UW Football
Notebook: Gilbertson ready to change the topic

By Bob Condotta
Seattle Times staff reporter

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Publicly, Washington coach Keith Gilbertson has tried to stay as far away from the controversies surrounding the UW athletic department as he can.

And yesterday, he said he did not want to answer any more questions about the events of Tuesday, when he received a letter of admonishment for his "participation or knowledge" of college-football pools and was attacked by former coach Rick Neuheisel.

Neuheisel charged that Gilbertson helped orchestrate a cover-up of college basketball pools in the UW football office and that Gilbertson offered former graduate assistant and player Ikaika Malloe a job in return for Malloe's silence on the issue. Malloe later changed his testimony to say that Gilbertson and other coaches took part in pools in years other than 1999, the only year Gilbertson has admitted participation.

But before taking a vow of silence on the issue, Gilbertson sounded off.

Asked if he had read Neuheisel's 38-page statement, Gilbertson said no. "What good would it do me. Are there big words in there? I don't plan on reading it, no."

About the fact that Neuheisel appears to be pointing a finger at him, Gilbertson said, "Have I ever pointed a finger at anyone? Absolutely not."

Gilbertson said he would not respond to the allegations in Neuheisel's statement "because I'm not sure what I was accused of."

But Gilbertson did address Malloe, who played at UW from 1993-96 and worked for the team from 1998-2002.

"Let's get this straight once and for all," Gilbertson said. "That guy has been a friend of mine for a long time, number one. Number two, I tried to hire Ikaika and was told no based on his phone deal (Malloe admitted to improper use of a university phone card). That was the end of it. We talked about what was going on here and I told him what I knew about this pool and that pool and that I was going to talk about it (with investigators) and leave it at that, and that's what I did. I don't know what is different (now).

"I was very serious about having that guy on this staff and I would like to work with him again."

Asked again about Neuheisel, Gilbertson stopped the questioner short. "Quit asking me about everybody else. I am disinterested in everybody else. Ask me about my participation and what I said or my conversations with people, that's fine. But don't ask me to comment on what other people said. That's why there are about 50 attorneys running around here doing all this stuff. I'm not a lawyer and I'm trying hard just to be a football coach. Enough is enough."

What problem?

Conventional wisdom is that the off-field events of the past few days are a distraction for the team. But Washington receiver Reggie Williams insisted yesterday he had no clue when asked for his opinion of Tuesday's news involving Gilbertson and Neuheisel. "Really?" he said. "What happened? I haven't heard anything about it."

Notes

• RB Kenny James practiced Tuesday and should be close to full speed by game time. He has been bothered by ankle and quad muscle problems.

• The Huskies have closed all of practices this week to the media.

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company