Our new Prez is moving her office back to French Ad from downtown, and apparently she is kicking the Pullman Chancellor out of the Prez residence and moving in. (Correct me if I'm wrong on this, I thought the Chancellor moved in there). Will be good to have our leader on campus where she belongs rather than downtown or in the Tri-Cities. And even better to wipe the stain of Kirk Schulz off our University.

Looks like Schumer wants to shut it all down. “No” to the CR


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Let's bring Minshew to Seattle!

Last week Wilner set the doomsday clock for the ACC and realignment for the 2030 season.


Pac-12 is lining up our contracts to end in a similar timeframe. If we are smart - and I am not sure we are - we'd be working with Oregon State to build out the ACC West. Pull back Utah, Arizona and ASU, put WSU and OSU with Stanford and Cal and add SDSU, or the pacific division. That puts 7 division games, have a few cross over games with the eastern division and call it good.

Feels like the new look Pac-12 isn't going get the value we deserve, time to start plotting our next move.

After 3/4 of a day reflection I have figured out the WSU/USF rebounding discrepancy. They out rebounded us by 24, with only one less offensive rebound than we had defensive rebounds. Their team consisted of one short sharp-shooting PG and the remainder of the team all being 8' or taller.

Article on brandx says L. Watts, Thrastarson, Okafor and Vavers have all said they're coming back. That is good news, but they also said remember DJ Rodman.

Hopefully I'll get over my funk in a couple of days.

Hey, it is Monday morning, which is always tough anyway, and the markets are going to Hell today, so maybe a bit of humor is in order today. Hit the link below and try out the ones I have listed here:

• She needs to understand
• Never gets old (I laughed right out loud at this one)
• You guys see that Delta flight (You were going so good)
• They all lost it

Several other ones there looked good but are on X and would not open due to the big cyber attack. Enjoy!

Ha ha, not yet, but a pretty good article on Brand X. I don't actually hate them, they are just too far away (read McCoy's comment in the bullets). For the non-FB sports. My son does live in Austin, so there is that.


Also, I had missed this article about Anne McCoy in Palm Springs at that event. A few kindly-meant comments from the Polite, Benevolent yet Mighty Loyal One.
This is dated Feb 25:

• As our fearless commissioner Teresa Gould pointed out, the Big 12 and the Big Ten didn't change their names (as their numbers changed), so why should we? So, Pac-12 forever." Oh. Well girls, you know the Pac has changed its name twice to reflect current membership numbers. I still have a Pac-10 shirt
• Paraphrasing here - our media deal for 2026 may be done as soon as 6 weeks, then "the conference will focus" on the required 8th member. OK, 6+ weeks puts us in April. Then we secure our new member? That's pushing it. "...conference expansion decisions would need to come together quickly, perhaps wrapped in a June-ish timeframe..." Although I guess the July 1, 2025 "deadline" to add isn't a show stopper, but invokes additional major penalties for most teams. Note that the Traitorous 8 gave less than a year. But there were no penalties for them because of our Bylaws.
• Asked about the grumbling out of Washington, Oregon, Cal and Stanford about shipping all their sports teams to the East Coast for so many games, McCoy opined that the burden is untenable for the non-football sports. OK now this is interesting. So if it is untenable, why would the Pac even consider Texas State or Tulane, Memphis, etc? Granted these schools aren't quite as far as ACC schools. Farther than most B1G schools though.

All that said, a pretty informative article.

Found dead at his home, along with his wife and dog. No foul play suspected.

I’ve occasionally had to check IMDB to see if he was still alive, since he stopped making movies 20 years ago, but he made some good ones. French Connection, Unforgiven, and of course Hoosiers - which is in almost everyone’s top 3 sports movies ever.

I see that the Cougs are on ESPN2 in about 15 minutes, so I can actually watch them. Not a big BB fan but hey, I'm a Coug. Win and that gives us 20.

Women won.......

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!