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With Wazzu hoops competition clearing Covid protocols, there will be news on that front in the coming days with scheduled games set to be played today and tomorrow. Until then, we found some more recruiting news for you. If this actually plays out, WSU could have twin brothers playing on the offensive line in the coming years. Landon and Luke Roaten announced Tuesday that they are both headed to Pullman to play for Coach Jake Dickert. Landon is highly touted and considered to be one of the best offensive linemen coming out of high school this year. Measuring 6' 5" and 300 pounds, he certainly has the size for it. Brother Luke is highly touted as well, but unlike his brother the rating is based on his high school position on the defensive line. To be clear, Luke didn't play a down of football on the offensive side of the ball. However, it appears he's open to the possibility of learning a position on the offensive line. Given the fact that his measurements mirror his twin brother, Luke has the size to play on the OL.
"(I) love Coach Dickert," Luke told Cougfan.com. "Good things are happening at Washington State. He told us what they're about, what they'll expect." They were charmed by OL Coach Clay McGuire to play for the crimson and gray. McGuire is known to have extensive contacts across the state of Texas making him an excellent recruiter. Landon originally committed to Tulane while his brother was going to play for Wyoming. Both held offers from Louisiana Tech along with another handful of FCS offers. -
WSU men's hoops will host Utah Wednesday night at Beasley Coliseum with tipoff set for 7pm. If interested, do your DVR thing as the game will be telecast on the Pac-12 Network. The Cougs haven't played in a week because of Covid protocol so it will be interesting to see if the layoff affects their stamina.
https://wsucougars.com/news/2022/1/25/mens-basketball-run-it-back-with-the-utes.aspx -
Under the category of random thoughts, how has the transfer portal affected Wazzu football recruiting? Under new head Coach Jake Dickert it appears that he will reload the football roster with a heavy dose of transfers. Perhaps this may be a long-term strategy because schools with alumni with deep, deep pockets are able to put together phenomenal financial NLI deals for high school players. WSU alumni might be more inclined to pony up NLI dollars for kids that have collegiate experience. Just because a young man is highly touted coming out of high school doesn't make him a sure thing at the college level. Looking at the landscape this season, the richer schools made HS recruits richer. Will that mean they will also make transfers richer? Time will tell on that score. Presently it seems alumni money tips in favor of HS athletes. Looking at WSU this season, Jayden de Laura moved down to Tuscon, banking about $300,000 in the process. He was replaced on the Wazzu roster by Cam Ward at roughly half that price tag. WSU will likely be in the transfer market offering similar sorts of deals in the future. With roughly 14 spots still open for scholarships presently, how many will be transfers? Time will tell. Your comments and thoughts are welcome.
Go Cougs!!!
- It seems fitting to put together a list of coaches who branch off of the Mike Leach coaching tree. Perspective on his football genius can easily be determined by a cursory glance:
Dave Aranda/Baylor head coach – Graduate assistant coach under Leach from 2000-02 at Texas Tech
Neal Brown/West Virginia head coach – Played under Leach in 1998 when Leach was offensive coordinator at Kentucky
Sonny Cumbie/Louisiana Tech head coach – Played under Leach at Texas Tech from 2000-03 and later served as a graduate assistant coach under Leach
Sonny Dykes/TCU head coach – Coached wide receivers and later was the co-offensive coordinator at Texas Tech under Leach from 2000-06
Josh Heupel/Tennessee head coach – Played under Leach at Oklahoma in 1999 when Leach was the offensive coordinator for the Sooners
Dana Holgorsen/Houston head coach – Coached alongside Leach as assistants at Valdosta State from 1993-95, then served as a wide receivers coach and offensive coordinator under Leach from ...
- The news of former WSU Coach Mike Leach passing at the young age of 61 is very, very sad. I had the pleasure of writing about the Cougs when Leach was at the helm. To say that he was a unique person doesn't begin to describe the multi-faceted dimension of the man.
In terms of coaching football, Leach led his teams in a way that had most other coaches scratching their heads. His offensive creativity gave a multitude of defensive coordinators ulcers. To say that his techniques for molding student-athletes into football players were unusual would be accurate. Making guys run sprints in a sand pit named "Leach Beach" is a prime example. Crazy as that sounds, his players had fewer ankle injuries over the course of the season than any team in football. Only Mike Leach could get players to hit the beach. And if you look at the coaching tree that branches out from Leach, you'd find a myriad of men who owe him for their start in the profession.
When you examine the way Leach represented the schools ...
- Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, so Wazzu's loss yesterday to UNLV by a score of 74-70 was just that, a loss. However, there were plenty of reasons to applaud both the performance and the progress the Cougs are making over the past few games. Let's get the bad observation out of the way. WSU turned the ball over a ridiculous 22 times. No one is going to beat many teams with such wreckless play, especially against a team that posted a 9-0 record going into the contest. Some of those errors might be attributed to Coach Kyle Smith going with a different lineup almost every game because of player injuries. Facts are facts and when there isn't a steady lineup, players struggle to play team ball. On the bright side, Wazzu shot a respectable 54.2% from the field, coupled with a very nice 56.5% from behind the arc. On defense, WSU held UNLV to just 30.4% from behind the arc and 50.9% overall. The Cougs outrebounded the Rebels by a margin of 33-20. Despite being down by ...
