Well... Thoughts?
- Thread starter PatBaum
- Start date
While I think it's inevitable that WSU falls back to struggling to reach bowl eligibility this year with the events of the past week......I'm a bit disappointed with our fans lack of faith. Last month, Leach was one of the great minds in college football and we would be stupid not to pay him $4 million per year. This month, our OL is hopeless, our receivers are terrible and we have no QB's that we trust to play.
If Leach is truly worth $4 million per year, we should have some young players in the system that are ready to step in and make some noise. Again, regression is likely inevitable this year, but I'd like to think that our coach is good enough to keep our team competitive for the most part. That said, even though I think Leach should put out a team that has some fight in it, a 5-7 or 6-6 season might be the healthiest thing for our fan base so they appreciate 9-4 a bit more.
If Leach is truly worth $4 million per year, we should have some young players in the system that are ready to step in and make some noise. Again, regression is likely inevitable this year, but I'd like to think that our coach is good enough to keep our team competitive for the most part. That said, even though I think Leach should put out a team that has some fight in it, a 5-7 or 6-6 season might be the healthiest thing for our fan base so they appreciate 9-4 a bit more.
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Ok, first of all CML does not make $4 million (yet). His salary this year is $3.5 million.
That said, I agree completely. We have great young talent on campus, including two 4 star QB's. It would be sort of an indictment of them if we ran out in a panic and brought someone else in, who would already be a year behind Neville and a Spring practice behind Cooper. Not discounting all the other QB's on the roster (including Bledsoe), but these two will be front and center this Spring. If the "system" works, we will be just fine.
One thing I can't find is how old these two are. Doesn't matter much, but a little age maturity never hurts.
Off season conditioning. Not football practice. Spring ball should start in mid-March.
Going strictly by last year's QB ranking, Tinsley would be the next man up. Not saying that he would not be, or hasn't already been, passed up by others but I find it odd that he is not mentioned as a possibility. Can any of you with more inside knowledge shed more light on this?
It's hardly an indictment of anyone not wanting to burn Cooper's red shirt and/or not wanting to start Neville as a RS freshman. Bringing in this PSU grad transfer wouldn't change the way I think about Cooper or Neville at all.
Reasonable views, but recent events weren't foreseeable, and we've gone from having a rising upperclassman the staff appeared to believe was capable of starting to not having him. It's not an "indictment" of the other players on the roster (other than Tinsley or Gordon, perhaps), nor does it mean recruiting or development has been poor, to consider bringing in someone with some experience, physical maturity, or other things to shore up the roster. It very well could mean that the conventional wisdom -- i.e., that TH was the presumptive starter, Cooper would likely push hard but probably would redshirt, Tinsley and Gordon probably are depth guys, and Neville and Bledsoe were unlikely to be counted on at this point, with any or all of those guys able to serve as backup options if needed or to need to step up if there was a transfer out of one of the guys buried on the depth chart -- was accurate. If none of that had changed and the staff suddenly was looking at JC QBs, that would reflect the staff panicking and not having adequately prepared.
None of this is to say that the conventional wisdom absolutely is accurate or that Tinsley, to take one example, couldn't do a decent job. Same goes for any of these guys ... maybe Neville could play and tear it up. Just not something I'd want to count on, and I think the staff is right to want to make sure Cooper is physically ready before putting him out there if possible.
There is no need to panic, there are quality QB's on the roster, we will all see that this spring. The only issue, and a big one, is experience, and no coach would have prepared 2 backup QB's this past season during games, TH was the back up, Tinsley, in order to spare red shirts was the 3rd Team QB.
If some grad transfer,that fits the system, falls into out lap, great. However I don't think Leach will go out of his way just to sign someone if they can't help right away. You have to believe in the kids you signed and maybe they have to step up a year earlier than planned, and that person will emerge this spring and in fall camp. There will be some growing pains next year, but this team should still be a bowl team, assuming there is no more attrition.
If some grad transfer,that fits the system, falls into out lap, great. However I don't think Leach will go out of his way just to sign someone if they can't help right away. You have to believe in the kids you signed and maybe they have to step up a year earlier than planned, and that person will emerge this spring and in fall camp. There will be some growing pains next year, but this team should still be a bowl team, assuming there is no more attrition.
Not necessarily the same situation, but the Ducks brought in the transfer from Montana State (Dakota Prukop?) after Vernon Adams graduated assuming they needed someone with lots of game experience. It wasn't long before Justin Herbert emerged, as a true freshman, and became a very good QB. If my memory is correct, Herbert actually came into fall ball either #3 or #4 on the depth chart. Maybe one of the young Cougs becomes WSU's Justin Herbert?
Glad Cougar
Glad Cougar
I guess what I'm getting at is Cooper must be throwing the ball around with somebody in the course of getting to know everyone. Was wondering with whom that might be. Some of the returning receivers? The other QBs?
Hope we don't parallel the ducks too much. 4-8 in 2016 and 7-6 in 2017. Sounds like the good ol' days.....Ugh.
