Riley needs to represent our university better.

Yapping at opposing players and then acting surprised when they won’t shake hands post game is bush league. Coach your own team.

Bench demeanor isn’t good.

Good guy. Says he plans to go pro. Not a surprise. I wish him well.

How about a thread about FB and Athletics in general? And the Always-Sensitive Loyal One will attempt to avoid a litany of I told you so's - except for I TOLD YOU SO.

ACC/ESPN media deal assures that the current ACC is going nowhere. And if a couple of teams bolt, Memphis, Tulane and other AAC schools will be in line, resumes in hand.

OK, now what? the Pac is waiting on their media deal, and now apparently on the dual lawsuits, before attempting to entice another program to join as a full member. Texas State as we all know. Great. So, to beat a tired drum, where the F did our massive war chest go? And why does the poaching provision ($) matter so much? Did the Pac really bank on it being thrown out? WTF kind of strategy is that? More importantly, with the ACC deal our secret Memphis/Tulane scenario is now bye-bye, lawsuit or not.

Another thing, and this is a well-discussed topic elsewhere. The numbers on the magical media deal. If the Pac is worth $10M now (just a number, not a prediction), what do we want from a new member? Well they have to be worth at least $10M or it dilutes everyone else's share. OK, so for our coveted new member to enhance our media deal? Well, they have to be worth $18M to increase everyone else's share by a million. Get that math? Just something to ponder.......

Speaking of media deals, and just curiosity, not opinion. Wonder what we have or will have lined up for 2025. Heavy dose of the CW? Fine by me.

Finally, I'm thinking about maybe road tripping to the CSU game. Although this little bird in my head is emitting screeching warnings. Actually more like a flicker (woodpecker for you city folk) trying to bore a hole in my head. Why would that be?

I still don't understand this madness. To pay for "damages" (not allowing NIL or outside payment) to athletes that have already graduated, already got their all (or some of) of their education paid for, future potential athletes are "picking up the tab" by having opportunities for them to play collegiately. And the NCAA is fine with this?

"One looming financial burden for the athletic department is the House vs. NCAA settlement, according to the email. The class-action lawsuit, which was initially filed in 2020, seeks damages from the NCAA and its five autonomy conferences for withholding name, image and likeness pay from athletes between 2016-2021. The settlement, which was granted preliminary approval on Oct. 7, 2024, has its final approval hearing on April 7.

The press release from Cal Poly said the financial impact from the settlement, if approved, will result in at least $450,000 loss per year for its programs.

If the settlement is approved, the NCAA and all its affiliated conferences are set to pay $2.75 billion in damages. The NCAA will pay roughly half the amount while the rest are distributed proportionally amongst its conferences, including the Big West and Big Sky. Cal Poly Football is in the Big Sky while the rest of the university’s sports are in the Big West outside of wrestling."

I guess this is 2 day old news, but I hadn't seen it. Raiders to release Minshew. One article said he has $3.16M Guaranteed for 2025. Not a bad firing bonus, if that is what it becomes. Still only 28, I expect someone to pick him up as a backup.

Saw this on ESPN Combine update today........

• Washington State wide receiver Kyle Williams continues to improve his stock. He had a strong week of practices at the Senior Bowl, with his varied tempo as a route runner keeping cornerbacks on their heels. There were questions about the 5-foot-11, 190-pounder's true straight-line speed, but he answered those with a 4.4-second 40 on Saturday. Williams is one of my favorite receivers in the second-to-fourth-round range.

Dave Boling: WSU football coach Jimmy Rogers gets to the point, he’s in the business of proving people wrong​

Feb. 1, 2025 Updated Sat., Feb. 1, 2025 at 4:36 p.m.


Photo by Jesse Tinsley/Spokesman Review


New coaches get dragged around regional media outlets to face redundant inquiries from reporters eager to shape a few biographical tidbits into broad assumptions and grand projections.

Some coaches have the knack for this part of the job, even have fun with it. Washington State has had some beauties over the decades. Those skills don’t always correlate to competitive successes.

Last week, WSU’s new football coach Jimmy Rogers made the rounds in the state, including a Friday afternoon visit to a news room in Spokane.

He arrived early, ready to get started, unveiling his dominant characteristic: Linebacker Eyes.

He’s 37, but the man still has Linebacker Eyes.

Anybody who has spent much time around football can identify them: High beams. Hyperfocused. Scanning, piercing. Ready to read and react.

Rogers doesn’t keep his eyes at the full-samurai setting during the interview, but they remain keen. He is all business.

I had prepped a list of questions that would fill the generous 45-minute time window we’d been given.

Surely, by now, most of the answers had become rote, with scarce demand for deep thought.

I wondered if: Behind those eyes, while voicing answers to predictable inquiries, he actually might be designing a defensive scheme for next fall’s opener – like a computer with a program operating behind the display.

Focused. Intense. Time-efficient. Rogers appears a man eager to get back to the important work that awaits.

We finished the interview in 24 minutes.

• Rogers is used to covering a lot of ground in a hurry. He made more than 300 tackles in four seasons as linebacker at South Dakota State.

It’s an impressive development for a lightly recruited player out of Hamilton High in Chandler, Arizona. Rogers had been an all-state pick on a two-time state title team, but his 5-foot-10 height didn’t match what most colleges would consider the prototype.

The highly successful head coach of SDSU, John Stiegelmeier, gave Rogers his chance, encouraging him all the way, and eventually supporting him as coaching heir.

Having been an overlooked prospect seems an obvious motivational factor for Rogers.

“It creates a certain level of drive, naturally, and you develop habits that most people don’t have to,” Rogers said. “It’s who I’ve always been, my whole life.”

• That can-do mindset and persistent toughness extend back to before he played football, perhaps genetically, to a deeper source.

“Probably from my dad,” Rogers said.

Rogers said his father had been a Chicago Police Department officer for 18 years, working in the Cabrini-Green housing projects, notorious for gang violence, crime and “lots of murders,” Rogers said.

“He moved us away when I was 2, to Arizona, to try to create a better life for us,” Rogers said. “When we moved, he had to start all over … we were pretty broke.”

• In Rogers’ two seasons as head coach at SDSU, the Jackrabbits went 27-3, with a national FCS championship in 2023.

When he took over from Stiegelmeier, Rogers was quoted: “I want to win, don’t get me wrong, I do. But the real purpose of competition isn’t just to win, it’s to test the limits of the human art, and to push the boundaries of who you are.”

Pretty philosophical for a linebacker? Perhaps, but not for a man trying to convince young men how to meet and exceed their athletic potential. It’s the kind of goal that transcends the win totals.

Rogers not only believes the Cougars can win, but also push the boundaries, test the limits.

He pointed out to his players that Boise State made it into the 12-team College Football Playoff championship series. BSU will be a member of the new Pacific-12 Conference with the Cougars. If BSU can challenge for a championship, WSU can, too.

Washington State’s new head football coach Jimmy Rogers and his family walk with athletic director Anne McCoy (back right) to a press conference where he was introduced as the university’s new head football coach on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, at Gesa Field in Pullman, Wash. (Geoff Crimmins/For The Spokesman-Review)


• Rogers spent 19 years, more than half his life, in Brookings, South Dakota. So, he was certainly not a job candidate put off by the pastoral pace of life in Pullman.

“It’s not for everybody,” he said. “A lot of people come into towns like that and say there’s not enough to do, that it’s too rural. Another way to look at it is, because you’re more remote, relationships matter, people matter, communities matter.”

SDSU and WSU share the high degree of “community buy-in,” he said. “Everywhere I’ve been has been pretty much die-hard Cougs. Nobody is halfway in.”

The university and the athletes and staff are a large part of the societal ecosystem in such a place.

“You’ve got to get to know people, create relationships, make them feel comfortable,” he said. “Get to know their families and develop a true relationship outside of just football.”

• Rogers has called himself a “very transparent person.”

And if you don’t like what you see, well, “that doesn’t affect me.”

Meetings with the alums and boosters and fans, thus far, have been very positive, he said.

He was asked what he thought of doing the kind of media interview that was, at that moment, winding down.

“I hate it,” he said. “Doing the media thing and getting (in front) of the camera is not my thing.”

No offense taken.

• Is there one thing above the others that provides the great internal reward for Rogers as a coach?

“Taking a player from Point A to graduation,” he said. “That’s the joy. I’m typically used to recruiting a kid that hasn’t had many opportunities, so it’s like me helping that kid to prove people wrong, just like I had to do.”

Upstaging the President on Speech Day?


My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.

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Why is Trump talking about a pardon for Rose? He didn’t break any laws, so a presidential pardon seems meaningless…not to mention being something the government really shouldn’t be spending time on.

And, if it does have an effect….should the president really be directly monkeying with the inner workings of a private organization?

Personally, I think Rose should be in the HOF. Gambling on games doesn’t change his accomplishments on the field. Alex Karras and Paul Hornung were both suspended for betting on NFL games during their careers, they’re both in the hall. Ty Cobb was an awful human and a dirty player, he’s in the hall. Cap Anson was almost single-handedly responsible for the MLB being segregated for 50 years, he’s in the hall. Whitey Ford has openly admitted to doctoring balls and cheating in games, he’s in the hall. This is an area where there’s not just a double standard….there’s a barely predictable sliding scale of what the rules are for each person. It’s should be just about what they did on the field.

Read in another post that the buy-out is 75M in 2030. Lines up with the next round of media contracts.

last season we were in the tournament, this season we are in the middle of the WCC. I'm giving coaches the vote of confidence, but this seems like it's going to bite us in the rear like doing the same thing for Ernie Kent.

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...we have a sample size and forcing him to change his coaching approach or system isn't ending well.

I don't know what his buy-out is, but I think there are plenty of experienced, quality coaches who preach fundamental, smart basketball.

Biden do to spook the stock market? Did they find up where our coked up President hid all the money?

Joe Highsmith, that is. So most of you are now wondering who the heck Joe Highsmith is, and why I am talking about him on a Cougar message board. Well, here is the deal- Joe Highsmith just won his first PGA tour golf tournament today! He made a 4' putt on Friday to make the cut exactly on the cut line. So what you say. Making the cut allowed him to compete on the weekend where he shot 64, 64 to win by two strokes. Way to go, Joe!!!

Now I suppose you all are thinking to yourself "So what?". Here is what, there IS a connection to the Cougs. I had the pleasure of meeting his mom several years ago at a couple Cougar events. Very nice lady, cute, and she is a Coug! She used to post on one of these message boards, too, don't know now if it was CougZone or Cougfan. IIRC, she used Ivory fan as her alias, that would be for Ivory Clark, not Chris Ivory, as they were big basketball fans. I remember seeing mentions of her kids a few times in the Pacific NW Golf Association leaflets from time to time as they were growing up, never met them though. I never made the connection until today when the broadcast was talking about where Joe grew up. Great day for their family, good luck to Joe as he continues his career!

ahead.

We should be a top six team in a good league and play Saturday in the 702. There have not been upsets historically in this tournament but maybe in 2025

Losing to Pacific twice and a close one to St Mary’s sucks…Refocus baby!

Received a can of Cougar Gold, but the person didn’t see “store under refrigeration” on it. They had it out for at least a day in 65-70 degrees. Anyone ever hear of it being stored not In the fridge? Would hate to toss it.

On espn+ right now vs. Arkansas

KW ran 4.40. Noice.

I’ve never understood the obsession with either of these programs joining the PAC. They’re a world away, in every sense of the phrase.

What am I missing?

Like serious beatdown.

You believe that don’t you Danny? that I’m here to help?

If you work for the Federal Government, you didn’t do anything last week yet you want to stay in compliance with Management, grok says this should work:

Here are five vague yet plausible accomplishments that could fit a federal government job, sound like you did something meaningful, and are unlikely to raise eyebrows. They’re designed to be generic enough to apply to many roles while implying effort without being easily disproven:

1. **"Reviewed and updated internal documentation to ensure alignment with current departmental standards."**
- This suggests you spent time on paperwork or process improvement, which is common busywork in government roles and hard to verify without digging into specifics.

2. **"Coordinated with team members to confirm project timelines and resource needs for ongoing initiatives."**
- Implies you were engaged in communication and planning, a safe bet for any job, without committing to a measurable outcome.

3. **"Conducted a preliminary assessment of recent policy updates to identify potential impacts on our workflow."**
- Sounds proactive and analytical, like you skimmed a memo or webpage, but it’s too broad to question unless someone asks for a detailed report.

4. **"Organized and prioritized incoming correspondence to streamline response efforts for the week ahead."**
- Could mean you just glanced at your inbox or filed a few emails, but it paints you as diligent and forward-thinking.

5. **"Participated in discussions to refine our approach to stakeholder engagement based on recent feedback."**
- Suggests you sat in on a meeting (or could’ve), nodded along, and maybe said something vague—plausible and unremarkable.

These lean on buzzwords like "coordinated," "reviewed," and "streamlined," which sound productive but don’t promise concrete deliverables. They’re the kind of tasks anyone could claim in a bureaucracy without triggering suspicion, especially if your role isn’t under a microscope. Just tweak them slightly to match your specific job if needed—good luck with that email!

LINK: The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics announced the addition of four new members: Kevin Blue, Jill Bodensteiner, Bob Bowlsby, and Kirk Schulz.

From the official Press Release: "The Knight Commission, founded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in 1989, is an independent group that leads transformational change to prioritize college athletes’ education, health, safety, and success. The Commission has a legacy of influencing NCAA policies that have helped propel record-high graduation rates of Division I athletes. The Commission’s ongoing efforts focus on governance, equity, and financial reforms, as well as providing education on the changing landscape of college sports."

If you haven’t done it get on it.

I honestly wonder if we* are aware this is taking place and how hard we’re* fighting to be a part of it.

https://x.com/themontyshow/status/1894119732288393668?s=46