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Dec. 16—Cougar Collective, by all accounts you did amazing work putting together a roughly million-dollar package to keep Washington State’s star quarterback. It didn’t work. It’s time to try something else.
WSU used to call itself “Quarterback U” because of all the signal -callers who came through Pullman before getting drafted by the NFL. The moniker still fits, the pitch is still the same: come throw passes in Pullman and get paid.
But now there’s an addendum: come to Pullman and get paid … by your next school.
For the second straight year Cougars coach Jake Dickert has seen his quarterback leave Pullman as the most coveted passer in the transfer portal and, with players reportedly getting name, image, likeness deals on par with what NFL first-rounders used to make, he’s making it part of the recruiting pitch. What else can he do?
“Biggest thing for our program is it proves, once again, our process is working. Our process is working. We’re offering a bunch of kids that have no other Power Five offers. We’re developing them into something really, really special.”
That’s a pragmatic, forward-thinking message from a man for whom it surely was not easy to say. Not while watching Cam Ward, the QB who transferred from WSU last season, leading Miami to one of its best seasons in decades and finishing fourth in the Heisman trophy voting.
But here’s the thing. If the Cougars are going to become a feeder program for the blue bloods — and make no mistake, they are — then there should be some compensation when they do it well. They should be able to improve their program for the investments they make in players on behalf of the richer schools.
It would be a great way to start to restore faith in a system that few seem to approve of, even those at the top.
This is an issue that other sports have figured out. In international…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/jacob-thorpe-washington-state-more-045900482.html
Author : The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
Publish date : 2024-12-17 04:59:00
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