The turn around, who is responsible?

[roses04]

This team started off 1-3, and I'll admit, I figured they'd be 1-6 by the time the vax mandate kicked in and Rolo was gone. Unfortunately we saw the loses against Utah St, USC and Utah, as blown opportunities to win games, blow a lead to Utah St, get up on USC a dropped pass in the end zone, a quick score before half by USC, a walk on QB in the second half that leads to a safety and it snowballs into a USC rally, and you really had to wonder about this staff, in hind site we we never should have lost that game. They had a chance against Utah, blow it again, so there we sit at 1-3, don't know who the QB is, and then they run off 3 wins, Rolo is gone, the toughest part of the schedule coming up and they go 2-2, one win in which they are heavy under dogs, and a close lose to BYU, 3 of the 5 loses are to teams in the top 20. So how did they do it? Well needless to say a lot of credit has to go to the players and the senior leadership, they stuck together and battled through everything, and found a way to win, the comeback late against Stanford may have saved the season. No doubt the players themselves should get the most credit as they have performed to their abilities and executed as a team, all the issues this year really brought the players together, they didn't it allow it to an excuse to ruin the season.

So who else do we credit for this? Rolo for installing the run n shoot, he did get them to 4-3 when most didn't think it was possible including myself. Do we give Dickert credit for keeping the team together, for creating this ball hawking defense, they may have trouble coming up with stops, but they make up for it with turn overs. Taking over in mid season and keeping this team together was no easy task, the players had to buy in and they did, an Dickert has had them in every game. What about Leach, most of these players are his recruits, they have played well. There is one thing that Leach did instill in his players and that was a winning attitude, Leach had his issues in not being able to hang onto leads, like UCLA, but he always had his players believing they could beat anyone, did that carry over?

Just curious as to what others on this board think. I have been following Coug football for a lot of years and I have never seen a season that comes close to resembling what we have seen this year.

 

[wazzucougs96]

Rolo doesn't get credit for fixing the mess he created when he had JDL on the bench.

 

[CougPatrol]

The players deserve the credit for keeping their heads up and ignoring the adversity, but there are several MVPs who should receive special recognition.

• JDL is both the MVP and Most Inspirational player. Without him, we're a 2-10 team. We saw the immediate uptick in energy when he entered the game vs. Utah State, we watched the energy balloon pop when he left the game vs. USC, missed the Utah game, and then saw it spike again when he returned vs. Cal. He's one of those players who energizes both sides of the ball. Some of his mechanical and fundamental issues are easy to point to, but he has an "it" factor. He's a gamer with playing charisma that most QBs don't have. I'm excited to follow him moving forward.

• On the coaching side, you have to give a ton of credit to Dickert. Not just for the way he's comported himself after the Rolovich dismissal, but also for the way he motivates the defense to play with their hair on fire. I love the way we defend the pass and get after the QB. Our turnover stats and forced fumbles are directly attributable to his coaching, and his personality type has been the perfect remedy for calming a season of chaos.

This season has been one of my favorites in a long time. It takes me back to some of our teams in the 80's that turned around seemingly lost seasons and came back out of nowhere.

 

[Fab5Coug]

This team started off 1-3, and I'll admit, I figured they'd be 1-6 by the time the vax mandate kicked in and Rolo was gone. Unfortunately we saw the loses against Utah St, USC and Utah, as blown opportunities to win games, blow a lead to Utah St, get up on USC a dropped pass in the end zone, a quick score before half by USC, a walk on QB in the second half that leads to a safety and it snowballs into a USC rally, and you really had to wonder about this staff, in hind site we we never should have lost that game. They had a chance against Utah, blow it again, so there we sit at 1-3, don't know who the QB is, and then they run off 3 wins, Rolo is gone, the toughest part of the schedule coming up and they go 2-2, one win in which they are heavy under dogs, and a close lose to BYU, 3 of the 5 loses are to teams in the top 20. So how did they do it? Well needless to say a lot of credit has to go to the players and the senior leadership, they stuck together and battled through everything, and found a way to win, the comeback late against Stanford may have saved the season. No doubt the players themselves should get the most credit as they have performed to their abilities and executed as a team, all the issues this year really brought the players together, they didn't it allow it to an excuse to ruin the season.

So who else do we credit for this? Rolo for installing the run n shoot, he did get them to 4-3 when most didn't think it was possible including myself. Do we give Dickert credit for keeping the team together, for creating this ball hawking defense, they may have trouble coming up with stops, but they make up for it with turn overs. Taking over in mid season and keeping this team together was no easy task, the players had to buy in and they did, an Dickert has had them in every game. What about Leach, most of these players are his recruits, they have played well. There is one thing that Leach did instill in his players and that was a winning attitude, Leach had his issues in not being able to hang onto leads, like UCLA, but he always had his players believing they could beat anyone, did that carry over?

Just curious as to what others on this board think. I have been following Coug football for a lot of years and I have never seen a season that comes close to resembling what we have seen this year.

I'll say de Laura. The USU, USC & Utah losses were all games de Laura did not play the entire game. SC & Utah were injury, so nothing you can do about that, but I will always blame Rolovich for the Utah St loss. Maybe it was a punishment for the DUI, otherwise, I have no idea how he and his staff could watch an entire camp of practices and reach the conclusion Guarantano was better suited to start.

JDL certainly has his drawbacks, but he's leaps and bounds better than any other QB on the roster.

It's no surprise that once JDL was able to get through complete games, we started winning more consistently.

 

[COUGinNCW]

CJD deserves some credit but most of credit goes to the players, especially to those long in the tooth who have been through so much - Woods, Borgi, Abe, Liam Ryan, Marsh, Rogers, Jackson, Harris et al. that weren’t going to let the distractions of Rolo detract from their goals.

And Leach deserves some credit as well. A vast majority of the key players were Leach recruits and had expectations to win as established in 2017,18 and 19.

 

[Observer11]

Pat Chun. No question. Absolutely.

 

[roses04]

The players deserve the credit for keeping their heads up and ignoring the adversity, but there are several MVPs who should receive special recognition.

• JDL is both the MVP and Most Inspirational player. Without him, we're a 2-10 team. We saw the immediate uptick in energy when he entered the game vs. Utah State, we watched the energy balloon pop when he left the game vs. USC, missed the Utah game, and then saw it spike again when he returned vs. Cal. He's one of those players who energizes both sides of the ball. Some of his mechanical and fundamental issues are easy to point to, but he has an "it" factor. He's a gamer with playing charisma that most QBs don't have. I'm excited to follow him moving forward.

• On the coaching side, you have to give a ton of credit to Dickert. Not just for the way he's comported himself after the Rolovich dismissal, but also for the way he motivates the defense to play with their hair on fire. I love the way we defend the pass and get after the QB. Our turnover stats and forced fumbles are directly attributable to his coaching, and his personality type has been the perfect remedy for calming a season of chaos.

This season has been one of my favorites in a long time. It takes me back to some of our teams in the 80's that turned around seemingly lost seasons and came back out of nowhere.

Great point, Speaking of the 80's just reminded me of 1983 Cougs with Ricky Turner running the option, his ability to pitch at the last 1/10th of a second was amazing, and his ability to throw wasn't bad either. Started the year 2-4 with a close loss to a Michigan team on the road, then finish with 5 straight wins, after the AC Don James even said the Cougs were the best team in the conference at year end.

 

[froropmkr72]

I'll say de Laura. The USU, USC & Utah losses were all games de Laura did not play the entire game. SC & Utah were injury, so nothing you can do about that, but I will always blame Rolovich for the Utah St loss. Maybe it was a punishment for the DUI, otherwise, I have no idea how he and his staff could watch an entire camp of practices and reach the conclusion Guarantano was better suited to start.

JDL certainly has his drawbacks, but he's leaps and bounds better than any other QB on the roster.

It's no surprise that once JDL was able to get through complete games, we started winning more consistently.

Yes, he made something happen when it was needed and that's obviously important for a quarterback to do.

 

[KRUSTYtheCOUG]

This team started off 1-3, and I'll admit, I figured they'd be 1-6 by the time the vax mandate kicked in and Rolo was gone. Unfortunately we saw the loses against Utah St, USC and Utah, as blown opportunities to win games, blow a lead to Utah St, get up on USC a dropped pass in the end zone, a quick score before half by USC, a walk on QB in the second half that leads to a safety and it snowballs into a USC rally, and you really had to wonder about this staff, in hind site we we never should have lost that game. They had a chance against Utah, blow it again, so there we sit at 1-3, don't know who the QB is, and then they run off 3 wins, Rolo is gone, the toughest part of the schedule coming up and they go 2-2, one win in which they are heavy under dogs, and a close lose to BYU, 3 of the 5 loses are to teams in the top 20. So how did they do it? Well needless to say a lot of credit has to go to the players and the senior leadership, they stuck together and battled through everything, and found a way to win, the comeback late against Stanford may have saved the season. No doubt the players themselves should get the most credit as they have performed to their abilities and executed as a team, all the issues this year really brought the players together, they didn't it allow it to an excuse to ruin the season.

So who else do we credit for this? Rolo for installing the run n shoot, he did get them to 4-3 when most didn't think it was possible including myself. Do we give Dickert credit for keeping the team together, for creating this ball hawking defense, they may have trouble coming up with stops, but they make up for it with turn overs. Taking over in mid season and keeping this team together was no easy task, the players had to buy in and they did, an Dickert has had them in every game. What about Leach, most of these players are his recruits, they have played well. There is one thing that Leach did instill in his players and that was a winning attitude, Leach had his issues in not being able to hang onto leads, like UCLA, but he always had his players believing they could beat anyone, did that carry over?

Just curious as to what others on this board think. I have been following Coug football for a lot of years and I have never seen a season that comes close to resembling what we have seen this year.

I'd say all three. The team did win 3 straight with Rolo still the coach. Players have competed all throughout, defense has shown steady improvement.

Interesting thing about this Coug team is that they have either led or been tied (twice) in every game at halftime this year. Or more simply - they have never trailed. Also, I believe JDL has only lost twice when he played the entire game (Oregon, byu) making him 7-2 overall in that metric (I think) including last year. That is all I have to say about that.

 

[KRUSTYtheCOUG]

Great point, Speaking of the 80's just reminded me of 1983 Cougs with Ricky Turner running the option, his ability to pitch at the last 1/10th of a second was amazing, and his ability to throw wasn't bad either. Started the year 2-4 with a close loss to a Michigan team on the road, then finish with 5 straight wins, after the AC Don James even said the Cougs were the best team in the conference at year end.

Yes, and we got bumped out of a bowl game to which I still blame (and loath) Notre Dame to this day is all I have to say about that!

 

[79COUG]

1. The players. Guts and sheer determination.
1A. The staff. They haven't over-thought the strengths and weaknesses.

 

[ShockandAweWSU]

DeLaura and the seniors get most of the credit. Lucas, Ryan, Harris, Borghi, Woods and others have played a lot of games for us. Kept the team together. So happy that they get to finish out their careers in a bowl game. Hopefully after Friday, a real quality bowl game.

 

[Coug1990]

CJD deserves some credit but most of credit goes to the players, especially to those long in the tooth who have been through so much - Woods, Borgi, Abe, Liam Ryan, Marsh, Rogers, Jackson, Harris et al. that weren’t going to let the distractions of Rolo detract from their goals.

And Leach deserves some credit as well. A vast majority of the key players were Leach recruits and had expectations to win as established in 2017,18 and 19.

Yes this. Thanks for putting my thoughts down on here. Now, please get out of my head.

 

[jarvis1981]

Three things.

1 - The players get most of the credit for all they been through.
2- Leach planted the seed.
3- (1980s) Notre Dame coach was pathetic when WSU went 7-4. He said he left it up to the players to vote on whether they should go bowling. Hey guys, you want a free trip to the sunny south over the break or stay next to Lake Michigan and freeze your tail off. Ha!

 

[dgibbons]

Ed's dental hygienist. Prove me wrong.

 

[dgibbons]

DeLaura and the seniors get most of the credit. Lucas, Ryan, Harris, Borghi, Woods and others have played a lot of games for us. Kept the team together. So happy that they get to finish out their careers in a bowl game. Hopefully after Friday, a real quality bowl game.

I agree. There have been lots of reasons to mail it in. They didn't.

 

[etowncoug]

The season turned when Ron Stone picked up a blocked punt and ran for a first down. We were tied at Cal and ended up using that new set of downs to punch in a score thanks to an amazing one handed grab by Calvin Jackson Jr. I don't think we beat Cal without those two plays.

Against Oregon St, some might point to Smith's boneheaded decision to fake punt coming out of the half, but Joey Hobert taking a quick hitter to the house broke that game open from a momentum standpoint.

Finally Brennan Jackson coming up with a sack when we needed the ball back against Stanford was huge.

It's been a weird year because this team has had it's back against the wall so much. Without those huge plays, I think we would be having a season similar to UW where we complained about not being very good, when in reality it was more about an ability to make a key play in the clutch.