TTJ
New Fish
Tuffguys around here like to wax nostalgic about the man-in-the-tower and pine for an old school hardass coach. But Urban is living proof that times have changed. Saban may turn out to be the last Bear Bryant-type we ever see win in CFB (and he obvs is in a class of his own).
Folks sneer at Petersen for being milquetoast. No doubt, Petersen hates the changes happening around CDB (NIL, portal, conference realignment, etc.). But make no mistake: Petersen would have cleaned up in the portal. All those guys he finished second with on the recruiting trail would look from afar at his sustained success and overall benevolence with envy.
Lake turned out to be the anti-Petersen. Exceptionally talented position coach, without question. But the dude was just a dick. Marcus Peters tried to choke him out. Kwiatkowski, who at one point took a volunteer demotion for the good of the program, decided he’d rather work for STEVE FUCKING SARKISIAN than Lake. The team staged a mutiny last year. Yet if not for Saint Ruperake, Lake would probably still be here steering this program straight to the bottom of Lake Washington. We’d be witnessing a portal mass exodus, and Dylan Morris have spent yesterday missing Jabez Tinae and some walk-on WRs on the way to a Sparty rout.
Which brings me to Kalen DeBoer. The early recruiting returns have been alarming, but he’s done great in the portal. The guy clearly has this team pointed in the right direction, and players around the country will notice that. They will also notice that this guy cares about his players and treats them with respect and benevolence. Amid all the bad comparisons between DeBoer and Petersen, the one major trait they actually seem to share is that neither treats/treated his players like shit.
In the long term, you don’t want to over-rely on the portal. To sustain success at Washington, DeBoer is going to need to learn how to go head-to-head with USC and Oregon for the top western recruits—and beat them. But DeBoer’s already showing he can win with Lake’s leftovers and a patchwork of portal guys. It’s impressive.
Penix may have the highest replacement value of any player in the country right now. But the MVP of this team is still Ruperake Fuavai.
Folks sneer at Petersen for being milquetoast. No doubt, Petersen hates the changes happening around CDB (NIL, portal, conference realignment, etc.). But make no mistake: Petersen would have cleaned up in the portal. All those guys he finished second with on the recruiting trail would look from afar at his sustained success and overall benevolence with envy.
Lake turned out to be the anti-Petersen. Exceptionally talented position coach, without question. But the dude was just a dick. Marcus Peters tried to choke him out. Kwiatkowski, who at one point took a volunteer demotion for the good of the program, decided he’d rather work for STEVE FUCKING SARKISIAN than Lake. The team staged a mutiny last year. Yet if not for Saint Ruperake, Lake would probably still be here steering this program straight to the bottom of Lake Washington. We’d be witnessing a portal mass exodus, and Dylan Morris have spent yesterday missing Jabez Tinae and some walk-on WRs on the way to a Sparty rout.
Which brings me to Kalen DeBoer. The early recruiting returns have been alarming, but he’s done great in the portal. The guy clearly has this team pointed in the right direction, and players around the country will notice that. They will also notice that this guy cares about his players and treats them with respect and benevolence. Amid all the bad comparisons between DeBoer and Petersen, the one major trait they actually seem to share is that neither treats/treated his players like shit.
In the long term, you don’t want to over-rely on the portal. To sustain success at Washington, DeBoer is going to need to learn how to go head-to-head with USC and Oregon for the top western recruits—and beat them. But DeBoer’s already showing he can win with Lake’s leftovers and a patchwork of portal guys. It’s impressive.
Penix may have the highest replacement value of any player in the country right now. But the MVP of this team is still Ruperake Fuavai.
