Rolovich new job...
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Ex-WSU coach Nick Rolovich, fired after refusing COVID vaccine, hired by Cal
Tim BoothDec. 13, 2024 at 3:50 pm
Updated Dec. 13, 2024 at 5:16 pm
By
Seattle Times staff reporter
Nick Rolovich is set for a return to college football three years after his dismissal at Washington State.
Rolovich was hired Friday as a senior offensive assistant at the University of California, joining the staff of coach Justin Wilcox.
Rolovich has been out of college football since being fired at Washington State midway through the 2021 season for not complying with the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for state employees.
Rolovich was 5-6 in his 11 games in charge of the Cougars during the 2020-21 seasons that were impacted by the pandemic. He was fired after Washington State beat Stanford 34-31 on Oct. 16, 2021, and was replaced by current Cougars coach Jake Dickert.
Rolovich contended he should have been provided a religious exemption to a law requiring state employees to get the vaccine — a requirement that was later rescinded.
WSU contended that Rolovich did not raise religious concerns about the vaccine’s development until the deadline approached to get vaccinated. The school said its denial of an exemption was based on its inability to accommodate his coaching under pandemic-related guidelines and skepticism about the sincerity of his beliefs.
Rolovich filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Spokane against the university that was originally scheduled to go to trial in December. The trial was struck from the court calendar this past summer as both sides filed motions for summary judgment. That is still pending.
Rolovich’s lawsuit originally included specific claims against Gov. Jay Inslee and then-Washington State athletic director Pat Chun. Those were dismissed in 2023.
Rolovich was hired in Pullman as the replacement for Mike Leach when he left to take the head job at Mississippi State after the 2019 season. Rolovich was coming off a 10-win season at Hawaii, where he went 28-27 in his four seasons in charge.
Known for his offensive background and high-scoring teams, Rolovich’s hiring at WSU was seen as a continuation of what Leach created during his tenure on the Palouse.
But the pandemic arrived just a few months after Rolovich was hired and led to a truncated first season in which the Cougars played just four games and the season didn’t begin until November.
His second season became defined by the lingering vaccine debate, which came to light when Rolovich didn’t show up in person for Pac-12 media day in Los Angeles, where a vaccine mandate was in place.
From there his vaccination status clouded the Cougars’ season and whether the school would have to move forward with termination. It finally arrived Oct. 18, 2021, the day Inslee set as the deadline for state employees to be vaccinated or have an exemption.
At the time of his firing, Rolovich was the highest-paid state employee with a contract paying more than $3 million.
Rolovich has long connections in the Bay Area and began his coaching career as an assistant at San Marin High School in nearby Novato. With the Golden Bears, he’ll work on a staff that includes former Boise State and Auburn coach Bryan Harsin, who was hired as Cal’s offensive coordinator this week.
Tim Booth: Tim Booth covers the Kraken and other sports for The Seattle Times. Email him at tbooth@seattletimes.com. On Twitter: @ByTimBooth.
Good for Nick. He made a decision he was willing to live (essentially flipping off Inslee) with and you have to respect him for doing so.
I'll concur with Biggs on this one. I have no respect for him. He was an idiot.
Losers Hate Rolovich.
I'm very pleased that Rolovich has had a better life than all of you.
Hate for him makes you scum.
Arguing his coaching? Fine. I disagree, but fine.
Pissed at him him because the fakeness of the covid shot deemed required by liberal retards?
Literally you are examples of fruity wokeness. DEI providing your bedside joysticks
I'm very pleased that Rolovich has had a better life than all of you.
Hate for him makes you scum.
Arguing his coaching? Fine. I disagree, but fine.
Pissed at him him because the fakeness of the covid shot deemed required by liberal retards?
Literally you are examples of fruity wokeness. DEI providing your bedside joysticks
You don’t respect anyone so why should this be any different.
It was the arrogance of his approach that I had a problem with. He didn’t even submit his paperwork almost until the deadline, he just assumed that he’d be granted an exception based on his position in spite of repeated reminders to get it in early. He didn’t even seem to consider the possibility of a denial, and ignored what should have been pretty obvious impacts on his ability to do the job.
He expected special treatment and sued when he didn’t get it. That’s just arrogant as hell, and he was nowhere near good enough a coach for that.
The word "hate" has been posted twice in this thread. Both of them in your post above. So who are you referring to? No one said they hated him.
And what makes you think the Rolo's life is/has been better than "all of you (us)"? You have no knowledge of anyone's life. My life has been just fine, and I'm not done with it yet.
You have your opinion on the COVID vaccine. COVID killed lots of people. Predominantly unvaccinated people. I wasn't a big fan of the mandates but was damn glad I got my jabs. When you make $2.7M (or whatever) a year, you roll up your f-ing sleeve and take a shot. That's why some of us have no respect for him. His religious grounds were complete BS and you know it.
So on behalf of whoever you are referring to as losers, scum, and pissed off fruity wokers, F*** you very much.
Bullshit. He didn't want to get the shot. Stop twisting what was wrong.
The shots were dumb to EVER be required nor should it have ever been legal to force them.
I’ll agree with the second part - the mandates were dumb. But they were put in place, and he thought he was above them.
And he was still a shitty coach.
Covid was a weird time for everyone.
I’ll wait.
You haven’t thought this through if you’re still blindly following the Your Body My Choice mantra.
kindly post the provision of his contract that specifically addresses mandatory experimental vaccines or anything to do with Covid.
I’ll wait.
You haven’t thought this through if you’re still blindly following the Your Body My Choice mantra.
You think a kid wants to get a shot to go to school? Rolo's kids got jabbed to play in sports and go to school. Such a BS argument.
Trust me when I tell you rolo put harmful shit in in his body and this was the hill he wanted to die on- cause Gates was going to track him?
The one good thing about RFK he will make the vaccine policy more in line with what you and many others believe...a little less than half the country, that vaccines like polio and others should not be mandated to go to school or play in sports. That way the policy for half the country will now be free choice, even for an infant.
He could not freely go into living rooms to recruit. He couldn't attend Pac 12 media day.
Do I hate Rolo? Nope. He made his bed, now he is back in coaching so good for him.
I have the same respect I have for the Yakima police officer who essentially said FU to Inslee signing off and turning in his badge. He made a life or death decision as he got covid a month later and died.
Just thought I should post a newsclip confirming your post as factual.
Washington trooper who defied state vaccine mandate and told gov to 'kiss my a--' dies from COVID-19
A Washington State Patrol officer who defied a statewide vaccine mandate and signed off for the last time by issuing a strongly worded message to Gov. Jay Inslee has passed away from COVID-19 complications.
In 2022 EVERYBODY died from COVID.Just thought I should post a newsclip confirming your post as factual.
Washington trooper who defied state vaccine mandate and told gov to 'kiss my a--' dies from COVID-19
A Washington State Patrol officer who defied a statewide vaccine mandate and signed off for the last time by issuing a strongly worded message to Gov. Jay Inslee has passed away from COVID-19 complications.www.foxnews.com
lol. This is such a silly blanket statement. I’m happy for him he got a gig, probably the right kind of job for him. He’s not a good head football coach. At all. I could give two shits if he took the vaccine or not it was a damn blessing they had an excuse to fire him. His teams were outscored 38-0 in the second half of games….twice…in 11 F’n games. He sucked. The reality is if you are excusing that bad of coaching because he’s some kind of hero to you because he didn’t get a vaccine, you are the dipshit.
Mandated vaccines may be fine -- as long as the vaccine providers have performed proper testing, disclose all potential side effects and are no longer held immune to liability.
Just like the Sacklers and any other make of substances pumped into humans.
Why wouldn't that be the standard?
Judging Rolovich on his coaching/lack of coaching success is quite fair.
Except he wasn't terminated on that basis.
Feel free to show me that they didnt follow FDA standards they use on all drugs . Or all vaccine trials in the past 50 years .
I’m well aware of that. At the same time if you’re a Coug fan it was a gift that they were able to fire him. He sucked. He didn’t recruit either and is a big reason we’ve had struggles at OLine the last couple years so you have him to thank for that as well.
When the documents become available to the public in the new administration (not in 75 years), we'll know.
So does that mean you're also in favor of unlimited immunity to pharmaceutical companies or not?
No dumb ass...
I said being against him as a coach is fine. We can disagree.
To HATE on him because of the fake and unconstitutional covid shots is bull shit.
And I clearly stated that in the post.
Your hate and the hate of others on this topic is disgusting and I actually feel sorrow for what you guys are.
But of course, that's also why you lost the last election
You sure trump one the last election . He claimed election fraud before the first ballot was cast. Maybe he is right ....the Republicans cheated again .
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Wait ...you made a claim FDA guides werent followed . Tell me which ones ?
When you kids got vaccinated were yoi told of the side effects ? Do tell ....
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Sorry Ed... it's hard to hear what you're saying while crying in the corner.
Can't you do something useful like protest American Oil/Gas or claim a daily sex change?
Do you have your email set with him/her/it?
More hate there 5591? Who hates Rolo? No one that has posted on this topic. Hate word tally: 5591 - 5. Everyone else - 0.
And last I looked, I wasn't on the ballot in the last election, so no I did not lose.. Any other posters on the ballot? And you are aware that Trump trumpeted (see how I did that?) the vaccines when they first came out and got vaxxed himself?
So go ahead and hate some more if it makes you feel better.
No. No, they don't.
SCOTUS tears down Sacklers’ immunity, blowing up opioid settlement
Majority of justices ruled on meaning of legal code; dissenters called it “ruinous”…
arstechnica.com
Congratulations, Ed! You have just posted the greatest, hugest, most ginormous, humungo case of projection that this board has ever seen.
My bad .. immunity via bk.. there is no penalty . In order to pay the 250 million they have to manufacture more of the drugs . They should have been jailed and they should be living in poverty. None of their vast expansive family wealth never was touched .No. No, they don't.
SCOTUS tears down Sacklers’ immunity, blowing up opioid settlement
Majority of justices ruled on meaning of legal code; dissenters called it “ruinous”…
I have no issue with that.
All entities who inject into human bodies should be subject to the harshest penalties available.
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