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HOT COUGAR ACTION: Strength Coach Musical Chairs

By Mark Sandritter

So the Chris Dawson era sure was fun. In case you missed it yesterday, it appeared Mike Leach had hired his strength coach when Kansas State's Chris Dawson showed up in the WSU staff directory complete with a WSU email address. That lasted all of a couple of hours before the KSU SID denied Dawson was leaving and a Kansas State player tweeted his change of heart.

So to recap:

  • Chris Dawson receives significant offer from Mike Leach to come to WSU.
  • Dawson mulls the offer.
  • Dawson reportedly accepts Leach's offer and is headed to WSU.
  • Dawson shows up in the WSU online staff directory, seemingly confirming his hire.
  • Kansas State SID Kenny Lannou denies Dawson is leaving Kansas State.
  • KSU player Ryan Mueller tweets Dawson is staying at Kansas State.
I guess this really shouldn't come as that big of a surprise. Dawson received a fairly large offer and it still took weeks for him to come to a decision. Clearly it wasn't easy for him to leave Kansas State and the midwest. The fact his change of heart came two minutes before midnight is unfortunate for Leach and WSU, but I'm sure Leach has other targets as it was never a lock Dawson would take the offer in the first place.

Thus concludes our second round of coaching musical chairs. First Mike Smith was then wasn't the linebacker coach, now Dawson. For those of you hoping the coaching staff is announced before February, this was hopefully the final round.

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K-State denies report of Chris Dawson heading to Washington State | K-Stated | Wichita Eagle Blogs
Kansas State is denying a report from the Spokesman-Review that claims strength and conditioning coach Chris Dawson is headed to Washington State to take a similar job. When asked about the report, a spokesperson for the K-State football team said: "There is no truth to that."

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