CF.C Commentary ©

WASHINGTON STATE’S place in the college football world is especially unique at this point in time due to the convergence of the transformed Pac-12 in the countdown to launching its first season, and the fact WSU Athletics needs to raise an additional $20 million per year to compete in the revenue sharing/NIL arena.

The next five years are critical to the future of Cougar athletics because that’s when the next round of realignment happens. To land in the most advantageous spot at that time, the Cougs need to battle year-in-and-year-out for conference titles. 

And that makes the current search for a head football coach critical. Failure is not an option with this hire. And neither is the standard Xs and Os focus of the search. Yes, old fashioned blocking are tackling are central to the hire, along with recruiting acumen, academic commitment, and experience.

But the $20 million figure that WSU President Betsy Cantwell recently stated as the additional amount required for Cougar athletics to compete for titles puts a far different spin on this coaching search than the one a year ago that produced personality-challenged Jimmy Rogers. 

The Cougars need some combination of coach who possesses the basic attributes for a big-time college head coach as well as the marketing and entertainment acumen of guys like Jim Walden, Mike Price and Mike Leach. 

WSU needs a coach who can double as a fundraising machine. And in that regard, one name jumps out: CBS Sports analyst and former college and NFL coach Rick Neuheisel.

His name has been connected in a couple of reports in recent days to the opening at WSU. It’s not a surprise he would be interested:

We’ve talked with Rick a number of times over the last dozen years and can tell you proof positive he finds the grit and spirit of Cougar Nation to be one of the most unique and inspiring in college ball. He saw it first-hand as a UCLA quarterback and later as an assistant and head coach at UCLA and head coach at Washington. In short, he finds the Cougar brand one to get up and cheer about.He told John Canzano last month that he would love to get back in the game if schools such as Colorado State, then with an opening, were interested.

NEUHEISEL HAS NOT BEEN in the college coaching game since NIL and revenue sharing took over the sport. The coaching game has changed dramatically since he was last wearing a headset. Winning consistently is all about NIL and revenue sharing now.

Imagine what Neuheisel could do in the fundraising field at Washington State. He’s smart, personable, entertaining and looking to wrap up his career with an epic run no one sees coming.

The guy could sell Christmas trees in January, making him both a recruiting and fundraising dynamo.Put him in a room with potential donors and watch him not just win them over, but do so with gusto.He would likely be the best fundraiser to hit WSU since Sam Jankovich.

WSU WOULD ALSO be a story every week in the national media because of Neuheisel. Indeed, WSU would be in every conversation on college football because he’s a knowledgeable veteran of both the coaching world and the media. Pundits and reporters would seek him out. He’d be held in the same esteem by the media as Leach was. Just a coincidence that both had law school graduate on their résumés?

Neuheisel is 64 and this would be his last coaching job. As we noted in our Hot Board, he also won more than you might remember, going 87-59 as a head coach at UCLA, Colorado, and Washington. 

According to various reports including this one from Canzano, he might come as a package deal with son Jerry as his offensive coordinator, who just completed his eighth season of coaching at UCLA in 2025. He served as assistant head coach in December 2024 before taking on offensive playcalling duties midway through the Bruins’ 2025 campaign and found early success.

Canzano also mentioned Chip Kelly as someone who could be interested but on Monday pegged the chances of a union as slim, opining better chances Neuheisel could land in Pullman. 

Neuheisel has the recruiting chops to position WSU high among the new Pac-12. He might even dominate it. At the least, he’s worth having a conversation or two with.