Blake Barnett makes decision
- Thread starter Glad Cougar
- Start date
I saw this. I'm not too upset about it. And honestly, not surprised, either. He was at WSU for the AC. Probably a mixed bag. He probably saw where he could really help WSU but in the same moment, saw he wasn't going to unseat Falk. Falk is the key. At ASU, he'll probably be able to start ASAP.
ASU has 5 QB's on roster:
1 RS Sophomore
2 RS Freshman
2 true freshman
If we believe that Leach is doing his job......we didn't want him anyway. I have faith that Hilinski will be up to the task in 2018 and 2019 and that whomever follows him will be fine. If you get to the point where you are hoping that a transfer QB works out, you eventually end up looking like Oregon this year.
Bah, he probably looked at the weather and saw it snowing in Pullman today and decided he'd rather be in the sun surrounded by co-eds not smothered in parkas. Who wouldn't be?
I think this is location based. His fiancée is a pro surfer and this is definitely much closer to the beach.
Would've loved to have him - never hurts to have more competition.
Would've loved to have him - never hurts to have more competition.
Barnett isn't exactly the same as the 1 & done transfers Oregon has been getting. Barnett has 3 years to play.
I don't think the fact we offered and tripped him out to Pullman means Leach hasn't been doing his job on the recruiting trail. It means a 5 star talent was available and Leach wants to increase the competition in the quarterback room.
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Not saying he would, or wouldn't be, but what evidence do you have to suggest Gordon would be difficult to beat out?
Bottom line: Glad that WSU's program isn't in a position where he was going to be our "saving grace". I kinda grin at the thought going through my head. "Meh. Woulda been nice but no biggie."
Not often we had a 5star kid looking at us and THIS was the response.
Not often we had a 5star kid looking at us and THIS was the response.
My point was that if you think Leach is the man for the job, we don't need a transfer to come in to push or beat out Hilinski. The high school guys that we have should be adequate and you have to hope that Bender left because Hilinski is legit.
Guys like Barnett who got beaten out as a starter are more likely to be Jake Heaps instead of Jake Locker. The 3 years to play is good, but it could mean that he's got 2 years the next time he wants to transfer. I'd still like to think that Leach recruited Hilinski because he's good. Someone above mentioned that competition is good, but I'd argue that getting value out of our scholarships is more important and I'd rather see us get another DL project guy instead of another QB.
I absolutely think Leach is the right man for the job. That doesn't mean I think he's going to hit on 100% of his QB recruits.
And Bender left cause he flunked out of school.
When it comes to being Hilinski's 'turn', he's going to be a tough out for another qb coming in.... I don't see it happening. I think he'll be an excellent Air Raid qb at WSU in the future.
Barnett seems in a big rush to find another spot where he can start and gives him the kind of exposure to move on to the NFL as soon as possible. ASU had trouble keeping QBs out of the hospital and given their program health I wonder if they are the best platform. If he was a bit more patient I wonder if he could have found a better spot to reach his objective.
Fair enough. Bear in mind that Bender could have stayed at WSU and raised his grades if he thought he had a future here. The university doesn't want players leaving in poor academic standing because it hurts our APR score. So, Bender might have left when his grades were bad but he's really gone because he knew that he wasn't going to be playing. Good thing for us is that it doesn't matter. Right now, WSU should have the following QB's on the roster next year (bold are the scholarship QB's?):
Sr: Falk
Jr: Tinsley
So: Hilinski, Gordon
Fr: Missey
Redshirting: Neville
Assuming that Neville's injury is minor and he comes in next year, we will have four scholarship QB's. Stacking Barnett with Hilinski and Gordon wouldn't have done anything for our long term depth and would have likely forced a decision for a QB to leave after the season. Failing to get a HS QB last year puts WSU in a position where we need a good recruit in 2018 in case Neville isn't up to the task but that has nothing to do with Barnett.
While it would have been ok to get Barnett, I have faith that Leach gave Hilinski, Gordon and Neville offers for a good reason and I'd rather get another guy on the DL instead of a QB who might never take a snap at WSU.
Treating QBs like they are some type of fungible good is a mistake. A team's success is totally dependent upon high quality play from the position when you have defense issues. How many times has WSU had two or more high end QBs on the roster in the last 40 years? WSU history shows we discard 4 or 5 or more to find one you can win with without a stout defense. Price found 3 in 13 years and Leach's success at WSU has been based the excellence of a walk on, with no clear heir apparent in the wings.
You can add preferred walkon John Bledsoe to the stable of QBs next year. He may surprise a lot of people. Pure speculation on my part, but I'm told he was greatly under-recruited.
Glad Cougar
Glad Cougar
Interesting, you don't consider Hilinski "a clear heir-apparent". Are you waiting for a stamp of approval from Price-Waterhouse?
I'm pretty sure that Price brought in Pattinson, Bledsoe, Leaf, Gesser, and Kegel. Pattinson was playing well as a senior and WSU was 5-2 in 1993 when he went down with injury. Kegel was arguably more of a system QB, but he was still very effective when he was healthy in 2003. Aaron Garcia and Brad Gossen were the QB's in 1989 and 1990 (inherited from Erickson) and both were very, very good but team chemistry became an issue once Bledsoe was recruited in 1990. Chad Davis in 1994 and 1995 was obviously a let down and the Menckebaum years of 1998 and 1999 were bad, but outside of that, we had good QB play. The issues of the other years were just general talent issues. Obviously, we weren't prepared for Leaf's departure and there were some recruiting misses in 1992 and 1993, but it's not like WSU had only 3 years of good quarterbacking under Price.
The previously mentioned four years are why I said that it's so important to get a good QB in 2018. You do want to get the best QB that you can in any given year. That said, from what I've seen so far, Hilinski has already demonstrated that he can run our offense. Against admittedly inferior competition, he's looked good this year. Gordon is rumored to be athletic and well versed in the Air Raid. So, we already have a pair of scholarship guys that are scheduled to be here until 2019 that we can get excited about. You only put one QB on the field at the time and in general, they don't share reps well. Adding a guy like Barnett is fine if you can get him, but you do so knowing that you are telling Hilinski and Gordon that you are worried that they aren't good enough and that they should wonder about staying. Neville is a question mark but again, adding a guy like Barnett who has three years to play is just stacking the deck at a different point in the eligibility cycle that doesn't solve anything if Neville is a miss.
Giving out multiple scholarship offers at QB every year is just guaranteeing that you are throwing scholarships away. At any other position, you can rotate players in and out and every player coming in knows that he's going to get a shot at playing time in year 2 or 3 of their 5 year career if they do a good job in practice. You start taking 2 QB's per class and all you are guaranteeing is that 75% (or more) of them never take a meaningful snap regardless of their ability. The fallacy that you can plug in a new QB when your starter goes down with injury rarely works out in the real world and thinking that you are going to tell a Pac-12 starting quality QB on the bench for years "just in case" is just living a fantasy.
Again, I agree that any class without a QB at all is probably a mistake because many of them will fail but that doesn't mean you start carrying 6 scholarship QB's in the hope that they won't leave because if anything, history tells us that good QB's leave WSU when they realize that a better QB is in front of them. At one point in the recent past, multiple former Cougs were starting at QB at other FBS schools. It's not our job to provide the initial training for other schools.
I don't think any backup QB should be considered the heir apparent with Leach. For example, if Falk returns and the high school QB from Oregon (Neville?) comes in and shines, who's to say he can't win the job in 2018?
I think he will be good at ASU and could have been great in the air raid. That said, I really like what I've seen from Hilinski!
Has Hilinski performed anything other than "mop up" duty? Did he seriously push Falk for the starting job? Has he led us to a win? Do his skills just jump off the page? Is Leach saying that he's just too good to keep on the sidelines? No. I'm not a faith guy, I like evidence that we can really play, before concluding that he is destined for success.
Blake was a five star player who had some very good moments at Alabama. He is a proven commodity ,who needs playing time. He will start at ASU and the cougs will face him for three more years.He should flourish in a wide open offense.
Not exactly. Cougs don't play ASU for the next 2 years. So, might face him once (unless we get them in the championship game at some point).
You mean, Matt "Apple Cup" Kegel, who had the luxury of playing with the best defense we had in a decade? We won 8 games with Chad Davis, with great defense too. Kegel was a great kid, but is an example of why you keep signing QB prospects. Pattinson was an Erickson, signee.
Ultimately, high end QBs are too few to treat them like OL recruits. The idea that you only use one scholarship a year on QBs, regardless, is courting disaster. You sign duds or journeymen, you are in trouble at most schools, ask Oregon, Cal, OSU. You must have flexibility. Plan to sign one, but if another falls in your lap, who could be "it," you sign him too. Imagine if Utah at the last minute had offered Falk a ride, we would have been stuck with Bruggman and Bender, and in all likelihood Moos and Leach would be looking for work right now. Let's not forget that Falk was a walk on gift from the gods. He was not the product of a sound recruiting strategy.
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