After two games, it appears that WSU offense is fundamentally broken.  Why?

1) Audibles.  There have been times this season when it appears that Tuel was in position to make a play with the right playcall, but hasn't.  The pre-snap progression on every play should involve the potential to check down. Tuel seems to get a handful of those opportunities a game and that handcuffs him.

Could it be that Tuel has been instructed not to call audibles?  If so, at some point the coaches/Sturdy have to take the training wheels off and let him go.

Price never had any sort of limitation on his QB's, nor does any other major college football program I'm aware of.  Price always would allow his QBs to run through progressions and check when they see fit. The QB is the one seeing the field in real-time.

If they really don't let Tuel call audibles, that's just ridiculous and needs to be corrected immediately.

2) The offense installation is broken.  Knowing Sturdy's background, it's hard to comprehend-- I just don't get it why it's not working.

Sturdy was a pretty good Head Coach at NAIA St. Ambrose.  I know, it's NAIA.  But, at least to some degree, football is football, right?  Wulff hires him to be EWU's OC in 2007.  They immediately install the no-huddle offense and it works like gangbusters.  EWU averaged 33.6 points per game that season, while finishing 9-4.  And it's not like they were a veteran team.  The starting QB, top two WRs and starting TE were all sophomores...and they picked up the system no problem.  

Granted, two of those four I mentioned were in NFL camps this summer and another one would have been, if he hadn't blown out his achilles.  But still, it begs the question - why haven't our guys been able to pick the system up like those guys did?  Are our players just dumber?  Is there really that much difference in football style between Div. I-A and I-AA?

I'd have to say no to that.

3) Execution

The difference in levels of college football, outside of the physical stuff, is the execution. It's clear that our staff, to date, has not been able to coach execution - whether its taking care of the ball, tackling, whatever.

These guys even have trouble with clock management. If players are coming out too tight for example, it's on the coaches to get them loose. They are completely unwilling to adjust their systems based on what we have or what they see, and its complete horseshit.  Just because it's not in the packages you had for that game, doesn't mean it won't work. It really feels like each member of the staff is so bullheaded and so unwilling to adjust, that they'd rather stay the course and get their ass handed to them than try something new.

What's the saying? The definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result.

Well, we're there.

Figure it out.

---

Hi Bill. This is The Coug Sports Blog talking. I've got one big request for you and I think you need to make it happen this Summer. I know you would love to lock up Oregon at Qwest Field. I know that First and Goal has told you that Oregon is the bigger potential money draw and the two teams against each other virtually assures a sellout each year and big public interest in King County. I know you have visions of completely drowning out the Huskies one week out of the football season and making it all about the Northwest version of the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party (Georgia vs. Florida in Jacksonville).

The thing is, I think you have the wrong team targeted.  I understand why you think Oregon is a great fit. You know better than anyone EXACTLY how much they make per home game and how much they make when they travel to Pullman. You can do the math and make this a profitable venture for them. No one ever said revenue had to be 50/50. It could be 60/40 and still make WSU a huge sum of money. You also understand just how much the Oregon group hates to travel to Pullman and you also understand just how important King County could be to grow the Duck brand/donor base all while undermining the Huskies.

Here's the problem. Duck fans don't get it. They don't understand that they are picking up money in capital donations each year and their operating budget is huge BUT they still finished running in the red by more than 600 hundred thousand dollars as recently as last fiscal year. They missed on more than $2.2 million dollars in pledged donations because of the downturn in the economy. You know that and apparently everyone knows that except for Duck fans.  I know that you are just waiting for the new AD to come in and look at his operating budget. It won't take long to see easy money to fill that donations gap. Which is why I would say stop trying to climb that mountain now.

I hope you're enjoying the fishing trip right now and that you're locking down those big ticket donors. When you come back to Seattle in a few weeks I hope you put all that Duck thinking aside though. I hope you meet with First and Goal again and say, "We want to focus on an annual neutral site game with the Oregon State Beavers." Ask them what that revenue stream would look like.

---

Expansion to the Pac-12 has brought the issue of TV dollars to the forefront of conversation these days. It's painfully obvious that the Pac-10 is being compensated like a league that isn't in the BCS with their current contract. Washington State pulled in 6.3 million dollars in 2009. Indiana University of the Big Ten pulled in 20 million dollars because they split revenue equally and becasue the Big Ten Commissioner is actually competent at his job. Retired Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen (UW grad) clearly was not.

Our current TV contract runs through the end of the 2011 season. In other words, we must endure our crap contract for two more football seasons. The pain is going to be compounded for WSU this year since we won't be very good. We might actually be closer to $5.5 million in TV revenue this season since we don't get the Notre Dame payout that we got last year. That's still better than the University of Utah which will have to deal with about 1.5-2 million dollars because of the Mountain West's contract with Versus. No wonder they are anxious to split as quickly as possible.

Ever wonder how the Pac-10 TV contract works? There has been a lot of talk about Big XII unequal revenue sharing and Pac-10 equitable revenue sharing. We know that the Pac-10 doesn't have revenue sharing across the board like the Big Ten. Jon Wilner has a fantastic explanation of how it works here . Basically there is a minimum amount that each team is guaranteed. That's the floor and then each game that's picked up thereafter for television basically gets you a bonus check. That's why USC was at close to 12 million last year and WSU sat at 6 million. I have no idea what the Pac-10 "floor" is but it would be interesting to know.

Things get really fascinating for WSU in 2011. University of Utah is on record as saying they are moving to the Pac-10 next year. Colorado had originally planned on 2012 as well. However, those plans are in flux now. What does all that mean for TV revenue splits?

Ted Miller had a really interesting blog post that told us Colorado and Utah are coming in as UNequals. Colorado will be a full revenue sharing member but Utah will not get 100% of their Pac-10 share until the 2014-2015 season.

Here are the two implications for WSU:

---