Cougs share first impressions of new Wazzu coach Jimmy Rogers

PULLMAN — Hudson Cedarland was prepared to leave Pullman.

The day before Washington State’s spring semester started, Cedarland had cleared out his locker.

He wanted to switch to tight end after spending the previous three seasons as a linebacker. Cedarland had not yet met Jimmy Rogers, the Cougars’ new head football coach, but a phone conversation with the new staff had given him no such guarantees of joining the WSU offense.

With his chances of playing tight end at WSU dwindling on the eve of the new semester, Cedarland decided to venture up to the fifth floor of the Cougar Football Complex to make one more attempt at staying in Pullman.

“So I walked up there, saw coach Rogers, introduced myself to him. I said, ‘I know we talked on the phone. You said tight end probably wasn’t going to work for me here.’ And he was like, ‘Wait, hold on a second,’” Cedarland said. “(Tight ends) coach (Chris) Meyers came down the hallway from his office, looked at me and was just like, ‘Hey man, what’s your name?’ I’m like, ‘Hudson Cedarland.’ They’re like, ‘Hey, man, welcome to the tight end room.’”

One decision to seek out a face-to-face conversation kept Cedarland, a Gig Harbor, Wash., native, in his home state.

Cedarland became one of 13 Cougs to withdraw his name from the transfer portal in January and return to WSU and one of 60 players to remain with the team through the coaching change, about 20 of whom logged significant playing time on last year’s roster.

At least 13 Cougs have entered the spring transfer portal as of Wednesday according to announcements on their personal social media accounts and reports. In total, 52 players have entered the portal in the fall and the spring combined according to 247sports.com.

However, for the Cougs who played for former coach Jake Dickert and elected…

Source link : https://www.lmtribune.com/sports/cougs-share-1st-impressions-of-new-wazzu-coach-jimmy-rogers-19246158

Author :

Publish date : 2025-04-17 11:20:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.