Cruz
- Thread starter kougkurt
- Start date
Cruz wants to play and doesn’t fit the Rolo system. Pretty simple decision. And yes. Great kid and family. Met them in Pullman.
That didn't take long. Makes you wonder if it was a done deal before he entered the portal. Best of luck to the kid.
my nomination for dumb post of the day
He is from AZ. He can go compete in a system that might be more favorable to his skill set, while feeling comfortable around family. If he thought he might play at Wazzu it might have been (probably would have been) different, but it is pretty clear that he was probably the #3 choice going into spring ball. A new coach at UA means a clean slate. I hope he gets to see the field.
A glib comment to avoid acknowledging the sad reality of: Apodaca -- Bust, Bruggman -- Bust, Bender -- Bust, Hilinski -- Bust, Neville -- Bust, Cooper -- no suggestion he will ever be the starter, Cruz -- Bust and, De Laura -- very athletic, better than Cooper and Cruz from day one, but has a windup throwing motion like Alex Brink on speed.
Leach's success at WSU was the result of a hold over, a "walk on" and two transfers and now, Rolo signs a grad transfer! It indicates that Leach found ways to overcome, not that he could identify and sign quality high school QBs from the get go. He didn't even offer a scholarship to Luke Falk, giving it to Tyler Bruggman, a complete bust, instead.
Leach’s success was always based on upperclassman QBs. Most - if not all - of his air raid quarterbacks were starters for a year or two, Falk being the obvious exception.
He also wasn’t trying to find star QBs. He was looking for a specific set of skills that worked in the Air Raid.
I’m not sure it’s fair to say that guys who left before their junior year were busts - especially guys who turned into the starter somewhere else like Bender, or Cooper and Cruz who still have half their careers in front of them.
It’s completely unfair to call Hilinski a bust, he was the clear choice to be a 2-year starter in 2018-19. At times in 2017 he also seemed a better option than Falk. Yes, he had some issues with decision making at times, but he was a sophomore.
Silly me, I thought the coaches job was to get production at the position. The QB's he played were Falk, Minshew, and Gordon. We never struggled with QB play. Who cares if he used walk ons, grad transfer and JuCo to make it happen.
Well, imagine if Leach had not thrown away so many scholarships on suspect QBs and used them elsewhere? Bad evaluation isn't harmless as you suggest. There is the wasted scholarship, and need to use a second to make up for it.
Come on, the reason Leach relied on transfers was because he struck out repeatedly on the high school kids. When your starter, back up and third string are all transfers, you had a problem with your high school recruits.
Hilinski was a bust. You either produce, or you don't. He didn't. Football isn't a human interest story. Next thing you'll claim is that Leaf wasn't an NFL bust, because he had that wrist injury.
I haven't read all the posts, but for the most part, this is a dumb thread. Who cares! Seriously, whether the came from high school, a JC or the transfer portal, all that matters if there was a good starting QB. During the Leach era, we had good starting QB play.
It seems that some people are just looking for an argument regardless of the subject.
It seems that some people are just looking for an argument regardless of the subject.
I'm all for cutting through BS, but he wasn't a bust. All indications were that he was going to be a productive starter.
More generally, some context is necessary.
Apodaca wasn't really his guy. He was a holdover who was retained. Leach did "own" that scholie, though, so fair to put him on the list, even if I'd caveat it a little.
Bruggman was a full-on bust. No context necessary and the biggest bust of his regime, albeit one that he not only fixed, but may have contributed to, by pulling in "walk-on" Falk. So just trying to limit it to scholie QBs in that context is a bit disingenuous.
Bender was a bust, owing significantly to his failure to get it done in the classroom. If I was framing things in a bullshitty way, I'd say he was good enough to start in Power 5, but we know that's a stretch. I also think it's fair to put his failure to get it done in the classroom on Leach. If your QB isn't getting it done in the classroom, that's on you as a coach. Finally, the eyeball test on him showed he wasn't going to get it done at WSU, IMO. So OK, we can say Bender was a bust.
Then we have TH. Again, not a bust.
While not a bust, the cycle that had Davis and Brewer decommit is what led to the Gordon signing and getting Tinsley to walk on. That was an arguable failure of some sort, but the response was rational and ultimately was effective.
TH's passing led to the rest of what we saw, which is consistent with what other programs do all the time. If TH hadn't died, he almost certainly would have started two years unless Gordon, who we saw perform at a high level, pushed him. Either way, we likely would have had effective QB play.
Not something I will go to the mat on, nor is it necessary, but the whole debate seems to center largely on disingenuous framing by whoever is trying to make a point. One can say Mike Leach's scholarship high school QB recruiting wasn't that great, and that's true, I guess. The topic needs more nuance and consideration, though.
Leach recruited a ton of balanced classes. 1 QB, 1 RB, 4 WR, 5 OL, 3 DL, 3 LB's, and 5 DB's with 3 best available spots. When you sign 25 a year, lots of kids are going to wash out if you want to keep under the 85 scholarship limit. Lots of kids washed out at every position, same with every school in the country. If you want to gripe about recruiting the defense is a better place to look. Though if we are being honest its not like we were turning down 4 star studs on defense because we needed another QB scholarship for Minshew.
