Jim Moore goes full blown dumb ass

[Sibelius Hindemith]

If they were playing a shit opponent i would agree that this bowl game is insignificant.

[Sibelius Hindemith]

A journalist's job, by definition, is to show both sides of a story - with impartiality - and let the reader make their own decision. Anything else is editorializing - which is what 99% of the media have morphed into, but they try to pass it off to idiot America as the news - which it isn't.

I'm pretty sure that was supposed to be an opinion piece.

[Michael K.]

Jim Moore is not a journalist

[D-train]

Call me crazy but I am even more excited about our first game next season than our bowl game.

https://fbschedules.com/ncaa-2020/team/washington

[D-train]

It started with simple declarations by Christian McCaffrey of Stanford and Leonard Fournette of LSU in December of 2016.

Each announced they were sitting out their team’s bowl games — the Sun and Citrus, respectively — in order to prepare for the NFL draft. The unspoken motivation was clear: It wasn’t worth putting millions of dollars at risk by getting injured in a second-tier bowl game.

Thus was a trend born, one that has since seen dozens of players follow suit while engendering criticism and solidarity. And this year, it has hit close to home: Tight end Hunter Bryant and offensive tackle Trey Adams of the Huskies will sit out next Saturday’s Las Vegas Bowl game against Boise State, presumably for the same reason.

To which I say, I don’t blame them one bit.

Both had injury-ravaged careers, Bryant with two knee surgeries and Adams with back and knee operations. Both have persevered to the point where they are poised to hear their name called, perhaps early, in the 2020 draft. If they don’t get hurt, that is.

You can counter with romantic notions of “seeing it through to the end” and “being there for your brothers.” But is it really worth jeopardizing millions of dollars to pursue an eighth Washington victory in a game few outside Seattle and Boise will even notice?

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The two distinct points of view were well-represented on the podium at Seahawks’ headquarters on Thursday. Russell Wilson was the first to be asked about the trend of college players skipping bowl games. Here was his response:

“Personally, I don’t like skipping games. I don’t like the idea of skipping bowl games and all that. That’s a personal decision, I guess. To me, as a player, I’m a competitor. There’s no such thing as games skipped. Every practice, every play, I’m playing. That’s my mentality.”

Next up was linebacker Bobby Wagner, who took a vastly different point of view:

“It didn’t cross my mind when I was there, but it’s a different age. When I was in college, I was playing at such a small school (Utah State), I felt like I had to take advantage of every opportunity that I had.

“With these guys now — especially with social media — you watch and you see a guy get hurt and his opportunity to play in the league dwindles significantly. I’m all for a guy not playing if he doesn’t want to play and focusing on where he’s been trying to get to.

“At the end of the day, they’re not getting paid anyway. The school is the one benefiting from them playing the game anyway, so I’m not opposed to it. At the end of the day, you’re doing what’s best for you.

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“I think that’s what you learn as you become a young man is — sometimes you have to do what’s best for you and your family because the people that you think are going to do right by you, might not do right by you. Colleges, the NCAA; they might not make the right decision for you, so you have to make the right decision for yourself. It’s part of life.”

The risk is not just hypothetical. The cautionary tales are out there for all the players to see. In the very Sun Bowl game that McCaffrey skipped, Stanford’s quarterback, Keller Chryst, suffered a severe knee injury. Notre Dame linebacker Jaylon Smith, a projected top-10 pick, famously blew out his knee against Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl, costing himself an estimated $20 million when he fell to the second round in the 2017 draft. That same year, Michigan’s highly touted tight end, Jake Butt, the Mackey Award winner, dropped from a likely second-rounder to the fifth round when he tore his ACL in the Orange Bowl.

Obviously, there’s a difference between skipping the Gasparilla Bowl and a storied event like, say, the Rose Bowl. Husky All-American safety Taylor Rapp sat out Washington’s Rose Bowl appearance last year prior to coming out for the draft as a junior but said afterward it was because a hip-flexor injury made it impossible for him to play. Rapp was a second-round pick of the Rams.

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Seahawks linebacker Ben Burr-Kirven, a former teammate of Bryant and Adams at Washington, said he understood the dynamics of their decision.

“It’s a weird thing that’s happening more and more,’’ he said. “I guess it’s just kind of how college football is going. Personally, I wouldn’t do it. I like playing football too much to want to skip the last game. I can’t imagine skipping my last college football game. That would be a really hard decision to make.

“But I’m not them. … You see guys get hurt. A tight end (Butt) tore up his knee and missed a year. When you see stuff like that, it becomes pretty clear why people are making that decision. You don’t want to jeopardize your career for one game.

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“I think if you’re in the College Football Playoff, you’re not seeing anybody skip that. If you’re playing in one of those lower-tier bowls, it’s probably a little easier decision to make than skipping the Rose Bowl or being in the playoffs or something like that.”

Defensive lineman L.J. Collier, the Seahawks’ first-round pick this year out of TCU, made the decision to play in his team’s bowl game, even though it was the lowly Cheez-It Bowl. But it was a business decision of sorts, mixed with loyalty.

“At the time, I didn’t know I was going to be a high draft pick,’’ he said. “I needed the bowl game to play in. I had to play. And my team, there wasn’t any depth behind us, so I made the decision. Hey, my team needed me, so I was going to play.”

[D-train]

Wow, Collier must have had an Epic Cheez it bowl to draw JS and PCs attentions.

[Michael K.]

Wow, Collier must have had an Epic Cheez it bowl to draw JS and PCs attentions.

Like I said, someone tell me the amazing bowl game we played when Browning, Gaskin and Adams signed! The thought process that winning a Bowl game on December 21st is somehow going to sway recruits baffles me.

[Sibelius Hindemith]

Well perhaps it has an impact because it reflects on the coaches that they would be working with and learning from.

[Michael K.]

Well perhaps it has an impact because it reflects on the coaches that they would be working with and learning from.

That doesn't answer the question. Now it "perhaps has an impact"? It wasn't that long ago you were pretty upset about two kids not playing, and impacting recruiting was the reason. Funny, even though we play one of the earliest Bowl games there are, the early signing period is still done before the Bowl game. I guess if we lose we are really going to miss out?

[D-train]

For some reason it seems these crazy kids are all committing early and not waiting for the outcome for the LV Bowl. All they have to do is wait a few more days to make sure they are committing to a program that can beat BSU without two of their best players.

When Chris Petersen announced his resignation on Dec. 2, Washington’s 2020 class could’ve promptly imploded. With barely two weeks until early signing day, a celebrated head coach was giving way to a first-time successor. The program’s offensive system and staff was — and is — in flux. Twenty-one verbal commits were abruptly asked to embrace a new era.

Fifteen days later, the concept of a collapse seems almost silly. All 21 targets reaffirmed their UW commitments, and four-star corner Jacobe Covington actually re-committed to the program after previously rescinding his pledge. Despite the coaching change, a disappointing season and some general December chaos, UW’s 2020 class is ranked ninth nationally and first in the Pac-12 by 247Sports.

Twenty-two high school seniors are expected to sign with Washington on Wednesday. Why?

They didn’t commit to a coach.

They committed to a culture.

“I don’t think that any coach in this conference that recruits up against Washington would challenge the culture that Chris Petersen has built,” Pac-12 Network analyst Yogi Roth told The Times on Tuesday. “I think great cultures can sustain when guys own it. What Jimmy (Lake) has done and will do, and we’ll see this in the coming months, is he’ll have his own twist on it.

“When you meet him, and we did in production meetings all the time, you look around and when he leaves you say, ‘Yep, he’s a head coach. Let’s hope they can keep him.’ I’m not surprised at all that they didn’t lose anybody, and I’m not surprised that (UW’s recruiting) actually picked up steam. And it’s going to (continue).”

In elevating Lake, UW athletic director Jen Cohen allowed the existing culture to continue as well.

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Hiring the right coach was obviously most important. But, from a recruiting perspective, don’t discount the decisiveness of Cohen’s decision.

“It’s obviously huge that they were able to avoid the usual (recruiting) attrition you see when there’s a head coaching change,” said 247Sports national recruiting editor Brandon Huffman. “I think obviously with Jen Cohen having a successor immediately, it left no down time, left no wiggle room, left no uncertainty there of who the head coach was going to be and how they would fit in.

“So even with the uncertainty at the offensive coordinator position, it hasn’t affected them at all. Instead, they’ve gained commits instead of lost commits. So I think it’s pretty remarkable.”

And, make no mistake, a remarkable recruiting class will sign with Washington on Wednesday. It includes three four-star offensive linemen (Myles Murao, Roger Rosengarten and Geirean Hatchett), two four-star wide receivers (Jalen McMillan and Rome Odunze), an accomplished four-star quarterback (Ethan Garbers) and the state’s premier player in five-star Kennedy Catholic outside linebacker Sav’ell Smalls.

“You get into the specific players and they’ve got some of the best guys in the conference at each position,” Roth said. “On the offensive line, Myles Murao to me is the top (Pac-12) offensive lineman in the class. I look at Jacobe Covington at corner and he’s one of the best (Pac-12) corners in this class. Sav’ell Smalls is clearly one of the best linebackers in the best linebacking class this conference has ever had, in terms of high-end (talent), with (Oregon commit) Noah Sewell and potentially Justin Flowe.

“Then you add Ethan Garbers, who I think is the best quarterback in this class. (Eastside Catholic four-star running back) Sam Adams, I have him as my top athlete, and (three-star Brush Prairie wide receiver) Sawyer Racanelli is the next top athlete for me.”

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Huffman added that Racanelli may be easy to overlook, considering that the future UW wide receiver missed his senior season with a torn ACL and starred in a lower classification in the state of Washington. “But when he’s healthy,” Huffman asserted, “he’s as good a pass-catcher as anybody.”

Likewise, Carson Bruener — the son of former UW tight end Mark Bruener — is an in-state talent with an absence of message board buzz. Still, the three-star linebacker from Redmond could eventually outperform his modest recruiting ranking. Huffman said that “I think he’s going to end up being a real solid glue guy for them and could have that Ben Burr-Kirven type of impact later in his career.”

As for immediate impact options, many have already been mentioned. Unsurprisingly, Roth said that the 6-3, 230-pound Smalls “should be playing against Michigan day 1. I expect that.”

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And, if redshirt junior quarterback Jacob Eason declares for the 2020 NFL Draft, Garbers could easily enter the mix.

“My biggest question at the Elite 11 (national quarterback camp last summer) was, ‘Does (Garbers) have the capability to step on your throat as a competitor?’” Roth said. “I just think, at quarterback, to get in the room you’re going to have to be able to pass. He has no flaw in his mechanics. The second thing is you have to be able to hit spots as a thrower. He can do that. The third thing is, you have to be a brilliant competitor just to survive, let alone thrive in the shark tank that is the quarterback meeting room.

“I got to meet with him over the summer in the shark tank — the top 24 quarterbacks in the country (at Elite 11). He had the quietest personality, one might argue, coming in. By the end he was one of the top three or four quarterbacks in the country, in my eyes. His competitiveness rose to such a level that you could cut through it (with a knife). He was just like, ‘I’m going to get to the line of scrimmage, and I’m going to dice you.’ He beat you with his eyes. He beat you with his throws.”

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In the last year, Garbers has beaten just about everybody. The 6-2, 190-pound passer recently wrapped up an undefeated 16-0 season at Corona Del Mar (Calif.) High School, leading the Sea Kings to a hotly contested state title. He completed 69.6% of his passes, throwing for 5,035 yards with 71 touchdowns and six interceptions. Roth said that “he’ll have a chance if Jacob (Eason) leaves to play as a true freshman there. He’s going to be the best passer in the meeting room.”

It’s impressive, considering the coaching change, that Garbers and Co. will soon be in Washington’s meeting room at all.

When other classes might have crumbled, the culture kept them committed.

“In a world of unintended consequences with the early signing day — where there’s a ton of drama, where a commitment is not a commitment and an offer is not an offer because some offers are contingent offers, Washington doesn’t pull any punches,” Roth said. “They’re very clear (in who they are).

“I talked to Sav’ell Smalls this week. I just talked to Ethan (Garbers). These guys love everything the program has been built upon and now where it’s going with Jimmy. So they didn’t flinch.”