So...you know that Rolovich feels that Cooper and Cruz are so much inferior to JDL that any discussion of them taking snaps in the next couple games is illogical? It's obvious that Rolovich felt that JDL was our best option at QB and he got the start to begin the season.
FWIW, coaches can be wrong about that type of thing when they don't have real game information to help inform them. Matt Campbell, coach at Iowa State, didn't give Brock Purdy the starting nod in 2018 because he didn't feel that he gave them the best chance to win. In fact, he was the third stringer to start the season. Starter gets hurt, backup sucked so they put in Purdy. He kicked ass once he got some reps and he's now a three year starter. Practice doesn't tell you everything.
I'm not trying to say that JDL isn't better than the other two, but I'm saying that he's got enough flaws that we might as well take the next couple games and evaluate all three of them in live game action against our conference competition to make sure that we are making the right long term choice. If JDL is so damned insecure that he can't let the other guys get their shot.....I don't want him on my team. Now, I don't believe that's the case and it will probably work out that JDL is our best shot, but I'd hate to lose a great passing QB to another school just because we fell in love with a kid after one game. Nothing wrong with having an open mind about player evaluation.
Great anecdote re Purdy. I think there's a good chance the main reason JdL won the job was his familiarity with the offense, which was valuable to an outsized extent in the circumstances of this year. Rolovich had to make a call. It doesn't necessarily mean he was head and shoulders above these other guys.
I think a lot of people support him, ironically, for reasons similar to why people always want the backup QB to play. JdL represents potential and excitement about the future. He was offered by Ohio State. It's like when a top prospect gets called up in MLB. It's more exciting to dream about what he can do, in the abstract, than either of two players who couldn't force the issue last year and had Leach looking at bringing in Costello this year if he had stuck around. Still, if you took the names off these guys' jerseys and told someone unfamiliar with the team that due to COVID-19, we had to throw a fourth-string walk-on out there -- say, Aaron Angelos -- and that person thought JdL was Angelos, I think they probably would have said something like "I see why this guy is the 4th string QB" if watching JdL in that game.
I haven't seen enough to make a definitive call on any of these QBs, but I'm not sure Rolovich has, either. I have a sinking feeling that Cooper is going to transfer and light up the Mountain West, and we'll wonder what if ... hopefully not caring that much because de Laura, Ward, or whoever else is winning games for the Cougs next year and thereafter. I just wouldn't want to see him go somewhere else and tear it up and have us stuck with a talented prospect, but one who never could fix his throwing motion and who, even at 20 years old, had to put every ounce he had into it to make a 35-yard throw.
What we don't know yet are (i) the extent to which Cooper really is failing to grasp the offense, with that being incapable of being solved, and (ii) whether and to what extent de Laura is going to develop in all aspects of his game. He's young and maturing, and this post isn't in any way to rip on him. He's young and just had COVID-19. I just think Cooper has the kind of talent that is rare in Pullman and, while I'm not as high on Cruz, we haven't seen enough of him yet either.
