One thing is for certain: Jim Walden is passionate about Washington State. He's also passionate about the school's head coach and said Tuesday that "if we're damn smart we won't [fire Paul Wulff]."
Walden, who offers color commentary with Bob Robertson on WSU football radio broadcasts, made those comments – and many others – on KJR radio in Seattle on Tuesday. A former coach at Washington State himself, Walden vehemently defended Wulff, while perhaps offending some fans who would like a change in leadership.
"Why do I have to keep having to explain to the stupid?" Walden asked rhetorically. "Why do we need to keep the guy that's been having to clean the mess up? [Wulff] has had nothing but tough times."
Walden said Wulff "sells himself every day by the fact that he's cleaned up a ‘drug-ringing mess', he's got kids going to school, he's graduating them, they're loving the experience, they love him and his staff."
And then he blasted those critics who say – still – that Wulff needs to be replaced.
"Don't just be like those people in the stands that say, ‘go for it coach, 4th and 1.' Go for it and do what? Gimme a play. Give me your play. When you talk about removing our coach make damn sure you got a face and a name of someone that we'll be proud of. It won't be a I-AA guy because we say those guys can't coach, no matter how many of them. We don't want any Jim Tressells because they got caught cheating. So who are we going to hire? Well, maybe we'll get an assistant coach from West Virginia. Uh… maybe. Who are we going to get?"
One of the problems, Walden concluded, is that Washington State fans just don't give enough. They don't write checks and they don't come to games.
"The Cougar fan base doesn't give in, that's a figment of imagination," Walden said. "The Cougar fan base is all clack and no checks. Don't go there. We have no big donors in the athletic department."
Big donors like T. Bone Pickens at Oklahoma State, or Phil Knight of Nike fame who gives to Oregon.
"Cougars are the poorest givers in probably the Division I football when you base it on number of alum versus number of people write a check. We don't pack our stadium."
Case in point: only about 30,000 fans saw the Cougars play a nationally ranked Stanford team in Pullman this season. And 30,000 is a fair amount for a Cougar game these days. They sold more tickets to last weekend's game against Oregon State – in Seattle.
Twitter lit up with both accolades and criticism as Walden spoke by telephone from Coeur ed'Alene.
"Good lord. I respect Walden's work as a coach, but he needs to hang up the mic" - @ronschott
"Listening to Jim Walden with @Ian950kjr did he just call Coug fans stupid? Guy is crazy, and I love it!" - @Softykjr
"Jim Walden just went off in his Jim Walden way on @950KJR. Loved it. Hilarious…" – @Jerry_Brewer
