Yesterday, WSU athletics director Bill Moos gave a tour of the brand new, 84,000 square foot football operations building to dozens of media members from around the region, including our own Andy Crookston, who will be posting a report shortly complete with a gallery of photos and a first-hand account of the building.
It lived up to the hype.
The official athletics website had a quick recap with some quotes from Moos and athletes about the impact of the building. Moos sees the completion of this building as one of the final steps in the Cougar football rebuild.
We've got a nationally renowned coach, great staff, great support, supportive president, great students... We've got to focus and there is no reason why we can't be in the hunt every year.
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They also posted a photo gallery with pictures from the newly completed and (mostly) furnished building. Those can be seen here. In typical Moos fashion, there is branding absolutely everywhere. The photos show everything from the washers and dryers in the equipment room to the kitchen. Everything fits the new Cougar style and looks great, which you also can see in Mike Leach's tour at the top of the page.
The facilities seemed to wow the media too. Jacob Thorpe of the Spokesman Review wrote his recap and brought up some great points.
The facility really is something. It's just over 84,000 square feet, and the weight room alone is over 11,000. To put that in perspective, the weight room shared by every sport up until now — considered one of the best in the country when it was built — was just over 10,000.
Mike Leach's office is nicer than my apartment. Don't laugh, it's probably nicer than your house. It's a corner office on the top floor overlooking Martin Stadium. It's got a conference room (QB position meetings will happen there), a bathroom with a shower, a kitchenette, and is entirely made out of some very expensive looking wood.
Plenty of other media member chimed in with their thoughts also. Those links, with some videos, are below.
Football Operations Building
For WSU, new football complex is the cat’s meow | Bud Withers | The Seattle Times
Like Renoir applying the last touch to one of his 19th-century works, Bill Moos looked out on a gathering of 30 media folks here Tuesday with a question.
WSU's new football building passes the test - SportsLink - Spokesman.com - June 4, 2014
"So what did WSU get for its $61 million, the budgeted cost of the operations building? Well, it's not completely utilitarian but it isn't the Taj Mahal either. It is simply, in this day and age of college football, exactly what the Cougars needed to stay in the Pac-12 arm's race."
John Blanchette: Cougars’ grand unveiling - Spokesman.com - June 4, 2014
"For you bottom-line junkies, Cougar quarterback Connor Halliday put the finest point on it, insisting the new palace is so good that if he and his teammates don’t flourish, 'It’s your own fault.' "
Basketball
Trevor Dunbar Added to WSU Signing Class - Washington State University Official Athletic Site
Trevor Dunbar has signed a Financial Aid Agreement (FAA) to play for the Washington State University men's basketball team beginning with the 2014-15 season, head coach Ernie Kent announced Tuesday.
NorCalPreps.com - Q&A: Trevor Dunbar
"I had four solid offers. Citadel, Cal Poly, Florida A & M and CSU Bakersfield. I was recently starting to hear from USF, as I went up there and played in some open gyms. I was also starting to receive heavy interest from two schools back east. One of them was the University of Maryland. The other was St. Johns University in New York. In fact, I was scheduled to go on a visit to St. Johns this week, but I cancelled the visit once I committed to Washington State. "