Washington State football: WHO, is the starting quarterback
The Washington State football team has a new quarterback. They just won’t say who it is yet.
Over the last few seasons, Washington State football fans have been spoiled by outstanding quarterback play. Luke Falk, Gardner Minshew II, and Anthony Gordon put on an aerial show that struck fear into the hearts of even the stoutest defense.
It will be different in 2020. The Cougars have three quarterbacks on the roster in contention to start, and none of them have played a down of NCAA football. Is Gunnar Cruz, Cammon Cooper, or Jayden de Laura the next great Wazzu quarterback? We don’t know yet. We don’t even know which one will play.
A starter, sort of
On Tuesday, new WSU Head Coach Nick Rolovich told the media he selected a starting quarterback. He knows who won the job, the coaching staff knows, and all the team knows as well. That’s as far as the information chain goes. The decision won’t be announced publicly at this time.
There are plenty of reasons why Rolovich and company are tight-lipped. Obviously, not giving your opponent, in this case, Oregon State, more information than necessary is at the top of the list. Then, in a close second, is keeping an 18 or 19-year-old kid out of the spotlight for as long as possible.
Then again
Despite some good explanations for not naming a starter publicly, there are also many reasons why the way Rolovich handled it was very wrong.
Instead of taking pressure off his team, Wazzu fans and the media will keep questioning who will start at quarterback. Every day, people will ask the Cougars players who the starting QB is. Eventually, it gets to be a distraction.
Next, if Rolovich doesn’t reveal his starter, is the competition really closed? The coach could make a change, and only a few people would really know.
Wednesday, Rolovich admitted what he said the previous day went too far. He told the Spokesman-Review:
“I’m not terribly happy I made the mistake of saying we’d named one internally. I don’t want to put anything on our team where they need to worry about it, answer questions about it. So, that’s on me.” – Nick Rolovich.
For now, WazzuNation is left with a football equivalent of “Who’s on First.”