A lesson in handling negative press, courtesy of Paul Wulff
The Montana Grizzlies football team has suffered more than enough negative exposure. Throughout most of it the administration, and especially Bobby Hauck, have been relatively silent. We'll get a blurb in the newspaper story on how the actions of a few should not reflect poorly on the rest of the team but not much more. Never do we see the openness and level of accountability current Washington State head coach and former Eastern Washington head coach Paul Wulff displayed after the Seattle Times published a scathing article on the Cougars' past transgressions.
AOL's Fanhouse has his response:
In response to the Sunday story, Wulff hopped on the sports radio airwaves yesterday on KJR-AM in Seattle. You can give it a listen here. Most of all it was a chance for Wulff to respond in his own voice, beyond just a couple of lines in the story about what WSU is already doing to correct the problems of the past.For example, since the APR debacle, academics have taken on a whole new level of importance. In Wulff's first semester in Pullman, the football team just turned in a 2.72 GPA for the spring, the highest in the last 30 years. The goal for this fall is to turn in the highest GPA in team history. And Wulff has already implemented a team "Unity Council", a 16-player group that will sit in judgment in dealing with players who stray off the beaten path. They will recommend punishment to the coaching staff, and the input will be part of the ultimate decision on each player.
The closest thing we have? Bobby Hauck appearing on his weekly KPAX show and ripping into the reporters who first covered the home invasion story.
I commend coach wulff for doin this...coach hauck has disappointed me recently he is constantly sending the messege that winning football games is more important that having student-athletes that conduct themselves with class on and off the field and we do have many that do such as Tyler Joyce , Lex Hilliard, etc they were class acts but coach Hauck needs to crack the whip and kick kids like J.D. Quinn, Quinton Freeman, and others off the team immediately for their mistakes instead of giving them numerous chances to scar the program. I mean how many chances has Quinn had, he screwed up at OU and now here i'd say lets kick him off the team...its time to clean up our football program and bring in a group of classy football players who can compete on the field and be role models off the field