Three-star football
defensive back William Nimmo has two Pac-12 trips on deck. One of the trips is
to WSU
By BLAIR
ANGULO Cougfan.com 7/9/2018
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. – The half dozen is
settled for William Nimmo and now the three-star safety turns his attention to
sorting through those options.
Arizona, California, Florida, Oregon State, UCLA
and Washington State made the cut for the 6-foot-1, 190-pound defensive back
when he trimmed the list last week. Nimmo, who starred on defense for a Santa
Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei team that won the competitive Edison Battle at the Beach
passing tournament Saturday, told 247Sports he is looking into making a mid-season
decision.
- Arizona: "Really, it's my relationship
with coach Meat [Demetrice Martin]. He's a great DB coach and a lot of the
players that have played for him that I've talked to like Quentin Lake and
Xavier Bell, they tell me he's very good. I have a great relationship with him.
I saw what he was able to do with Darnay Holmes to prepare him to play as a
freshman and turn into a reliable starter. With the technique he teaches, it
really helps defensive backs get better."
- California: "I have a really good
relationship with coach Gerald Alexander and I know he's a great coach. When I
first met him we really just clicked and I know I could relate to him. When I
went up there for my unofficial visit, I really liked how genuine the coaches
were. The facility is great and all the players I was able to catch up with
told me it's a great place."
- Florida: "In my mind, Florida is DBU for
players coming from California. I've been able to talk with coach Ron English
quite a bit and I like what they do at my position. They are known just like
LSU is for producing great defensive backs. I was pretty shocked when I got the
offer, but I'm proud knowing I earned it. It's a great honor knowing they think
highly of me."
- Oregon State: "Coach Greg Burns has NFL
experience and, when I went up there for an unofficial, he knew what he was
talking about. He has coached a lot of great defensive backs and I know he
would be a coach that I could learn a lot from in my development."
- UCLA: "I'll be up there again right after
the dead period is over. I camped with them last month and the offer right
after was very big. Coach Chip Kelly came up to me and told me he loves the way
I compete. Coach Paul Rhoads has a lot of experience so I look at that knowing
he could get me to the next level. I really want to get more familiar with the
coaches. I just got the offer so for me it's about building a better
relationship and getting a better feel for the school."
- Washington State: "I'll be going to
Washington State the weekend of July 26. I'm definitely looking to spend time
with the coaches and see what everything is like over there. I haven't been up
there so I'll be looking at the area. Campus environment is very important to
me."
Nimmo is the nation's No. 59-rated safety in the
2019 class and No. 80 overall prospect in the state of California, per the
industry-generated 247Sports Composite.
:::::::::::::::
A look at Gardner Minshew's tape reminds one of
Timm Rosenbach
ByBARRY BOLTON Cougfan.com
FOR THOSE WHO’VE been watching Cougar football
for awhile — as in three decades or more — the on-field resemblance between
incoming Cougar senior quarterback Gardner Minshew and former standout
Washington State QB Timm Rosenbach is downright striking.
First there’s the physique. Minshew is 6-1, 220
pounds, while Rosenbach checked in at 6-2, 210. Then there’s the footwork …
religiously shoulder-width apart, a bouncy-yet-firm pocket presence, and
complete confidence to take off and run if need be. Heck, even the way they
wear their socks, just below the calf, is similar. (You'll find a handful of
video highlights at the bottom of this story.)
And, like Rosenbach as he headed into his final
Cougar season in 1988, there are questions surrounding Minshew. While the
nature of the queries is different — the overriding one is not: Does this guy
have what it takes to start and compete in the Conference of Champions?
Going into his final year at WSU, Rosenbach was
coming off a miserable 1987 campaign in which he set the Pac-10 record for
interceptions in one season. Over the winter, he asked head coach Dennis
Erickson if he could move to linebacker. Erickson said no way and in ’88
Rosenbach placed No. 7 in Heisman Trophy balloting after guiding the Cougars to
nine wins, including nail biters over No. 1 UCLA, Washington, and Houston in
the Aloha Bowl.
Minshew is a graduate transfer who shared QB
duties last season at East Carolina. He played in 10 games, starting five, and
posted solid-but-unremarkable stats: 2,140 air yards on 57.2 percent accuracy,
16 TDs and 7 INTs. His passing efficiency rating (129.3) was 68th in the
country, 18 spots below Luke Falk (137.0).
The supporting cast at WSU will be stronger than
what Minshew had at East Carolina, but then again the competition in the Pac-12
is stiffer than what he saw in the American Athletic Conference.
Minshew, unlike Rosenbach going into 1988, also
faces a wide cast of contenders for the starting job. While neither of his
chief competitors has taken a major-college snap under center, Trey Tinsley and
Anthony Gordon are fourth-year juniors entering their third seasons in Mike
Leach’s system. And the new NCAA rule allowing players to see action in four
games without losing a redshirt means touted freshman Camm Cooper could sneak
into the conversation.
BUT HERE'S WHERE MINSHEW BECOMES awfully
intriguing. While he, Tinsley and Gordon all have notable junior college resumes,
only Minshew has FBS experience. He’s thrown 506 more live-game NCAA passes
than the other two. He faced off last season against the likes of West Virginia
and Virginia Tech and completed 52 of 68 passes for 463 yards and 3 TDs against
Houston. The year before, he played in seven games, making starts against Navy
and Temple, and threw for 1,347 yards.
No matter how you slice it, his two seasons of
game-day experience at East Carolina is light years removed from Thursday Night
Football and spring season scrimmages in Martin Stadium and helps explain why
Alabama, Tennessee and others were courting him this offseason.
Expecting Minshew to win the starting job and
become the second-coming of Rosenbach just because he flashes shades of
Rosenbach is patently unfair. But could 2017 have been to Minshew what 1987 was
to Rosenbach: invaluable experience that sets the table for a wiser, faster,
more confident subsequent season?
Minshew spent considerable time this offseason
working with storied Hal Mumme, Leach’s mentor, to master the nuances of the
Air Raid and should commence fall camp next month with the system well
ingrained. Moreover, he earned rave reviews for his work at the Manning Passing
Academy last month.
Could knowledge plus experience make him the next
notable one-year flame thrower on Leach’s resume, which at Texas Tech included
a number of single-season, senior starters? Or, could he be part of a
quarterbacking carousel like the one that followed Rosenbach, with Brad Gossen
and Aaron Garcia in 1989 and Gossen, Garcia and Drew Bledsoe in 1990?
In a little over a month, Cougar fans should have
an idea of where he fits and where the Cougars' quarterbacking situation is
headed in 2018.
NOTABLE:
Minshew guided Northwest Mississippi Community
College to an 11-1 record and the 2015 NJCCA national title while completing 61
percent of his throws for 3,288 yards, 28 TDs and 5 INTs.
As a prepster in Brandon, Miss., Minshew finished
his career as one of the region’s most prolific quarterbacks ever, throwing for
11,222 yards and 105 touchdowns.
Rosenbach was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1989
NFL supplemental draft, by the Cardinals, and played three seasons for them
before retiring due to ACL woes. He later tried to make a comeback with the
Saints.
Rosenbach — who now is the offensive coordinator
at MONTANA — served as WSU’s quarterbacks coach under Bill Doba from 2003-07
and pulled a memorable recruiting coup late in the process when he convinced
Alex Brink to sign with WSU rather than Boise State. On Doba’s staff, Rosenbach
was part of a group of assistants known as “The Legends.” Besides Rosenbach,
four other members of the staff had starred for the Cougars in the ‘70s or
‘80s: Mike Levenseller, Ken Greene, George Yarno and Mike Walker.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::
Hunter S Thompson votes Ryan Leaf; Leaf talks
mental health, CTE
By BARRY BOLTON Cougfan.com 7/8/2018
RYAN LEAF AND RICH EISEN IN WIDE-RANGING
CONVERSATION
SO DID YOU HEAR the one about Hunter S. Thompson,
Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf? That’s about as gonzo a question as you’ll find,
but in the last few days it’s become a hot topic in football circles with
discovery of a March 1998 letter from the legendary Fear and Loathing author to
Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay telling him to draft Leaf with the No. 1
overall pick because “the Leaf boy looks strong and Manning doesn’t.”
“The absurdity of the fact that A) Hunter S.
Thompson knew who I was and B) that he was trying to persuade Mr. Irsay to
draft me instead was just comical,” Leaf marveled the other day on The Rich
Eisen Show in a wide-ranging conversation that touched on the letter, the
importance of Jim Harbaugh in Leaf’s maturation, the death of Tyler Hilinski
and the issues of mental health among athletes and CTE.
“I’m still speechless,” said Leaf about the
Thompson letter, which included this line: “You don’t want a China doll back
there (at QB) when that freak (Warren) Sapp comes crashing in.” Leaf chuckled
at the irony, noting that Manning proceeded to a set the standard for NFL
quarterback durability while he, Leaf, missed all of his second season and much
of his third with injury.
The letters includes a cc to actor Johnny Deep
and ESPN honcho John Walsh.
Eisen verified its authenticity. He is a
long-time friend of Walsh’s, who in turn was a long-time friend of Thompson’s,
so Eisen called Walsh to inquire. “It is 1,000-percent real,” Eisen proclaimed.
How the letter surfaced after 20 years is a crazy
tale that began two weeks ago when Leaf, attending a Dodgers-Cubs game, was
tapped on the shoulder by a guy who grew up with Irsay and had a copy of the
letter at home. “He asked me if I had ever seen it and said 'I don’t even know
what you’re talking about',” Leaf said.
Leaf is a busy man these days. When not talking
about Hunter S. Thompson, he works as a program ambassador for the Transcend
Recovery addiction treatment program; co-hosts the Pac-12 Network’s “Pac-12
This Morning” weekdays from 7-10 on Sirius XM 373; speaks across the country to
college teams and others about mental health, addiction and the power of asking
for help; and is getting into the swing of fatherhood with nine-month-old son
McGyver.
ASKED ABOUT TYLER HILINSKI, WHO DIED OF suicide
in January, Leaf said it’s critical that we as a society end the stigma of
mental health being a weakness. "We don’t stand up as strong football
players and say we’re struggling with something … we don’t see on movies where
the valedictorian or the most popular kid in school or the star quarterback
stand up in front of a group of peers saying 'hey everybody, I’m struggling
with this'.”
Leaf said he himself would have been a prime
beneficiary of showing some vulnerability during his tumultuous tenure with the
San Diego Chargers if he had been able to tell teammates “I need your help, I
don’t know what the heck I’m doing here … I’m just a mess and when I’m backed
into a corner I figure my only way out is to fight.” Suicide, he said, didn’t
cross his mind at that time but it did later in life at the depths of his
addiction to prescription painkillers.
Leaf also said he believes the Stage 1 CTE that
the Mayo Clinic found in Hilinski's brain "is going to be a watershed
moment" for the future of the sport of football. He said he and his fiance
Anna have agreed that their son can't consider strapping on a helmet until age
15 and that he'll be armed with all the latest scientific data on the sport at
the time.
You can watch all of Leaf’s conversation with
Eisen in two YouTube segments.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::
WSU creates clear bag policy for football games
Evergreen June 21, 2018
Fans attending home football games at Martin
Stadium this season will have to use a clear bag for their belongings due to a
new athletics policy.
The new policy states bags must be clear PVC,
vinyl or plastic and cannot exceed a certain size, according to a WSU Athletics
press release.
Other appropriate bags include one-gallon freezer
bags, clear drawstring bags and small clutch bags. The policy comes in an
effort to increase safety, Director of Athletics Patrick Chun said in a
release.
“The addition of this policy is another effort to
enhance the gameday environment and provide the safest experience possible at
Martin Stadium,” he said in the release. “This is in line with best practices
throughout the country.”
Exceptions may be made in the case of necessary
medical items that have gone through an inspection, according to the press
release.
The policy also means some items, including
purses and bags larger than a clutch, backpacks, cinch bags, coolers, luggage,
camera bags, fanny packs and any other large bags, will not be allowed within
the venue, according to the press release.
Fans will still be allowed to carry personal
items like keys, wallets, cell phone and other thing, according to the release.
The first 10,000 fans at the home opener on Sept. 8 against San Jose State
University will receive approved clear bags.
……….
'Popular Mechanics magazine' - Jan 1906
"'SOCKER" FOOTBALL.— The appalling list
of 19 deaths and 132 serious accidents during the American football season of
1905, has called forth the demand from press, public and college presidents for
an immediate and radical change. "Socker" football is suggested as
much less strenuous."
(Comment from 2018: Spelled "socker"
then, it's "soccer" now.).
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