WSU AD Pat Chun Talks Pac-12 Football Perception, Ernie Kent Future & More
TheDawgReport.com spoke last Thursday with Washington State University athletic director Pat Chun at the 84th MTRWestern Seattle Sport Star of the Year event.
The Cougars AD shared his thoughts on the 2018 football season, the future of men's basketball coach Ernie Kent, and several other Pac-12 and WSU topics.
Below is the full transcription:
On expanding the football recruiting budget… “From a big picture standpoint, I think we’re always cognoscente of the fact that we have to make incremental investments in our football program. With all of our programs, football specifically, the competition is so fierce. If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse. We have our challenges, but we also have our opportunities. So we’ll always do some self evaluation every year. See what are the things we need to invest in. See what we can do. If we need to fundraise for some of it, we will. Coach Leach has mapped out what his priorities are. This indoor practice field is one of the big ones. So, across the board, we recognize right now we’re in a wonderful place with our football program. It’s stable. From our presidential leadership to having a Hall of Fame caliber football coach. The assistant coaching staff we lost one assistant coach, which in this day and age is pretty significant. And then the other reality too is Mike Leach has proven over his career that he can go find and develop assistant coaches as well, so it may not impact us as it impacts other schools. We are very cognoscente of the fact that we can’t sit on our heels, with the type of success that coach Leach has had in the past seven years. We are going to be very intentional about investing in the program.”
On the fundraising efforts improving as a direct result of the football teams’ success in 2018… “Well our numbers have been up. I’m of the belief they correlate with the success of all our teams, but we also understand that football is our highest profile. The Cougs take a lot of pride in Washington State. Our alums, it is well known, our affinity in our institution may be second to none. So, when we’re winning, I know Cougs identify with that. I know Cougs want to keep it going. The investment portion of it correlates with peoples’ passion. So we’re in a great spot now. People love what’s going on with the institution. They understand their philanthropic dollars can and will make a difference. So we have to keep encouraging people to give and give at higher levels.”
On College GameDay finally coming to WSU in 2018 and the conversations for a return in the not to distant future… “All the stars aligned. The most important thing is you had to have a compelling football game for them to come to. You had to have a big game. The good thing is we’re at the stage with our football program where we seem to have a bunch of big games annually. So I know for a fact they had an extraordinary experience. The Cougs show exceeded expectations and expectations were high. When you talk to with their producers, their talent, they’ll tell you that was an all-time show, if not the all-time greatest show. So I think the Cougs left a wonderful impression on the country, on GameDay, and if the opportunity came up again I’d be shocked if they didn’t come. Yeah.”
On the perception of the Pac-12 being down, how frustrating is it as an AD knowing you can’t do anything to help any other program but your own. Talks with Kirk Schulz to help improve the perception as much as possible… “Yeah he’s (Schulz) on the CFP management committee. But really, to your question, the most important thing for us is to focus on Washington State. We can make the league better if we get better. We’re 1/12th of that when it’s all said and done. The better we are – you know, rising tide raises all ships. We’re proud of what we’ve done. Our fall sports, we proudly had one of the greatest falls we’ve ever had. But we got to get focused, we have to improve. Continue to add to football. We got to continue to build on men’s basketball. We need to improve there. But our responsibility to the Pac-12 as a whole – I’m looking at football, you could make an argument the Pac-12 North is one of the three toughest divisions in all of college football. So our work is cut out for us to keep improving in college football.”
On segwaying to basketball (Chun pulled out his phone to watch WSU-ASU with the Cougars leading 69-46), what have the talks been like with head coach Ernie Kent… “The talks with coach Kent have been nothing but positive. He wants to win. He knows what his responsibilities are. He has done a wonderful job, in terms of building a culture in that program. Trying to get the right student-athletes to be a part of that program. He knows we have to perform better on the court. We just have to get some momentum going in our favor. The good thing for us it’s still early February. The most important part of the season is coming up. We got to play our best basketball in March and we’ll see what happens.”
On for sure coach Kent is back next season… “We have to… my focus is on Arizona State and Arizona. The good thing is coach Kent and I we’ve had great communication. He’s been very, very easy to work with. He’s got a plan. He’s committed to that plan. The hope is we continue to make progress and, like I said, my focus is on Arizona State. At least with 6:49 and you can update this at the end, hopefully this is a positive sign.”
On the spring football game in Spokane, sounds like the field naming rights deal to prior to the spring game, any chance the game is moved back to Pullman… “No our spring game is going to Pullman. We made that announcement. Joe Albi [Stadium] is not a long term solution. More for functional reasons we moved it back to Pullman. (4/20). Our alums wanted an excuse to come to Pullman. There’s been so many investments made in Martin Stadium so we’re trying to make it a nice, fun festive weekend. Hopefully the weather cooperates. But Pullman is where that spring game should be so we’ll move it there for this year.”
On a concerted effort from the athletic department to improve the atmosphere after the football season (for men’s hoops / spring football, etc.) ... “Well there’s a reality I learned first-hand with our students and I should have studied it. I should have counted how many illegal procedure penalties happened at Martin Stadium this year, because that’s how much of an impact our students have on a game. I’ve gone to our soccer games where I couldn’t get a seat because our students are there. Bohler Gym for volleyball, a band-box that gets loud to the highest levels when our students are there and all teams have been ranked in the top 25. Our students do make a difference. I know in basketball is what you’re talking about, we have to give them a reason to come. We’re taking a holistic look at everything we’re doing at basketball anyways from a game atmosphere. But we have to get students to come out. We should have a home court advantage at Beasley because of the type of students we have. So we’re working towards trying to figure out better ways to incentivize them to come out.”
On any hints at the field naming rights and potential for it to tie into other rights with the university… “One piece at a time. Really since I’ve been here we’ve been in dialogue with a company, not the same company. So the good thing for us is this, and the most important piece is this: everyone in the state knows the affinity Cougs have for Washington State. Our brand has never been stronger. With what our teams are doing across the board. College GameDay coming here. Our brand is, I mean we’ve had the largest freshmen class in school history. What our med school is doing. What our wine science center is doing. Across the board Washington State is as strong as its ever been, and we’re trying to monetize that and leveraging that and making sure we’re partnering with the right companies across the board.”