An ugly situation in Pullman has taken yet another turn for the worse.
Earlier this past week, Washington State confirmed that wide receiver Marquess Wilson had been indefinitely suspended by first-year head coach Mike Leach. Speculation was that Wilson, who nearly quit the team back in spring practice, had walked out of a “vigorous” Sunday conditioning workout and was contemplating leaving the team.
On Saturday night, that’s exactly what the receiver did. With all available verbal guns blazing on his way out.
In a statement announcing he had indeed decided to leave the Wazzu football program, Wilson blasted the football program, accusing the “new regime of coaches” of abuse on multiple levels. Wilson claimed that the staff “has preferred to belittle, intimidate and humiliate” football players, accusing them of “physical, emotional and verbal abuse... in the locker room and on the field.”
That last part certainly has to be troubling to Wazzu’s administration on some level.
Leach was out of coaching for two years after he was fired by Texas Tech in 2009, a dismissal that was to some degree the result of claims made by an injured player -- or his famous helicopter father -- that he had been “abused” by the then-coach. In exiting the program in this manner, by claiming abuse at the hands of coaches, Wilson assured the maximum amount of collateral damage given Leach’s past.
We’ve reached out to Wazzu officials for comment regarding Wilson’s accusations, but have yet to see a response.
On the football side of the equation, Wilson’s departure is a significant blow as he was the Cougars’ leading receiver this season a year after setting school marks in receptions and yards. For Leach and his staff, however, the on-field part could be, right or wrong, the least of their worries.