What would be different if RoLo was still head football coach at WSU?

[PeteTheChop]

Setting politics aside for a moment, how would things be if there had been no vaccine mandate and Coach Rolovich hadn't been relieved of his duties?

How might have last season finished differently?

What about 2022?

Recruiting? The transfer portal? Staff changes? NIL impact?

Would Cougar Football be in a better or worse place today if none of that "turmoil" happened and RoLo was still running the show as Schultzie and Chun planned?

 

[ttowncoug]

JDL would be here. Offensively, we might have had a little more "sizzle" primarily based on the way that offense is designed.

All in all, I think the end result would have been pretty much the same.

 

[95coug]

We might still have JDL. I'm not sure if Rolo was really the reason he left or if he was just looking for a better deal. Probably both, but hard to say which was really bigger.

If we had JDL instead of Ward, I'm not sure it really makes any difference in our season. I don't think Ward directly cost us any games, and I don't think he carried us to any wins either. Maybe we pull off the upset of Utah with JDL.

On the other hand, I don't know that we land Henley if Rolo is still here, and he made a clear but unquantifiable difference on our D this season. Maybe we don't beat Wisconsin without him.

In the end, I think our season results are likely similar. I think our future prospects are dimmer...Rolo is the reason we have the OL problems we have, another year under him certainly wouldn't have improved that. He wasn't recruiting Cutting him loose and retaining Dickert (reportedly) led to a spike in cash donations, which wouldn't have happened with him. If you look at our commitment lists from 2020 & 2021, you don't find a lot of signs that Rolo was recruiting very well...and most of the names that are recognizable are kids that are gone. On the other hand, a lot of those kids should be just starting to get on the field.

 

[BleedCrimsonandGray]

who cares?

 

[cr8zyncalif]

Biggest difference would be that we'd be running an offense where the WR's dictate their patterns rather than the QB dictates them. That is a huge difference, and it means the QB has to observe the pattern & decide before throwing, rather than watching the D, then throwing to a spot. Many consequences to that difference. Discussions about Rolo himself aside, I would have liked to see the RnS develop at the PAC level, and I think we would have scored more points had Rolo still been here. That does not necessarily mean more wins, though, because with JdL at QB you never knew how many turnovers you would have due to poor throwing decisions.

 

[CougEd]

Setting politics aside for a moment, how would things be if there had been no vaccine mandate and Coach Rolovich hadn't been relieved of his duties?

How might have last season finished differently?

What about 2022?

Recruiting? The transfer portal? Staff changes? NIL impact?

Would Cougar Football be in a better or worse place today if none of that "turmoil" happened and RoLo was still running the show as Schultzie and Chun planned?

Who?

 

[chugspig]

I bet we beat Utah and possibly OSU. Not saying Rolo is a better coach for the program, but just given our team would be pretty deep into his system with JDL etc. I think he’d have the offensive issues ironed out and we’d still have Hobert who was a 1000+ yard receiver. 9-3 my guess, again not because I think he’s better, but would have had that time in system.

 

[CougEd]

I bet we beat Utah and possibly OSU. Not saying Rolo is a better coach for the program, but just given our team would be pretty deep into his system with JDL etc. I think he’d have the offensive issues ironed out and we’d still have Hobert who was a 1000+ yard receiver. 9-3 my guess, again not because I think he’s better, but would have had that time in system.

If I recall "what's his name" had all kinds of second half problems.

 

[roses04]

Doesn't matter, we lucked into a situation with a head coach that has a better plan for the entire system. It's just not about coaching, it's recruiting, managing the coaches, selling the program the kids and boosters, and having positive energy and most importantly a short, medium and long term plan players and the program. Dickert has all of those things, time will tell if he is successful, but Rolo seemed to lack in the planning area for one.

 

[425cougfan]

Doesn't matter, we lucked into a situation with a head coach that has a better plan for the entire system. It's just not about coaching, it's recruiting, managing the coaches, selling the program the kids and boosters, and having positive energy and most importantly a short, medium and long term plan players and the program. Dickert has all of those things, time will tell if he is successful, but Rolo seemed to lack in the planning area for one.

Agree with all that. It makes it hard to consider what the team would have even looked like this year. Not that it matters, but I would say the prior regime may have had coaching that was better, at least when Stutzmann was calling plays. A lot of that is because Dickert was a very good DC, though. I would take Dickert's ability to run a program over Rolo, but that offense needs to improve one way or the other.

 

[CougEd]

Agree with all that. It makes it hard to consider what the team would have even looked like this year. Not that it matters, but I would say the prior regime may have had coaching that was better, at least when Stutzmann was calling plays. A lot of that is because Dickert was a very good DC, though. I would take Dickert's ability to run a program over Rolo, but that offense needs to improve one way or the other.

People have short term memory loss. Brian Smith was our OC. We had such problems on offense rolo made Stutzman the playcaller

 

[425cougfan]

People have short term memory loss. Brian Smith was our OC. We had such problems on offense rolo made Stutzman the playcaller

Agree that Smith was terrible. The OL was in better shape, removing that as an excuse. The offense was a lot better when Stutzmann called plays, though.

 

[Cougini5591]

I think we would have been better just because we wouldn't have hit as much of a "reset" button.

But... not better enough to where I'm saying Dickert sucks.

I'm not going to bitch out a 1st year coach that gets more wins than the previous year/coach. I'm satisfied with us getting 7 wins this year.

I think we would've beat OSU.

For the record... I really liked Rolo.

Go Cougs!

 

[Coug90]

I’d still have my Rolo hat?

 

[M-I-Coug]

The neighborhood kids would've received different candy this year?