Pat Chun shares his journey to Washington State

Washington State Athletic Director Pat Chun is approaching five months on the job and he just got the national attention treatment from the Washington Post ($$$).

Chun is the first Asian-American athletic director at a Power 5 school, which is pretty cool. He detailed his path to WSU to the Post’s Gene Wang.

There’s nothing earth-shattering in the feature, though there are some nice tidbits on Chun’s life. This bit was my favorite:

When Chun and his wife, Natalie, a former Buckeyes softball player, were discussing starting a family, his mother didn’t hesitate to offer more advice.

“This is 2002, 2003, and I’m already well into my athletic career, and we were talking about having a baby, and my mom pulls me aside and says, ‘Hey, if you guys are going to have kids, you really need to start thinking about getting a real job,’ ” Chun said, laughing. “At that point, you know you’re not going to win that debate with your mom. It’s like: ‘Mom, just trust me. I’m on a great path here.’ ”

As we all know, Chun is being counted on to improve fundraising, something he was known for at Ohio State and Florida Atlantic. The athletic department recently hired a new leader of the Cougar Athletic Fund.

How rare is Pat Chun’s path in college sports? ‘You’d have to be an Asian American to understand this.’ - The Washington Post
“Let me put it this way,” said the head of Washington State’s athletic department. “It’s not lost on me the significance of being the first Asian American athletic director at a Power Five.”

Mike Leach, Twitter, Big Gulps, etc.

Among the things Mike Leach is good at, taking advantage of a media cycle has to be up there, for better or worse. Leach had a Q&A with the Seattle Times’ Matt Calkins, was on 710 ESPN in Seattle and talked to Outkick the Coverage’s Clay Travis for an hour, where he spent exactly zero seconds talking about....you know.

I have a feeling this isn’t the last we’ll hear from Leach between now and Pac-12 Media Day (yes, just one day) on July 25.

Q&A: Days after posting doctored Obama video on Twitter, WSU coach Mike Leach has much more to say | The Seattle Times
The Cougars coach says USA Today columnist Dan Wolken, who said bigger schools don’t want to hire him, will be serving Big Gulps in a few years: “He does a horrible job and doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

Outkick the Coverage with Clay Travis by Fox Sports Radio on Apple Podcasts
Download past episodes or subscribe to future episodes of Outkick the Coverage with Clay Travis by Fox Sports Radio for free.

WSU's Mike Leach talks offseason, controversial tweet
Washington state head coach Mike Leach joined Brock Huard and Mike Salk on 710 ESPN Seattle Friday to talk about the Cougars' upcoming season. Leach also spent time discussing his decision to post a since-deleted Tweet that featured a doctored speech from former President Barack Obama.

Football

Oregon Ducks Football Way-too-early score predictions Washington State | Duck Territory
We give our early predictions on the Oregon vs Washington State football game.

JT Daniels, Micah Parsons and college football's top freshmen | SI.com
Cammon Cooper gets some ink here.

Swimming

Cougars Make Change with Swimming Leadership - Washington State University
Washington State University Director of Athletics Patrick Chun announced Friday that the university and swimming head coach Tom Jager have mutually agreed to part ways.