 12 schools. I feel that the perfect size for Martin Stadium would be in the neighborhood of 50,000.

50,000 people packing Martin Stadium on a Cougar football Saturday? That sounds tremendous.

12:25

Comment From ShorelineCoug

I am on board with the football game in Seattle for non-conference games. I understand getting the product in front of the Seattle fan base. I just feel we give up too much home field advantage for a conference game. OSU didn't have to travel to Pullman and the weather was more like Oregon than E. WA. this year. Any chance the Seattle game will be limited to non-conference opponents in the future?

12:26

Bill Moos:

Not in the immediate future. It's my desire to see our game with Oregon and Oregon State become a tradition not unlike Texas-Oklahoma in Dallas and Georgia-Florida in Jacksonville.

Moos has always held strong in his commitment to playing Oregon and Oregon State in Seattle, no surprise here.

12:39

Comment From Dave

Is the Spring game in Spokane again, and if so...are you planning anything extra now that you know you might have a big crowd and more demand? Congrats on the tough decisions you have had to make over the last week.

12:41

Bill Moos:

The plan is to continue to stage our spring game in Spokane as the culmination of events during the preceding week. The goal is to increase attendance each year and I don't believe that 8,000-10,000 is out of the question for this coming game.

Last year, the crowd was estimated at 4,000 people. If the excitement of the past week remains into April, I wouldn't be surprised if the crowd surpassed Moos' 10,000 estimate. I know I'm already making tentative plans to be there. CougCenter meetup at the spring game?

12:42

Comment From MacDice

What would it take to have the Cougars and the Huskies baseball teams play an annual series of games at Safeco?

12:43

Bill Moos:

That idea has been discussed and in some regards has merit. My first reaction is that it would have to be Washington's home series or a game that was in addition to the regular-season competition.

Sounds like a cool idea. I don't know if there is enough interest to make it worthwhile, but done correctly this could be a lot of fun.

12:44

Comment From MacDice

Can you give us an update on the condition of Bobo Brayton?

12:45

Bill Moos:

Bobo is still recovering but making progress. A lesser man would not have survived the accident that our great friend endured. He is truly a special human being and great Cougar.

More good news.

12:47

Comment From cougs22

How much of an impact do you expect the hiring of Coach Leach to have in the short term recruiting as in players who still haven't committed to a school for the upcoming season and are considering WSU?

12:49

Bill Moos:

I expect our recruiting successes to be exceptional. I would be surprised if we lost any of our current commitments and envision a tremendous interest from high school prospects, both now and in the future.

Confirming some of what Kyle mentioned. Most of the current commits will likely stick.

12:56

Comment From Alex

Is there any concern over Coach Leach's pending lawsuits being a distraction and what is WSU's stand on those lawsuits?

12:56

Bill Moos:

No.

I really wish Moos could have been more clear on this answer. I mean what a long winded, round about answer.

1:07

Bill Moos:

I want to show my sincere appreciation to Cougars young and old for their fabulous support the past few days. Having said that, we need to have all of you involved and engaged with Cougar football and Washington State athletics in general. Yesterday, we won the press conference. Now let's go and win the Pac-12 conference. You can help by joining the Cougar Athletic Fund. Go to wsucougars.com or call 877-IMA-COUG. We want and need every Cougar to be a part of the team. Go Cougs!

How else would you expect Moos to close out a chat? "Yesterday, we won the press conference. Now let's go and win the Pac-12 conference." Yeah, what he said.