Washington State Football: 3 reasons why Pac-12 only football schedule hurts WSU
Nick Rolovich with Pat Chung, Washington State football.
Last Friday, the Pac-12 announced they were moving to a conference only football schedule for the 2020 season. It’s a move that will have profound consequences for Washington State football.
Once again, the COVID-19 plays havoc to life in the United States. In the grand scheme of things, college sporting events may seem trivial, but they are important to many. As a result of the ongoing pandemic, the Pac-12 conference decided on a conference-only football schedule for the 2020 season last Friday. It’s a move that will have profound consequences for the Washington State Cougars football team, the athletic department, and the university as a whole.
Here are three of the biggest impacts.
1. New Coach/Offense/Defense
The Mike Leach era of Washington State Cougars football is over. He moved on to Mississippi State and was replaced by former University of Hawaii head coach Nick Rolovich. In a typical year, one without a pandemic, changing head football coaches is a huge undertaking. Under the current circumstances, its a nightmare scenario.
On January 13, 2020, Rolovich was hired as the next Washington State football coach. Again, in a typical year, it’s plenty of time to assemble a staff, get to know players, and start building a recruiting base in the state. That was six months ago to the day, and the world has changed.
In March, coronavirus forced colleges to shut down their athletic programs to adhere to social distancing requirements. Rolovich had no personal contact with his players and couldn’t host or visit recruits. What’s worse is the new offensive coordinator Brian Smith and new defensive coordinator Jake Dickert had very little time to work with the team.
There was no spring practice to put new systems into place. All the coaches had were video conferences to explain their new formations, plays, and language to the players. In short, the new regime could describe what they wanted to do but had no means of putting them into practice.
Last month, students were allowed back on campus for “phased in” voluntary workouts of no more than five people at a time. The team won’t begin enhanced training (i.e., film, weights, and walkthroughs) until July 22. Fall training camp starts the following day. That means seven months will have passed between hiring Rolovich and players on the field, implementing an entirely new football system.
Rolovich had three non-conference games to acclimate players to his systems, until Friday. Now the Washington State Cougars get thrown into the conference fire on September 26, with no games in hand to modify or adjust plans. With limited time to put systems into place and no games under their belt to use them, it’s welcome to Pac-12 football Nick Rolovich.
One more thing, none of the quarterbacks on Wazzu’s roster have taken a snap in a college football game — a nightmare scenario indeed.