YAKIMA, Wash. — It’s the fervor normally reserved for college football teams fresh off bowl victories or at least winning seasons, not ones with nine total wins over the past four campaigns.

Then again, Washington State did make a splash of a coaching hire when it tapped Mike Leach and his video game-like ‘Air Raid’ offense to take the Cougar reins.

Since the late-November hiring, WSU has been riding a wave of national interest, rejuvenated fans and record donations.

That wave briefly swept into Yakima on Tuesday when WSU athletic director Bill Moos spoke to the annual Yakima growers meeting.

“It’s very exciting, there continues to be a national buzz,” he said shortly after addressing the group of more than 600 at the Yakima Convention Center.

Moos was a break from the agriculture-heavy lineup that included sessions on stinkbugs, coddling moths and fungicides. With many WSU alums among those in attendance, though, his message fit the occasion.

“The synergy was there,” said Darrin Belton of Zillah, who lined up the affable AD’s appearance.

Moos, himself a 1973 graduate, pulled the trigger on hiring Leach, who won 84 games in 10 seasons at Texas Tech but was fired in late 2009 after allegations he had mistreated a player.

The move meant firing fourth-year coach Paul Wulff, whose own hiring was due in good part to Moos, the chair of the selection committee that picked the former Eastern Washington coach in late 2007.

Wulff had helped bring back, if only incrementally, a football program that had three straight 10-win seasons a decade ago.

“We were improving, yet had an apathetic fanbase,” Moos said. “I just felt we were a junction where I had to make a decision.”

More than 1,300 new season-ticket orders, a million-plus dollars in donations and visions of a chuck-it-everywhere offense later, those fans have been galvanized.

“I called them caged Cougars,” Moos joked of the alums and fans who have been re-energized by the Leach hiring.

Their role, though, is just beginning, Moos said. Eventually he wants donations to cover the cost of scholarships for the athletes.

Money the school gets from the Pacific-12 Conference’s $3 billion television deal will help pay coaches competitive salaries — as it did with Leach’s $2 million-a-year contract — and improve facilities, Moos said.

“People need to realize they’re not off the hook,” he said.

“I asked athletic director Bill Moos to select the best head football coach in the country and I am convinced that he has done exactly that,” WSU president Elson Floyd said in the news release.

FILE - In this Sept. 19, 2009, file photo, Texas Tech coach Mike Leach waits as a play is reviewed during the first quarter of their NCAA college football game against Texas in Austin, Texas. Leach has reached a verbal agreement to be the new football coach at Washington State, an official within the athletic department told the Associated Press on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

Moos said, “This is an exciting day for Washington State University and Cougar football. I have spoken about the need to re-energize our fan base and take Cougar football to the next level. I believe the hiring of Mike Leach accomplishes both of those goals. His credentials speak for themselves.”

Leach replaces Paul Wulff, fired Tuesday by Washington State after a 9-40 record in four seasons. The quick push for Leach was not unexpected. The Seattle Times reported last week that Wulff was likely to be fired, and that Leach would be the top target of the Cougars. An informed source told The Times the deal might be done quickly.

Leach, 50, had been expected to be a top choice at Kansas, where he had an old friendship with athletic director Sheahon Zenger.

Leach has been out of coaching for the past two years after a controversial exit from Texas Tech. He was fired just short of collecting on an $800,000 salary bonus. At issue was whether he mistreated a Red Raiders player, Adam James, by directing him to stay in a darkened equipment shed to help treat a concussion.

Leach coached 10 Texas Tech to 10 straight bowl games and favors a spread passing offense.

“First off I would like to express my appreciation to Paul Wulff for all his efforts and dedication to Washington State and wish him the best in the future,” Leach said in the news release. “It’s an honor to have the opportunity to work with Bill Moos, who is a legend in this business. To have the opportunity as a coach to work with someone like that is an experience few head coaches get. Along with Bill and Dr. Floyd, I’m excited about being a part of the future of Washington State.

“I have always admired the tradition of Washington State. It’s a university on the move that is experiencing growth. I’m excited about what they are doing with the facilities and it’s a team that has battled through some hard times and shows great promise in the future. I’m proud to be a part of this team.”

— Bud Withers

Sources close to the situation say Wulff, whose Cougars lost 38-21 to Washington on Saturday at CenturyLink Field, will be dismissed after a meeting with athletic director Bill Moos, barring a last-minute change of direction by Moos. It could happen as early as Sunday, possibly Monday.

John Sousley, left, greets Washington State University head football coach Paul Wulff at the Yakima Valley Night with Cougar Athletics Dinner & Auction at the Harmon Center in Yakima, Wash. Friday, May 19, 2011. (Andy Sawyer/Yakima Herald-Republic)

A reversal of thinking is unlikely, and sources familiar with the process say the Cougars will have former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach at the top of their list of possible replacements. Leach has been out of coaching since 2009 after a controversial exit from Tech that resulted in him suing the school.

Moos said through a spokesman after the game Saturday night that he and Wulff would determine on the plane ride home a time to meet on the status of the program and that “anything beyond that is pure speculation.”

The result of the Apple Cup was not a factor in the decision on Wulff, who has a year remaining on his five-year contract. Wulff has been under heavy scrutiny all season from Moos, who opted to retain him a year ago in a relatively close call.

Wulff would finish with a 9-40 record, a .184 winning percentage that is worst in school history.

Moos, who has been WSU’s athletic director for 18 months, has refreshed plans to renovate Martin Stadium and build a football-only training-and-offices facility at the west end of campus. Regents recently approved the $80 million stadium remodel project and there have been significant concerns about the ability to raise funds with a fan base divided on Wulff.

“He has to have a coach to do for him what he’s doing for Elson Floyd,” an informed source told The Times recently, referring to Moos and the WSU president.

Wulff was a lightning rod for criticism after taking over a disheveled program from Bill Doba after the 2007 season. There was a talent deficit, a scholarship hit because of the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate standards, a passel of injuries and other issues that put the program at an immediate competitive disadvantage.

With modest talent at quarterback and a general talent shortfall in 2008, the Cougars were shut out three times and gave up 58 points or more six times. They were compared to the worst teams of all time, but managed a double-overtime victory over Washington.

WSU was more competitive in 2009, but still managed to win only a single game, and after a 30-0 loss to Washington in the Apple Cup, Wulff had to survive a push to remove him after two seasons.

The Cougars gradually got better, but the victories were too sparse to turn the administrative tide for him in a significant way. With a 3-22 record the first two years — no matter how tough the circumstances when he took over — it was difficult for him to gain traction with many alumni and boosters.

WSU beat Oregon State last year in a big surprise, won an uplifting comeback game at Colorado Oct. 1 this year and had a rousing upset of Arizona State on Nov. 5 behind a memorable performance from quarterback Connor Halliday. But with a chance to notch a second straight upset, against Utah, the Cougars eschewed a potential game-winning chance at the 1-yard line in the final seconds, kicked a field goal and lost in overtime.

Wulff’s fate might have been sealed on Sept. 3, oddly, in a 64-21 victory over Idaho State. Jeff Tuel, the standout junior quarterback, awoke that morning with a virus and the Cougars started senior Marshall Lobbestael.

But Tuel, after taking medication and asking to play, entered with 6:14 left in the first quarter. On his fifth snap, he tried to run right to escape a rush, was tackled and suffered a broken collarbone.

It essentially ruined his season and led to instability at the position through much of it. Tuel returned Oct. 15 but played only a game and a half before injuries sidelined him for the year — possibly torpedoing WSU’s chance to get to six wins and bowl eligibility.

Leach, meanwhile, coached Texas Tech to 10 straight bowl appearances but left amid controversy after the ’09 season. He had signed a five-year, $12.7 million contract with the school in February 2009.

But an incident in which he allegedly mistreated one of his players, the son of ESPN analyst Craig James, prompted the school to fire him, just short of a deadline in which he was to receive an $800,000 bonus. Leach sued for wrongful termination and after some legal wrangling over whether as a state entity, Tech had sovereign immunity, greatly limiting potential legal action, the Texas Supreme Court agreed to review the case.

Leach has been out of coaching the past two years, but has been open about interest in returning. He was interviewed for the Maryland job last offseason but it went to Randy Edsall, and speculation has been that Leach’s tangled exit from Texas Tech has hurt his chance at being rehired.

— Bud Withers/The Seattle Times

Barker

He enrolled at Washington State (then Washington State College) in 1949 and had to earn his spot on the football team as a non-scholarship walk-on. He went on to earn first-team All-Pacific Coast Conference and Associated Press All-West Coast honors after setting a NCAA single-season and career receiving yardage records.

Barker, also a three-letter winner in track for the Cougars, finished sixth in the United States decathlon trials, barely missing a spot on the 1952 Olympic team. He was a first-round pick in the 1953 NFL draft by the Los Angeles Rams and played two years in the NFL before turning to a career in the Air Force.

The retired New Orleans Saints folk hero only hopes he can continue to lift people’s spirits by the way he handles what until now has been a private struggle with ALS, a debilitating and ultimately fatal disease for which there currently is no cure.

On Sunday, five years to the day after his memorable play became a symbol of a devastated community’s will to carry on, Gleason, 34, went public with his diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

“In a way, I see this as an opportunity to continue to be an inspiration, maybe even more so than I ever have been,” said Gleason, a 5-foot-11, former Washington State standout who forged an eight-year NFL career in New Orleans as a special teams leader and reserve safety.

Now the native of Spokane, Wash., who settled in New Orleans after retiring in 2008, is setting up an organization called Team Gleason. Its mission is to improve the lives of those who have ALS, the symptoms of which include gradual paralysis.

“You have to continue to do things you love,” Gleason said. “There’s technology available that, if I’m proactive, I can continue to do some of those things. You have to engage in passionate, remarkable human relationships, which has always been important to me.”

Gleason was an honorary captain for the coin toss of Sunday’s game against Houston, walking with a limp to the center of the field with his hand on quarterback Drew Brees’ shoulder. The crowd in the sold-out Superdome rose for a standing ovation when he was shown, wearing his old No. 37 jersey, on the stadium’s video board.

He raised his left arm over his head to initiate the crowd’s traditional pregame “Who Dat!” chant. Brees then hugged him and walked with him back to the sideline, where Gleason’s wife, Michel, now nearly eight months pregnant, gave him another hug and a football-style pat on his back side.

Most people live three to five years with ALS after diagnosis, though some have lived longer and research on treatments continues.

When Gleason was diagnosed last January, he and Michel had been seeing fertility specialists in hopes of conceiving their first child. He also was trying to finish a master’s program in business administration at Tulane University.

He briefly considered abandoning his school work, but returned to Tulane and got his MBA.

He also had to address whether he and Michel should keep trying to start a family.

“More than ever I wanted to have a child, but it really was my wife’s decision, because if things ran their course with me, potentially she’d have to be taking care of and supporting two people,” said Gleason, who has limited use of his right arm, and who finds eating and drinking more challenging because of a weakening in his mouth and throat.

“Luckily for me, she didn’t hesitate,” Gleason said. Their first child is due Oct. 28.

When Gleason played, he was easily recognizable by the long curly locks of light brown hair dangling from his helmet, and was a favorite among fans and teammates for the flair with which he played and lived.

In 2006, his last season playing before spending 2007 on injured reserve, he was third on the Saints in special teams tackles with 14. His blocked punt in the victory over Atlanta on Sept. 25, 2006, was the fourth block of his career.

Saints coach Sean Payton said the crowd’s reaction was “probably the loudest I’ve ever heard any stadium — ever.”

Cleveland linebacker Scott Fujita, who played in New Orleans from 2006-09, said the play was his “most electric sports memory,” and drove home how important the Saints’ return to the city really was.

Gleason used the term, “infinite joy,” to describe what he felt in that moment.

Fujita, who remains friends with Gleason, has been both saddened by Gleason’s condition and uplifted by his enduring sense of humor and zest for life.

“He even said to some of us on the phone that he views this as an exciting challenge and opportunity,” Fujita said. “Steve’s one of the few people I think in this situation who could say something like that and actually mean it.”

Because scientific studies have shown increasing links between brain disease, such as dementia, and the frequency of concussions among football players, Gleason cannot help but wonder if his football career had something to do with his condition.

Yet the question of whether he regrets playing football is a complicated one. He cannot be certain that he would have been spared from ALS had he never played football.

He also cherishes the friendships and experiences he gained from his NFL career.

“It was amazing. I got this incredible adventure,” Gleason said. “I did all these things most boys grow up dreaming to do.”

Dr. Steve Perrin, the chief scientific officer at the ALS Therapy Development Institute in Cambridge, Mass., said he is aware of 27 cases of NFL players being diagnosed with ALS, which is much higher than any other major American pro sport. However, he stressed that a conclusive link between concussions in sports and ALS has been tough to prove. He noted, for example, that there are no documented cases of NHL players with ALS, which remains a relatively rare disease in general.

At this point, Gleason said he is more concerned with how he’ll live with ALS than how he got it.

For now, he can still walk without a cane, however gingerly, and enjoy dinners out with family and friends, though he sometimes needs help pulling a shirt on, washing his hair or cutting a steak.

Talking is getting harder as well, so Gleason has been working on a video library in which he shares his most poignant memories and life lessons, both good and bad. He hopes the videos will allow his child to know him as he was before his symptoms made it more difficult for him to move or speak.

“Especially here in New Orleans, most of the people that my child will encounter, if I’m not here, will say, ‘Your dad was amazing and he had this great football career, he was a hero for the city,’ and almost in a sense build kind of a mythical image of me,” Gleason said. “So what I’ve tried to do is sit down and really explain some of the struggles I’ve gone through and the less desirable parts of myself. … I want them to know I went through a lot of the same things they went through. And I’ve had to go through one of the hardest things a person can go through, but hopefully shown the courage and grace and joy you can still have despite these circumstances.”

Imagine his mood tonight when the longtime Yakima Valley Community College coach and administrator arrives at Spokane’s Davenport Hotel for his induction into the WSU Athletic Hall of Fame.

“It’s quite an honor,” Faller said. “I’m looking forward to seeing some very good friends.”

A middle infielder at WSU for the legendary Buck Bailey, Faller played shortstop in 1946, second base in 1947 — Brayton took over at short — then moved back to short in 1948 as Brayton shifted to left field.

Brayton, of course, has already been enshrined at WSU. McGuire and Brunswick will join Faller in a large Pioneer class of inductees, meaning male athletes who played before 1970.

Faller, who’d been a three-sport athlete at Ferndale High School, recalled that in 1947 and 48 the Cougars reached the best-of-three playoffs in what was then called District 8. The first year they lost to eventual national champion California and the next year fell to eventual national champion USC.

“During the Cal series (at Berkeley), it was raining,” Faller said. “They’d beaten us the first game but we came back to tie the second game 4-4 in the seventh inning, and then Cal brought in (future big league star) Jackie Jensen to shut our rally down. Then they decided it wasn’t going to stop raining, so they called the game and declared Cal the winner.”

Faller played semi-pro ball for several years, including two summers for manager Hub Kittle with the Klamath Falls Gems. He also signed with the Philadelphia Phillies before embarking on a teaching and coaching career of nearly 40 years in the Yakima Valley that included stops at Prosser and Wapato high schools before Faller was hired in 1961 by what was then called Yakima Junior College, where he succeeded Brayton as baseball coach.

And during Faller’s 26-year at Yakima the Indians won 664 games, 11 conference championships and 18 league and regional titles.

The NWAACC tournament trophy bears his name. Now, so will a place of honor in the WSU Athletic Hall of Fame.

Utah, you’re soon going to make about 15 times the TV revenue you were getting in the Mountain West Conference. And Colorado, well, let’s put it this way: Would you rather be making road trips to the Bay Area and Eugene and Seattle, or do the Stillwater-Ames-Waco swing in the Big 12?

You probably know this is quite the league you’re joining. Great diversity, colorful history, more geographic chops than any other conference in the nation. We’ve got mountains, ocean, desert, wheat fields and Telegraph Avenue. To win the thing, you might have to play in 110 degrees in Tempe in September and 15 in Pullman two months later.

But there are things you need to know, because, well, the seller occasionally keeps secrets from the homebuyer. We’re here to tell you where the bones are buried.

You knew already that USC was the alpha dog in this league. The Trojans claim 11 national championships, they’ve gone to 33 Rose Bowls, and they’ve won seven Heisman Trophies, some of which they’ve actually been able to keep.

O.J. Simpson might be the best back in college-football history, but his most riveting move was in a white Bronco in 1994. Now he’s one of the better players at the Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada for his shakedown of a memorabilia dealer in 2007.

Oh, and get used to the Trojan band plunging into another rendition of “Tribute to Troy.” It’s almost as annoying as Nancy Grace.

At least the Trojans win. Across town, UCLA won a national title in 1954 and pretty much called it quits. Well, there was a glorious stretch in the ’80s when the Bruins won seven straight postseason games. But lately, it’s been a battle just to make the Handi-Wipes Holiday Classic.

“Girls football” is what Brian Bosworth once alleged of the Bruins, and nothing against girls, but the program has pretty much spent years living down that image.

In a lot of areas, UCLA and USC are where it’s at in this league. Like, at the top of the Pac-12 in times busted for major NCAA football violations, at six apiece.

Thirty-three years ago, Arizona and Arizona State were the newbies in the league. The coach at ‘Zona then was Tony Mason, who was quotable, fat and, as it turned out, crooked.

Funny thing, a 1975 Sports Illustrated carried this quip from Mason, then at Cincinnati: “Ninety percent of colleges are abiding by the rules, doing things right. The other 10 percent are going to bowl games.”

Mason opted for the bowl games at Arizona, got whacked for major violations, and to this day, the Wildcats haven’t been to the Rose Bowl. Now the coach is Mike Stoops, and you’ll know him by his feverish behavior on the sideline, like there’s 40-grit sandpaper lining his boxers.

Not to say Arizona hasn’t been salty. It’s easier to run on the border police at Nogales than it was on ‘Zona’s Desert Swarm teams of the early ’90s.

Up the road, Arizona State produced one of society’s iconic figures, Pat Tillman, who chucked a career in the NFL to pack an assault rifle in Afghanistan and died for it. Then the government war machine got involved, and you know the rest.

Way before that, it was the merciless Frank Kush who put the Sun Devils on the map, wildly successful first in the old Border Conference, then in the Western Athletic Conference. “I treat my players all the same: terrible,” Kush said. No kidding. A player once alleged that “he hit me with pipes, boards and a ship’s rope.”

Last time California went to the Rose Bowl, in 1959, Ike was butting heads with Khrushchev. Next year never gets here for the Bears. Well, back in 1982, they had The Play, the five-lateralpalooza to beat Stanford. Even that had a somber side, because Mariet Ford, who tossed the ball last, is doing hard time for killing his wife and 3-year-old son.

Strange things happen to Cal on its way to Pasadena. The Bears had a rough-and-tumble quarterback and coach, Joe Kapp, who once unzipped his pants during a postgame interview in Seattle. Pretty soon he was ex-coach Joe Kapp.

Most of the time, Stanford seems above this football business. Its fans didn’t even turn out for its best team ever last season.

If nothing else, they should show up for Stanford’s anti-marching band, which has offended more people than Chris Rock. One time, it used a white Bronco and parodied O.J.’s ride. It got banned in Oregon after a Eugene performance mocking logging that endangered the spotted owl, complete with a formation of a chain saw. And it got under Brigham Young skins when, as a band manager proposed one by one to members of Stanford’s dance team, the band announcer celebrated marriage over the P.A. system as the sacred bond “between a man and a woman … and a woman … and a woman … “

Speaking of Oregon, the Ducks took a long time getting it right. The alumni once fired a coach because they didn’t like his staff, which included George Seifert (who later won two Super Bowls), John Robinson (who would win four Rose Bowls) and Bruce Snyder (a head coach in the Pac-10 for 14 years).

Now the Ducks move the chains faster than a third-world virus, and when they need something, they speed-dial Nike. Or, if you believe the news lately, they call Texas scout Willie Lyles. Panicked when they didn’t have anything to show for their $25,000 payment to Lyles and prying media were onto it, the Ducks beseeched Lyles for scouting materials. He responded with, essentially, old family snapshots and receipts of his last few oil changes.

Back in the day, Oregon State had its moments. Terry Baker is still the only guy to win the Heisman and play in the Final Four. In 1967, the Beavers had the “Giant Killers,” so named because they beat No. 2 Purdue and tied No. 2 UCLA, after which Dee Andros, the rotund coach, bellowed, “I’m tired of playing No. 2 teams! Bring on No. 1!” They did, and OSU beat top-ranked USC.

Then it turned ugly, as the Beavers had a record 28 losing seasons in a row. That’s a tradition almost as long as Illinois governors going to prison.

Like everybody else, OSU has a few skeletons. On Google, one of them is headlined, “Drunk Beaver Found With Stolen Ram From Gay-Sheep Project.” You can’t make this stuff up.

In Seattle, Jim Owens and Don James are legends. At various times, the Huskies have been the baddest team in the West. The 1991 team was as good as any, ever.

They take their football very seriously up here. Hugh McElhenny, the great running back, used to say he took a pay cut when he went to the NFL.

Then there was Olin Kreutz’s early exit to the League in 1997, when he said, “Everybody talks about school, but we want to be football players. We really don’t want to do school.” The shudder on Upper Campus rattled the Richter scale.

Finally, there are the Cougars. They went 67 years without a Rose Bowl, then clicked off two in six years under Mike Price. He was one of many colorful characters who have marked the program, but there have been a few sketchy ones, too, like running back Deon Burnett, who, at halftime of the 2000 Apple Cup, took off his uniform and left, never to be heard from again.

WSU hatched the term “Couging it,” which means blowing a lead and losing. Lately, the Cougars have taken care of that — they just never get ahead of anybody.

So there’s your new family, guys — loving, caring, welcoming, and at times a bit dysfunctional. Everybody has a crazy uncle, right?

— Bud Withers/The Seattle Times

“I’ll be surfing,” he said.

Ah, you can just see the 64-year-old coach, hanging ten on the Salt River in Phoenix, his pixie gray hair flapping lightly in the breeze.

“I’ll be surfing with the channels,” he clarified, just in time.

TV isn’t making it easy on any of us this week. On opening weekend, there are two rankings-rattling games, two that stand out above all others.

Naturally, they’re at the same time — 5 p.m. Saturday. That’s when the Oregon-LSU matchup goes off against Boise State-Georgia in Atlanta.

Oregon-LSU: This game needs to be played before somebody else gets suspended.

And talk about the difference between the pro game and college. In an NFL-without-lockout season, teams might start with a scrimmage. And then four exhibition games. And then a season so elongated that it’s impossible to eliminate yourself early.

By contrast, Oregon (No. 3) and LSU (No. 4) have to bolt out of the gate knowing that a misstep might prevent them from national-title consideration.

Boise State-Georgia: Five years ago, Kellen Moore was a ho-hum prospect from Prosser, mostly ignored by Washington and Washington State. Today, he’s 38-2 as Boise State’s starting quarterback, and eight more wins thrusts him past Colt McCoy’s national record of 45 for QBs.

Trying to outdo Moore will be Aaron Murray of Georgia in another big-stage game for Boise State. Before it began excelling at this, it ventured to Georgia in 2005 and got schooled, 48-13.

Four others of note

Northwestern at Boston College, 9 a.m.: Of all the promotional campaigns in history, Northwestern’s is the heaviest. In celebration of quarterback Dan Persa’s strength, the Wildcats sent out two 7-pound purple dumbbells (his number is 7) to media members, labeling them “PersaStrong.”

Brigham Young at Mississippi, 4:45 p.m.: Jake Heaps leads BYU into its era of football independence against an Ole Miss team largely rebuilt on defense.

UCLA at Houston, 12:30 p.m.: QB Case Keenum got a sixth year of eligibility, and the Cougars no doubt remember a 31-13 waxing given them by the Bruins last year, when Keenum went out with a knee injury.

Fresno State-California at Candlestick Park, 4 p.m.: “Playing up” was the Western Athletic Conference’s slogan a few years ago, and nobody personifies it like the Bulldogs, who are in their last year in the league. Cal, which missed a bowl last year after seven straight appearances, needs to be on guard.

— Bud Withers/The Seattle Times

YAKIMA, Wash. — Bill Moos would rather talk about something else.

Washington State’s athletic director — an ex-Cougar football player and accomplished storyteller — would no doubt prefer shaking hands, slapping backs and sharing yarns with friends old and new at events like Friday’s Cougar gathering at the Harman Center.

And there was a good amount of that, to be sure, at a well-attended event that included football coach Paul Wulff and basketball coach Ken Bone.

But as fun-loving and personable as Moos is, he is also a down-to-earth realist who is very much aware that stops such as this on WSU’s spring tour cannot be devoted solely to spreading the Cougar gospel.

He can’t afford to.

New Washington State University uniforms greet guests at the Yakima Valley Night with Cougar Athletics Dinner & Auction at the Harman Center in Yakima, Wash. Friday, May 19, 2011. (Andy Sawyer/Yakima Herald-Republic)

“Little known fact,” Moos said while discussing the blockbuster TV deal negotiated recently by the Pac-12. “We have the lowest budget in the conference right now. If we were to get our share of the TV money and no one else in the Pac-12 did, we’d still have the lowest budget.”

Sure, Moos will welcome the approximately $21 million WSU will receive from the contract, which takes effect for the 2012-13 season. The Cougs, given their plans for a dramatic upgrade to Martin Stadium and the construction of a neighboring state-of-the-art center for football operations, will gladly accept the funds.

But so will Washington, Oregon and every other conference school, including newcomers Colorado and Utah.

And since no one among the Washington State faithful — at this hour, at least — has neither pockets nor loyalties as deep as Phil Knight, Moos must rely on a thousand-points-of-light approach to fill his department’s coffers.

He spoke proudly of the football operations building, a facility of 85,000-to-90,000 square feet that will house locker rooms, weight rooms, coaches offices, meeting rooms and training tables.

Moos and other WSU personnel visited similar structures at Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and LSU.

“It’s been my practice to do that, to get a feel for what we need,” said Moos, who oversaw the early Knight-fueled facilities boom at Oregon. “If this gets done as we hope it will, our facility will be as good as there is in the country.”

John Sousley, left, greets Washington State University head football coach Paul Wulff at the Yakima Valley Night with Cougar Athletics Dinner & Auction at the Harmon Center in Yakima, Wash. Friday, May 19, 2011. (Andy Sawyer/Yakima Herald-Republic)

Which, of course, meets with the unabashed approval of Wulff.

“It’s huge,” he said. “It will give our players the facilities to make them the best they can be.”

Like many observers, Wulff was encouraged by his team’s performance last season even if the final record was 2-10.

“We grew up,” Wulff said. “Our young players developed some confidence in themselves and came to believe they could compete. We had seven freshmen playing defense a lot of the time, and we had kids out there playing who should’ve been redshirting.

“We’ll still be really young. But at least we’ll also be experienced, so we’re obviously excited about next season.”

So was Bone, who will begin his third year in Pullman without Klay Thompson and DeAngelo Casto.

“What Klay and DeAngelo did for us speaks for itself,” Bone said, “a 6-foot-6 shooting guard who will probably be one of the first 20 picks in the NBA draft and an energy and effort player who will be very hard to replace.

“But I think Brock Motum is actually better than the amount of minutes we gave him. Or at least he will be if he adds some weight and muscle. And we do have Faisal Aden, Reggie Moore and Marcus Capers back, plus some new players we’re very high on.”

And Bone offered these observations on Patrick Simon, the 6-8, 214-pound true freshman from Ephrata who averaged 3.2 points on 37 percent shooting over 9.4 minutes per game.

Washington State University head basketball coach Ken Bone talks with guests at the Yakima Valley Night with Cougar Athletics Dinner & Auction at the Harman Center in Yakima, Wash. Friday, May 19, 2011. (Andy Sawyer/Yakima Herald-Republic)

“Patrick played well for us early, but then I think he lost some confidence when he stopped making as many shots. I probably lost a little confidence in him, too. But you have to remember what it’s like for a true freshman to play in the Pac-10, or now the Pac-12. It’s a huge jump for any player to go straight from high school to that level of play, but especially for someone from a small school like Ephrata. He’s going to be really good, though.”

As Moos hopes the Cougars will become collectively if boosters truly understand that he doesn’t just want their money, he desperately needs it.

“We need help at all levels of our department,” he said, “and we need it from Cougars of all ages. Our approach is we’re trying to launch a new era in Cougar athletics, and we want everyone here to be a part of it.”

• Roger Underwood’s Under the Radar blog is at sportsyakima.com He can be reached at 509-577-7694 or runderwood@yakimaherald.com

YAKIMA, Wash. — During the early 1980s, James Donaldson was a big part of the Seattle SuperSonics.

Literally, a big part.

“My goodness,” a young woman said Tuesday while shaking Donaldson’s hand at a YMCA book signing and autograph session, “look how big your hand is compared to mine.”

“Well,” Donaldson said, smiling, “big hands go with being a big person.”

“How tall are you?” she asked.

To which Donaldson answered for the umpteen thousandth time, no doubt, “I am 7-2.” Not to mention 275 pounds.

Back in the day, when Donaldson was still learning the game, his stature was not lost on more established teammates, either. During the 1981-82 season, for example, whenever Donaldson would get the ball near the basket, Gus Williams would howl from the Seattle bench, “He’s yours, big fella.”

Tuesday, reminded of those occasions, Donaldson sat back in his chair and smiled. “Yeah,” he said, “Gus, Fred Brown, J.J. (John Johnson). They were guys who helped me learn, making sure I arrived early and stayed late. Fun times.”

The ’80s, after all, were good to the NBA and vice versa. ESPN and the proliferation of cable TV beamed an increasingly competitive and glamorous game to millions.

Of course, the arrival of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson and the captivating Celtics-Lakers rivalry helped. So did David Stern — for awhile, at least.

The Sonics, meanwhile, were in a state of decline, their skids greased by ill-advised personnel moves lowlighted by draft choices such as Danny Vranes and Jon Sundvold.

In 1979, weeks after winning its only NBA championship, Seattle did itself no favors by using the sixth and seventh picks on James Bailey and Vinnie Johnson, respectively. But the Sonics did find a proverbial diamond in the rough in Donaldson, drafted in the fourth round (73rd overall choice) from Washington State.

Though clearly a project — Donaldson played his first professional season in Italy — he returned to become a popular and productive Sonic and, with Dallas in 1988, he was an All-Star.

The emerging league needed people like Donaldson. He was hard-working, polite and completely void of the sense of entitlement so many players had, even then.

And now Donaldson is back, giving back.

In addition to writing his book, appropriately entitled, “Standing above the Crowd,” Donaldson has served as a mentor to many, giving motivational speeches and spending time with youth as he’d done earlier Tuesday to a sixth-grade PE class at Washington Middle School.

His book is meant to inspire readers to more closely approach their potential through desire, dedication and discipline, using his own personal triumphs as examples.

He owns The Donaldson Clinic, a physical therapy facility in Mill Creek, and ran for mayor of Seattle in 2009.

Speaking of politics, Donaldson was asked the state of Seattle’s climate regarding another NBA team.

“There’s nothing new,” he said. “People are still talking and hoping, but right now there’s nothing on the radar screen. I still think it’s a five-year outlook to do everything that’s necessary, including getting an arena.”

The 53-year-old Donaldson, meanwhile, said he stays in touch with several of his old teammates, including Brown and Johnson, and that former coach Lenny Wilkens helped with portions of his book.

“Lenny had a lot of stories,” Donaldson said. “There were some really neat things he talked about, but some really sad stories, too, about some of the social issues he faced as a young player.”

None of which dulled Donaldson’s keen sense of humor, however.

When it was mentioned that he was born in Heacham, England, Donaldson said,

“I was 2 when we left, so I don’t remember anything about living there. I am jazzed about the wedding, though.”

In the 1980s, the NBA needed people like James Donaldson.

It still does.

• Roger Underwood’s Under the Radar blog is at sportsyakima.com He can be

reached at 509-577-7694 or runderwood@yakimaherald.com

There had been rampant speculation that Wulff, 5-32 in his first three years, would be fired. But the Cougars (2-10, 1-8 Pac-10) showed improvement in the second half of this season. Moos said school president Elson Floyd left the decision to him, and that the goal of both is to see a successful football program.

“It is my feeling at this particular time that the best course of action to move in that direction is to continue with the current leadership,” Moos said in a news release.

Washington State lost to archrival Washington 35-28 in an exciting game Saturday in Pullman. The Cougars beat Oregon State in their previous game — their first Pac-10 win in two seasons.

Many of Wulff’s players expressed support for their coach after Saturday’s game.

His supporters contend the Cougars are unquestionably better than when Wulff took over a decimated program from Bill Doba in 2008. Critics contend progress is measured in wins.

Wulff believes his efforts to rebuild the program from the ground up have paid off.

“This team is capable of going on next year and being a bowl contender,” Wulff said earlier this week.

Washington State has been more competitive this season. The passing attack led by sophomore quarterback Jeff Tuel, junior Jared Karstetter and freshman Marquess Wilson ranks 48th in the nation, though Washington State’s total offense and total defense statistics both rank in the bottom quarter of the 120 major college teams.

Before he became athletic director this season, Moos was part of a panel that recommended hiring Wulff.

Around the time Wulff was hired, the Cougars were hit with the loss of eight scholarships by the NCAA because of academic performance. That has changed, as the team placed more players than any other Pac-10 program on the all-academic first team this season.

Wulff is a former WSU offensive lineman who was successful as head coach at nearby Eastern Washington.

But in the bigger scheme, the big day could be Sunday. Or Monday or Tuesday.

“I hope,” WSU athletic director Bill Moos said Thursday at the Yakima Convention Center, “to have this thing wrapped up early next week.”

“This thing,” of course, is WSU’s head coaching job, and Moos’ first major personnel decision as the Cougars’ AD will be whether third-year man Paul Wulff will retain it.

The blogosphere has for months been aglow with Wulff’s projected demise, and of late has linked Mike Bellotti with the presumed vacancy.

Bellotti and Moos had worked together at Oregon, the former as head coach and the latter as AD, and are said to remain friends. One report said Bellotti, presently an ESPN analyst, has been seen recently on the Pullman campus.

Thursday, during a post-Rotary Club luncheon interview with the Herald-Republic, Moos smiled and said, “I’ve spoken to Mike once in the last three years, and that was when he called me in his capacity with ESPN to ask about the new Pac-12 revenue sharing arrangement I spoke about earlier today.

“I don’t have any knowledge as to whether he’s interested in getting back into it (coaching). And I don’t know if he’d be a good fit (for WSU).”

Which brings us back to Wulff.

Moos said he’d been observing and assessing the coach and program since taking over as AD in April. He, like Wulff, played for the Cougars.

“Paul Wulff is a fantastic individual,” Moos said, “and he’s also a very good football coach. But he’s had to dig out of a hole.”

If scant progress was shown during Wulff’s first two seasons, in which WSU went 3-22 while being outscored 1,032-309, this year has been different.

After early-season blowout losses to Oklahoma State (65-17) and USC (50-16), plus a come-from-behind 23-22 win over FCS member Montana State, the Cougs began to hang with some pretty fast company.

Top-ranked Oregon and fifth-ranked Stanford were among those WSU extended before falling, 43-23 and 38-28, respectively.

“I’ve seen some very good things happen with our program,” Moos said. “I would certainly love to have seen more wins, but with a couple of exceptions we were still in games during the fourth quarter.”

Asked if the caliber of potential replacements would affect his decision, Moos said, “I’ve been at this for a long time, and I try to stay on top of who the most talented coaching candidates are. I pretty much always have a short list, and I think any AD would have that.”

Previously, Moos had regaled the gathering — which included a substantial number of Washington fans — and said repeatedly that both the UW and WSU programs are headed in the right direction.

He then issued a state-of-the-stadium assessment regarding the Cougars’ venue for those planning to attend Saturday’s game.

“We have removed all the snow from Martin Stadium,” Moos said, smiling, “except on the sideline where the Huskies will be standing.”

Saturday, the team picked to finish seventh, California, took 14th-ranked Arizona to the wire. The team forecast eighth, UCLA, went to Austin as a 15-point underdog and handed seventh-ranked Texas its lunch. And the club selected ninth, Arizona State, ran up 31 first downs and 597 yards on fifth-rated Oregon in defeat.

What we learned

Reports of Rick Neuheisel’s demise were greatly exaggerated. After an 0-2 start, there were rumblings of a possible two-win season at UCLA and questions asked about whether the coach would survive.

Then the Bruins cold-cocked Texas with a running game that produced 264 yards.

Referring to Texas’ first-half turnovers that put UCLA in the lead, Neuheisel told the Los Angeles Times, “I told them at halftime that hope wasn’t how we were going to win this game. We weren’t going to hope for the clock to run out. We weren’t going to hope for them to keep making mistakes. I said, ‘Go out and fight and enjoy the fight.’ ”

They did. Said Bruins safety Tony Dye, “They were taken aback by our toughness. They thought we were a bunch of laid-back California kids.”

Maybe the Pistol offense really is that vexing to defenses. Not only did UCLA’s version flummox Texas, but Cal, a week after getting floored by the Nevada Pistol, held the dynamic non-Pistol Arizona offense to only 311 yards.

Darron Thomas is a work in progress. Yes, it’s hard to argue with the Oregon quarterback’s 19 of 33 for 260 yards against ASU. But the numbers are inflated by a couple of busts in the Sun Devils secondary that netted completions of 61 and 54 yards. Thomas threw several clothesline passes when he needed soft touch.

Oregon State’s pass rush is still MIA. The Beavers failed to sack Boise State’s Kellen Moore, and many of the defensive concerns are still there, as OSU is allowing 458 yards a game.

But they’ve been here before. OSU had its seventh consecutive non-winning September, yet given the elite level of competition, the Beavers might not be that far away.

This week

The headliner of four conference games is Stanford at Oregon, which no doubt remembers the underdog Cardinal’s 51-42 victory in 2009. Saturday, Stanford throttled Notre Dame, holding the Irish to 44 rushing yards and 14:31 time of possession over the last three quarters.

Times Players of the Week

Offense — Center Ryan Taylor, UCLA’s only player from Texas, keyed the Bruins’ crunching ground game, making the line calls and surviving a heat-induced absence for an IV.

Defense — UCLA LB Akeem Ayers had six tackles, including a sack, with a forced fumble and an interception against Texas.

Special teams — Stanford’s Nate Whitaker, who admitted he had extra motivation for Notre Dame after being a walk-on discouraged from the roster by former Irish coach Charlie Weis, had five field goals to help beat the Domers.

— Bud Withers/The Seattle Times

If you have Charter cable, it will be on Channel 403, which is Fox College Sports Pacific. This channel is only available if you subscribe to the Sports View tier.

If you have DirecTV, tune to Channel 688, a Fox Sports Northwest Alternate channel.

On Dish Network, the game is available on Channel 447.

In some outlying areas, especially to the east, the game may be on the regular Fox Sports Northwest channel, check your local listings for more details.

For more information, contact Charter at 866-731-5420, DirecTV at 800-347-3288 or Dish Network at 888-686-2388.