A bold move for Moos and Cougars

Washington State “Moosed” this one.

Long after a tradition of dubious athletic developments turned “Coug” into a predicate, it’s possible that a single historic hiring by athletic director Bill Moos might lead to a noun adulteration that describes developments of a positive nature.

As of today, the infinitive “To Moos” means going out and hiring a coach whose résumé and profile offers instant national credibility.

By hiring Mike Leach, Bill Moos made WSU football relevant, and, he expects, competitive.

More than that, Moos’ signature on this one makes a bold statement about the direction, future and level of expectations for the entire athletic department. In short, this may be just the start of a long pattern of Moosing at WSU.

Big talk?

When has WSU ever hired a coach in his prime who had a nationally regarded record of success at another program at the same level of competition?

Leach, 50, won national Coach of the Year honors in 2008. That year, he led Texas Tech to an upset of No. 1-ranked Texas, which lifted the Red Raiders to No. 2 in the national rankings.

His success is rooted in an innovative and exciting attack in which his quarterbacks routinely lead the nation in passing.

In 10 seasons in Lubbock, he led Texas Tech to bowl games every year.

Parse that sentence. Lubbock? Hey, that’s a relatively remote location … like Pullman.

Texas Tech? Weren’t the Red Raiders sort of a conference bottom-feeder compared to Big 12 powerhouses Texas and Oklahoma … like WSU in the Pac-12.

And 10 years? He stayed there 10 years, with all that success? Could this, then, be a rare coach that might be both successful and non-migratory?

Cougar fans: This is huge.

Cougar opponents: Upgrade your secondary.

Leach comes with a few question marks, of course. Some personality quirks have been reported (he is a student of pirate lore?), and his demise at Tech involved a highly publicized dispute over his alleged mistreatment of a player.

It’s doubtful that any of that provided much of a concern for Moos, or anybody else looking for a coach. Since his firing in 2009, Leach’s name has popped up in almost every high-profile coaching search.

But now he’s going to Pullman.

Imagine the selling job Moos did to land him. Yes, the salary is reportedly at or north of $2 million a season, which goes a long way in Pullman.

But the Cougars have won only nine of 49 games the past four years under recently fired coach Paul Wulff. And yes, Wulff left the structural foundation better than he received it.

But the facilities and funding are still well below conference standards.

Moos correctly treated the root problems. He saw the need to shake the apathy off the program and energize and enlarge the fan base. This hiring will do it.

He recognized an obvious facilities deficit, and two big projects for the stadium and operations building are in the works.

And he somehow got the money together to lure Leach, while also dressing up the idea of WSU’s potential well enough to attract an immediate game-changing name.

Perhaps the single most-important comment made during the Wulff firing/Leach hiring process was when Moos said: “We have to understand that we are at a juncture where we either have to run with the big dogs or just admit we’re a doormat.”

There it is. Moos came out and stated the obvious in simple terms.

“We can’t wait and embrace mediocrity,” he said.

Well, Leach has never been about embracing mediocrity, either. This guy could have coached at any number of places around the country, but Moos coaxed him to Pullman.

It may seem like the most important hire in WSU athletic history, but it couldn’t have been done without one that preceded it, bringing Bill Moos back to Pullman.

Dave Boling: 253-597-8440 dave.boling@thenewstribune.com