Washington State coach Mike Leach pushed back, hard, against a newspaper columnist's follow-up question about recruiting after the Cougars suffered a seventh consecutive loss to Washington in the Apple Cup rivalry Friday. The columnist, of course, had the last word(s).
Leach first tried to take analysts to task for rating Washington's classes so highly every year and then acting surprised when the Huskies keep winning. John Blanchette, working for the (Spokane, Wash.) Spokesman-Review, came back with, "So, you're not supposed to beat teams that have a higher-ranked recruiting class?"
That got to Leach, who grew more annoyed as he went from dismissive to claiming the writer held a grudge against the program to straight name-calling.
CFB150: SN's top 10 college football rivalries of all time
Mike Leach didn’t care to get into a conversation with @JPBlanchette about why #WSU can’t beat #UW despite having success against other teams with top-10 recruiting classes. Leach gets pretty fiery here. pic.twitter.com/fLa17dLJI0
— Theo Lawson (@TheoLawson_SR) November 30, 2019
In his postgame commentary for the Spokesman-Review, Blanchette wrote that Washington coach Chris Petersen, who is 6-0 against Leach in Apple Cups, hasn't had a top-10 class. He also accused Leach of having a double standard when it comes to using recruiting as an excuse, and that Leach doesn't care about the Apple Cup.
As for on-field issues, Blanchette faulted Leach for not making adjustments to counter the Huskies' defensive schemes.
The closing paragraphs of the column, which played off Blanchette's opening paragraphs about an unhappy couple in the stands at the game, tried for the knockout.
Not that many weeks ago, Leach assailed the leaders on his football team as “frauds.” But when it comes to the Apple Cup, that’s not quite the case.
It’s not them, Mike. It’s you.
Washington State (6-6) will now wait for word on its bowl-game destination. Wherever it is, it will be warmer than the interview room in Seattle's Husky Stadium.
