John Mateer’s transfer-portal exit highlights larger problem for WSU​

Mike Vorel
Dec. 17
Seattle Times columnist


While his remaining players filtered off the practice field, Jake Dickert delivered a dutiful concession speech.

“The biggest thing for our program is it proves, once again, our process is working. Our process is working,” the third-year Cougs coach repeated Monday, after confirming that quarterback John Mateer will enter the transfer portal. “We’re offering a bunch of kids that have no other Power Five offers. We’re developing [them] into something really, really special.”

The process at Washington State is working.

But it’s not working for Washington State.

It’s working for Miami, which wooed quarterback Cam Ward — Mateer’s predecessor — this time a year ago. It’s working for Oklahoma, which poached WSU offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle and in doing so became a likely landing place for Mateer. It’s working for TCU, which welcomed WSU starting defensive lineman Ansel Din-Mbuh on Sunday. It’s working for poachers and cherry-pickers and players who trade a Palouse incubator for a portal payday.

It’s not working for fans asked to emotionally and financially invest in a team perpetually filled with unfamiliar faces.

It’s not working for Dickert — who builds Lamborghinis, then watches them drive away.

“I think the first step is realizing there are no rules. That’s the first step,” Dickert said Monday, when asked about the current transfer-portal culture. “Tampering is now a part of it. That’s a buzzword for everyone to use. But if you’re not recruiting other people’s rosters, it feels like in today’s world you’re going to fall behind. So, it does put us in a tough spot.”

That spot, the rock/hard place where WSU resides:

If the Cougs develop players, they leave.

If the Cougs don’t develop players, they lose.

Of course, the most devastating examples come at quarterback. In two seasons as WSU’s starter, Ward completed 65.5% of his passes and threw for 6,966 yards with 48 passing touchdowns, 16 interceptions and 13 rushing scores. Last winter, Ward followed a money trail to Miami, where he amassed 4,123 passing yards with 40 total touchdowns and seven interceptions — finishing fourth in last week’s Heisman Trophy vote.

But improbably, Mateer improved upon his predecessor’s performance. In 12 games this fall the redshirt sophomore — who backed up Ward the previous two seasons — amassed 64.6% completions, 3,139 passing yards, 29 passing touchdowns, 826 rushing yards and 15 rushing scores, with seven interceptions. He downed UW in the Apple Cup and delivered the Cougs’ first eight-win season since 2018, while leading the nation with 44 total touchdowns.

On Monday Dickert confirmed that the Cougs’ name, image and likeness offer to Mateer was worth “seven figures.”

He arrived as the No. 124 quarterback in the 2022 class, according to 247Sports, with scholarship offers from Central Arkansas, Columbia, Houston Christian, Incarnate Word and New Mexico State.

He left as a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate.

Just not for Washington State.

“John will be the most sought-after player in the portal,” said Dickert, whose opinion is reflected in Mateer’s positioning atop 247Sports’ transfer portal rankings. “I think he’s going to be the best player in the country next year.”

But the process is working, right?

In reality, the process is parasitic, systematically punishing WSU for its success. College football has a food chain, and the transfer portal bypasses the fences that previously separated predators and prey.

The result? Twenty-one Cougs (and nine starters) entered the transfer portal between the end of the regular season and Tuesday afternoon. That includes Mateer, Din-Mbuh, offensive tackle Fa’alili Fa’amoe, running back Wayshawn Parker, cornerback Ethan O’Connor, leading receiver Kris Hutson and more — a clown car of soon-to-be former Cougs.

To be clear: those players should not be condemned for capitalizing on their talent, in a sport built on broken bodies and truncated careers. Considering Arbuckle, quarterbacks coach John Kuceyeski (who followed Arbuckle to Oklahoma) and running backs coach/associate head coach Mark Atuaia (who landed at Utah) left for other opportunities as well, players should be afforded the same freedom.

But the side effects are unfortunate, as an annual anvil falls on fans’ heads.

“Ten years ago, at this time of year, you would put your feet up,” Dickert said with a laugh. “At night I’d be drinking a beer, celebrating bringing back one of the best teams in Washington State history next year. So it’s just obviously unique and different. December has changed quite a bit, and not just for us.”

Is there a way this process can work for Washington State? That depends on your definition. Ultimately, a roster of rental players could still succeed in the new Pac-12, developing future Sooners and Buckeyes and — gasp — Huskies along the way. The Cougs could embrace their place, leveraging an ability to churn out Big Ten and SEC transfers into an appealing recruiting pitch.

But until money grows in the wheat fields of Eastern Washington, the process will punish. There will be more Wards, more Mateers.

More dizzying Decembers.

“This has been the most united locker room that I’ve been in through my three years here,” Dickert said Monday, 11 days before his Cougs meet Syracuse in the Holiday Bowl. “Through all of our exit meetings guys have really talked about that. It’s going to need to unite even more through this adversity.

“So the people who want to wear the Cougs [colors] and represent us will keep moving forward, and those guys showed up today.”

Mike Vorel: mvorel@seattletimes.com. Mike Vorel is a sports columnist for The Seattle Times.

Okay, so we have all known for many, many years that the Social Security program is in trouble. Unfortunately, our elected leaders (of BOTH parties) never have had the balls to actually address the problem, afraid that they will lose votes in the next election. Especially when several contributions to the issue are so simple and are clearly known. I will throw a few of the possible solutions to the problem out there, and refer you to the linked article for a couple different approaches that I have never seen before. His ideas look like attractive and reasonable to me.

• Eliminate the annual contribution cap so that those people that are doing well contribute the same % on ALL earned income.
• Include options and bonuses in the income that must contribute to SSI. (bonuses may be included already, not sure)
• Date of first possible SS withdrawals MUST be moved out several years, as the average age of death has gone from ~65 to 78-80.
• Date for full SS benefits must also be moved out.
• Eliminate people working under the table, get more workers contributing to the plan.
• If there are any benefits being paid out for any reason other than the original intention of the plan, get them out of there.
• Put a surcharge on some foreign goods to compensate for the lower manufacturing costs that firms enjoy by not doing manufacturing in the USA. These funds must go directly into the SS pot and not into the general fund.

I know there are a couple other ideas out there to easily help out the program, but they aren't jumping into my mind right now. So what else do you WW brainiacs have to contribute?

I'm part joking, part serious, part re-acting to the apparent implosion of the football program but I'd like to see a new offensive approach. I'd like to revamp the offensive approach at WSU. Recruit qbs who can run but are mediocre passers and lineman who never step backwards in a pass set. Run some amalgamation of the Academies offenses or the wing T, single wing, wishbone anything that runs all the time. Make the players so one dimensional that it would scare off other teams from poaching them. I'm aware it a somewhat dumb idea but I think we are in an outside box situation.

A) Zevi Eckhaus, QB1!

B) Zevi Eckhaus, QB1?

C) Zevi Eckhaus, QB1

Glad nobody got hurt...but maybe they're a bit traumatized. As an internet headshrink doctor, I strongly suggest they take the rest of the season off to cope.

Hire Coach Clawson and have him bring as many of his WF kids as possible.

Nothing says fck you more than the school you left taking the roster of the school you left for.

Seriously, if you’ve got time today…. google Wake Forest offense…. Clawson ran a smart scheme there. He had 7-8 bowls in a row before it got away from him. Looks like covid, portal, NIL derailed what he had going. Otherwise he is prob leaving WF for a bigger job.

PULLMAN — John Mateer’s days as Washington State’s quarterback have come to an end.

WSU coach Jake Dickert confirmed as much Monday morning, sharing that Mateer will be entering the transfer portal and ending his three-year tenure with the Cougars’ program. Mateer started all 12 games this season, leading the country with 44 total touchdowns and guiding WSU to an eight-win season, the program’s first since 2018.

He will not play in the Cougs’ final game of the season, the Holiday Bowl, set for Dec. 27 in San Diego against Syracuse. Mateer’s departure is the 19th for WSU, which has now lost eight starters to the portal, including top receiver Kris Hutson and starting defensive lineman Ansel Din-Mbuh.

At some point after WSU’s regular season ended Nov. 30 with a loss to Wyoming, WSU’s NIL team, the Cougar Collective, presented Mateer with an NIL “package” to try and keep him in Pullman, coach Jake Dickert said. Mateer, rumored to be fetching offers north of $1 million, apparently turned it down.

Where will Mateer end up? One possibility might be Oklahoma, where former WSU offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle took the OC job earlier this month. Former WSU QBs coach John Kuceyeski also took a job with the Sooners last week, becoming their senior offensive assistant/assistant quarterback coach. Because of his strong rapport with Mateer, Kuceyeski had been tabbed to call WSU’s offense in the Holiday Bowl.

Mateer’s departure jumbles the Cougs’ QB picture a tad. This season, Mateer’s backup was ostensibly FCS Bryant transfer Zevi Eckhaus, who he beat out for the starting role during fall camp. But on Oct. 19, when Mateer came out of the game with a blowout win over Hawaii in hand, Eckhaus didn’t replace him. Redshirt freshman Jaxon Potter did.

After the game, Dickert said “there was something internal” about going to Potter over Eckhaus in that situation, saying Eckhaus was still the team’s backup. “I think Jaxon’s earned it, and he’ll continue to get better,” Dickert said. “It’s really good to see him go out there and play some football.” But neither Eckhaus nor Potter got another chance to enter a game for the rest of the season.

One explanation might be that because Eckhaus still has a redshirt year available to him, and because he didn’t win the starting job at Washington State, coaches are doing him a favor and giving him a chance to redshirt this season and play another year of college football, at WSU or elsewhere. But whatever the reasoning, coaches will have to make a decision at QB for the bowl game, which does not count against the four games allotted to redshirt players.

Mateer, a redshirt sophomore, earned the starting role for this season and made the most of it. For the season, he completed 224 of 347 passes (65%) for 3,139 yards, 29 touchdowns and 7 interceptions, leading WSU to wins over rival Washington, Texas Tech and a comeback road victory over San Diego State. He also helped the Cougs hang on for a double-overtime win over San Jose State in September.

A native of Dallas-area Little Elm, Mateer backed up former WSU QB Cam Ward for the 2022 and 2023 seasons, Mateer’s true freshman and redshirt freshman years, respectively. Last offseason — when Ward entered the portal and decamped for Miami, where he became a Heisman Trophy finalist — Mateer figured to be the next Cougar quarterback to ascend and take the reins.

Mateer delivered. He wobbled a bit in his first few games, tossing six interceptions in his first six outings, but he steadied himself for the rest of the season. The first dual-threat QB at WSU in a long time, Mateer used his arm and his legs to propel the Cougs to an 8-1 start to the season, rising as high as No. 18 in the College Football Playoff rankings.

WSU’s season ended on a three-game skid, complete with losses to New Mexico, Oregon State and Wyoming. Mateer was solid in the first two, leading the Cougs to 35- and 38-point scoring outings, respectively. But his last game at WSU was likely his worst: He couldn’t lead the offense to any points in the second half, misfiring on each of his final five passes, and the unit scuffled all night.

Still, Mateer’s time as a Coug will likely be remembered fondly. He delivered the program its second Apple Cup win in four seasons, and though WSU missed a real opportunity to make the College Football Playoff on a largely Mountain West schedule, Mateer almost always did his part.

Will be updated

Won the coin toss!

Funny thing is, he was a LB coach at Wyoming. We have a walk-on & a Portland St kid playing LB after 4 or 5 years …….. amazing depth he built at that spot.

I didn’t read it but for those who care…


https://x.com/gocougs123/status/1869196768501772740?s=46

He would do it and stay.

He's loud... fun... loving...

He won a bowl game with Idaho.

Kinda interesting. Wazzu laps every school in the ACC and Big12 sans Colorado and is middle of the pac compared to B10 and SEC Schools. The fans support football we just need more people involved.
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It would be a great time for WSU's leadership to make a home run hire