Caple:
Prefacing his remarks by describing himself as “old school,” Petersen said that while the portal is sometimes “good for kids to go in there if they want to,” he doesn’t believe it’s good for players in the long run. His rationale: “I’ve seen too many guys, including myself, have to work through hard things where maybe (instead) you tap out, or it’s easier (to say), ‘I’m going to go somewhere elsewhere (because) I think it’s better.’ It’s usually not.”
Petersen isn’t that old school. He doesn’t think schools should be able to tell players where they can and cannot transfer, and for that reason, he can see the good in the transfer portal.
“But I do think there should be a slow-down mechanism, (instead of) everybody just going, ‘Oh, I don’t like it here.’ I’m just not into that,” Petersen said at Pac-12 Media Day, away from the podium, when I asked him about Yankoff and Sirmon. “You’re seeing all these kids got nothing now, giving up their scholarships. Be careful what you wish for. I mean, what are you doing? The quarterbacks will always be a little different, again. That’s always going to be a little different. But for most of these guys, stick it out. What are you doing?”
But if the player does decide he’d be better off somewhere else, as Yankoff did, why not just let him go? Why quibble over whether he should be immediately eligible?
“I don’t think about it like that,” Petersen said. “I think about it like that’s how it’s always been (sitting out a year) and that’s how it should be, in my opinion. I think it’s been pretty good. I don’t know. I’m just a little bit more old school in terms of all this stuff. I think we treat these guys awesome. And I know how much money is being made, and I get all that stuff. I think they’re getting a lot of great things out of going through a college program and getting an education.
“And I really mean that — an education. They don’t need to play if they don’t want to play. If they don’t like it, and they think they’re being — go get a job somewhere. And maybe I’m just too old school and haven’t changed. But I’ve come through the ranks. My dad was a JC coach, (I was) Division II non-scholarship, had nothing, took 10 years to pay off my student loans, best money I ever spent — I’ve got my story. Your story kind of creates who you are, and why you believe things, and everything I’ve seen of kids going, ‘This kid is not going to make it,’ and then I’ve seen so many kids grind through it, like, ‘Wow, that’s pretty cool.’ ”
“I think we should make a rule and stick with the rule, is what I think,” Petersen said. “And I don’t think it should be on the coaches — ‘Yeah, let’s let this guy go and not this guy.’ I think we should have a rule going, ‘This is what we’re doing.’
“You’ve got to have rules in an organization to make it run effectively. We’ve got a big one here. That’s what I think.”
There is no disputing UW and Petersen are playing by the rules, as they currently exist. Yankoff should have known this was a possibility, and the NCAA has the final say, anyway. And at the end of the day, Yankoff is a scholarship football player attending UCLA and living in Westwood. Greater injustices have occurred.
So think what you will about the decision Petersen and UW have made. The bigger issue, it seems, is that they had a say in the matter at all.
I've heard there is double the thoughts on this over in the WAM.
