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Fig Jam

Alas… There wasn’t enough positive energy in Pullman to save Andy Roof. WSU announced today that Roof had been expelled for repeated conduct violations. The latest, of course, coming in April when Roof was arrested outside of a houseparty after trying to force his way past the bouncer inside. The resulting melee concluded with Roof breaking one individual’s cheekbone, and fighting at least one other guy. The sheriff’s office has requested that charges be filed against Roof, although the prosecutor’s office has not determined whether or not that is going to happen yet. Roof also missed the 2007 after being suspended for 3 alcohol related arrests.

In response, WSU’s new head coach Paul Wulff said something very curious, “I was very disappointed when I heard the decision,” Wulff said in a statement. “Since I arrived on campus Andy has been a great leader for this program, on the field, in the locker room, in the classroom, and done everything we asked, that we ask of all student-athletes. From where he was a year ago he has changed his life around 180 degrees and as a coaching staff we have seen the positive impact he made on this program.”

Now… I’m no mathematologist, but I believe that Mr. Wulff arrived on Campus prior to April of 2008. Which would mean that since Coach Wulff has arrived, Roof has been one of the very few WSU players (noted exception Xavier Hicks) who has had a personal encounter with several police officers, who has been to jail, who has intentionally broken a bone of another human being, and who has brought negative attention to the University.

All that seems decidedly unleaderlike. Also - I’m sure that WSU athletes are asked not to get arrested. Sure of it. So there’s no way that Roof has done everything that was asked of him. Finally, a year ago Roof was suspended for too many run-ins with the law. This year, he has been expelled for it. Not a 180 degree turnaround really.

I’m not sure why I take such issue with this situation, other than the obvious reason that I’m tired of UW’s athletes being the only ones who get called out all the time. Seems only fair that WSU get the same treatment. I also find Wulff’s reaction to all this kind of odd. He really has gone to bat for a guy who was out of rope when Wulff arrived. He must really like this kid, even though he’s been arrested 4 times as a Cougar and faces the possibility of felony charges. Otherwise it makes no sense that Wulff would repeatedly stand up for Roof - going so far as to lay some of the blame on the other individuals in the fight in a recent piece by Jim Moore. In that article, Wulff said, “”Nobody’s a victim in this… There were a lot of people who were wrong.”

Wulff also states that most people aren’t familiar with all the facts, but then doesn’t elaborate on what facts exactly are out there that exonerate Roof. If you want me to buy into that, you’ll have to give me some specifics coach. As it stands, the facts don’t look good, regardless of how remorseful Roof is in your office and how much he hustles out on the practice field.

Just my opinion, but maybe Wulff could focus on this weekend’s game against Oklahoma State a little more, since it’s 4 days away (tee hee… Mike Gundy). Here is how fired up about it he is right now. When asked about it in the PI this morning, Wulff said, “We’re not going to play our best football in the first game.” Yeah, he said that. In Today’s paper. I know that very few teams play their best football in the first game, but seriously that is just shy of, “Don’t come to Qwest expecting to win this game.” Time to get ROWDY Cougar faithful. This is going to be a great game.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 at 5:09 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.