Walden Sees That There’s Life Outside Pullman : In His Ninth Season as Washington State Coach, He May Have Cabin Fever

It’s understandable if football Coach Jim Walden of Washington State is getting restless, or feeling that he has been painted into a corner.

Walden is in his ninth season at the school in eastern Washington, the remote outpost of the Pacific 10 Conference. He has fought recruiting battles against schools with much larger population bases.

Even so, Walden’s teams have been competitive. For example, Washington State has beaten Washington three of the past four years, and no other Pac-10 school can make that claim. Walden has also fielded exciting teams that often led the conference in total offense.

But some things are apparently beginning to gnaw at Walden, such as low attendance figures for home games. The Cougars drew only 17,000 for their home opener against Nevada Las Vegas and only 15,000 the next week for a game against San Jose State.

The population of Pullman, Wash., is only 23,000, of whom 16,000 are students, and Walden said it’s getting more difficult each year to fund his program.

It has been reported that Walden, a candid, extroverted coach whose team will play undefeated USC Saturday at Pullman, is ready to move on, and he said in a telephone interview that he is more receptive now to taking another coaching job. He added, however, that this doesn’t mean he intends to leave.

“There were times when I didn’t even want to talk about leaving,” Walden said. “I felt strongly about my commitment to Washington State and I wasn’t even going to consider leaving.

“In 1981 (after an 8-3-1 season), a lot of people made calls to see if I was available. I told all of them adamantly that I didn’t want to stay here four years, have a good year and pull the plug and leave. I didn’t envision that as my commitment.

“Now, in my ninth year, I’ve become the second-winningest coach in the school’s history. I have stayed, fought and given an awful lot of myself to the school. I might be more receptive to going now, but that doesn’t mean I’m looking for a job.

“If I do decide to go, I don’t want to join another program that has the same problems.”

Washington State, like Oregon and Oregon State, has financial problems. Some non-revenue sports have been dropped, and now that the minimum guarantee for visiting Pac-10 football teams has been raised from $75,000 to $125,000, the money squeeze is even tighter.

“I thought we’d draw 20,000 just out of curiosity for our opening game, but we got only 17,000,” Walden said. “The next week we played San Jose State. Now you don’t expect the doors to swing open for them like USC, but you wouldn’t think you’d go down 2,000 in attendance, either. How do you lose that many people after winning?”

Attendance increased to 25,000 for WSU’s game against Oregon State last Saturday, and a crowd of 35,000 is anticipated at 40,000-seat Martin Stadium for the homecoming game against USC. Still, problems persist.

“We have a limited amount of people to draw from and also a limited amount of resources to get people to give,” Walden said. “We don’t have big donors, nobody from Warner Brothers. This would be the best job in the United States if I could find four guys who would kick in a million bucks just one time.

“If we could average 28,000 or 30,000, our economy would jump beyond our dreams. Washington State is only four games away from playing .500 football since I’ve been here. Now that wouldn’t win you any merits at Penn State, Alabama, or USC, but I’m not at one of those schools. But when you’re close to 50% in competition and below 20% in support, there is something wrong. I don’t think my program is embarrassing anyone.”

Walden, 48, said he didn’t want to sound like a whiner, and he is not sending out his resume. But he is obviously thinking about his future.

“What I’m looking for is maybe a school like Iowa,” he said. “When Hayden Fry went there, they hadn’t had a winning team in 20 years, but they were only 3,000 short of filling their stadium every week.

“I don’t want to go to a place where I have to sell season tickets and promote people to come to games. If I don’t do anything else, I’m not going to another Washington State in terms of lack of income and not coming to games. I’d rather stay here.

“I’m not going to a Kansas State, Vanderbilt or Rice, and I have nothing against those schools. But they have the same problems that I have.

“If I were to leave, I hope the things I’ve done here would impress somebody at a school that has the other things built in.”

Walden finds it curious that his team draws the largest home crowds for games against teams that he probably shouldn’t beat. He wants people in the stands against teams the Cougars are most likely to beat.

USC is the only team in the Pac-10 that Walden’s teams haven’t beaten. In addition to defeating Don James-coached teams at Washington, Walden has won four of the last five games against Oregon; has lost the last two games against UCLA by a total of only four points, but has beaten and tied the Bruins in the past, and is 2-1-1 against Arizona State in the last four meetings.

Walden says he is now confronting the big tanks on his schedule, consecutive games with USC, UCLA, Stanford and Arizona. The 1986 Cougars have already turned in one upset, tying Arizona State, 21-21.

“We’re not ready for all of them, but on a one-game basis we can beat anybody,” Walden said.

Perhaps, Walden is getting eager now to drive one of those big tanks, instead of dreaming up ways to ambush them.

Trojan Notes Jim Walden was so infuriated by his team’s 31-21 loss to California Sept. 20 that the WSU coach ordered full-scale scrimmages the next week while preparing for Arizona State. . . . “We led San Jose State, 13-0, at halftime (before losing, 20-13) and then our team stayed in the dressing room for the rest of the half and the entire next game against Cal.” As for the scrimmages, he said: “If they weren’t going to play in games this season, we might as well get them ready for another year. We wanted them to get some callouses in areas where there weren’t any. I wasn’t pounding my guys for some egotistical reason that I think we’re great, but I do know when our team is better than some of the teams we’re playing and when we’re not playing anywhere near the level we can play.”

Walden said his option quarterback, Ed Blount, graded out at only 16% against Cal. “That’s the lowest grade of any quarterback I’ve ever had at the school,” he said. “And his grade reflected the entire team. But last week against Oregon State (the Cougars won, 24-14) he graded out at 74%, which is one of the highest grades we’ve ever given a quarterback.” . . . Blount, from Blair High in Pasadena, is a Rodney Peete-type quarterback, a running and passing threat. He has completed 51.9% of his passes this season for 803 yards and 7 touchdowns while throwing 4 interceptions. He has also rushed for 152 yards. . . . Fullback Kerry Porter is WSU’s leading ground gainer with a 4.3-yard average. He was the Pac-10’s leading rusher in 1983, gaining 1,000 yards exactly, but has been hampered by injuries the last two seasons.