Keith Max Jackson: Born Oct. 18, 1928 – Died age 89 Jan. 12,
2018
Keith Jackson, WSU alum and
iconic sports broadcaster, said so many quoteable things. One of them was,
"the rolling hills of the Palouse." Lots of broadcasters said the
same when they were in Pullman covering a WSC/WSU game. But, when Keith Jackson
said it, you knew it was from the heart.
(Palouse photo by News for CougGroup taken from May 2010.)
................
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL WSU AT CAL
IN BERKELEY ON SUNDAY AFTERNOON 14 JAN 2018
Cal 66, WSU 60
Halftime: WSU trailed 32-31. In
the first half Cougar Borislava “Bobi Buckets” Hristova had 16 points at half.
She finished the game with 25.
Cougs were outscored 21-12 in
the final quarter
Scoring by quarters and final
WSU: 18-13-17-12 = 60
CAL: 19-13-13-21 = 66
WSU Cougs women basketball
returns to state of Washington to play back-to-back games with arch rival UW
Huskies:
--7 pm Wed Jan 17 on Friel
Court in Beasley Coliseum on WSU campus in Pullman
--1 pm Sun Jan 21 at Hec Ed on
UW campus in Seattle
WSU's Upset Bid Falls Short in
the Final Seconds at No. 24 Cal
1/14/2018 | Coug Women's
Basketball from WSU Sports Info
BERKELEY, Calif. - A 40 minute
back-and-forth battle came down to the final :30 seconds in Berkeley where the
No. 24 Golden Bears (13-4, 4-2) slipped passed Washington State (8-10, 1-5),
66-60, Sunday afternoon. Leading by one with just over two minutes to play in
the game, the Cougs would hit an offensive wall as Cal went on a 7-0 run,
including scoring six in the game's final :28 seconds to close out the win.
Down just two with :28 seconds to play, the Cougs had a chance to tie or take
the lead with what looked like the final possession of the game only to
literally see the game slip out of their hands as the loud environment led to a
miscommunication and a WSU turnover. From there, the Bears would hit their free
throws to finish off the win. Prior to the game's final minute the Sunday
contest was a battle between the some of the Pac-12's best scorers as Borislava
Hristova went shot for shot with Cal's All-American Kristen Anigwe. In the end
it would be Anigwe's dominant effort in the paint, including the go-ahead layup
with :28 seconds to play, that won out as the junior finished with 30 points
and 17 rebounds to outduel Hristova's 25-point effort.
Stat of the Game = The Bears
used a pair of 7-0 runs at the end of each half to erase Cougar leads, the
first gave Cal a one-point lead at the half, the second the six-point win at
the final buzzer.
Also =
Cal extended its record at home against the
Cougs to 28-5.
Borislava Hristova posted her seventh 20+
point effort of the year and 17th of her career. Louise Brown finished with 10
points and seven rebounds.
Battling in the paint all day, Nike McClure
finished the day with five points, seven rebounds, four blocks, and a
career-best five assists.
Kristen Anigwe was the lone Bear to reach
double-figures with 30 points on 12-of-19 shooting.
The Bears controlled the paint outscoring
the Cougs 38-to-20 while outrebounding WSU 45-to-30.
As a team, the Cougs shot 35.5% (22-62)
while the Bears finished 44.4% (24-54).
……
WSU CRIMSON GIRLS PLACE 8th IN
NATIONAL COMPETITION IN FLORIDA
Washington State University's
Cheer and Crimson Girls will compete at the Universal Cheerleaders Association
and Universal Dancers Association College Cheerleading and Dance Team National
Championships, Saturday through Sunday, Jan. 18-19, 2014, at ESPN's Wide World
of Sports at Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
This year marks the first time
WSU Cheer has competed at the competition and the first time since 2008 that
the squad has competed in any national competition. It's the first time since
2010 that the Crimson Girls have competed at the UDA Dance Team National
Championship after competing in the United Spirit Association Championships.
WSU and Colorado Cheer are the first Pac-12 cheer squads to compete at the
competition since Arizona State and Oregon State in 2006. They are two of just
six teams west of the Mississippi River competing in the Division IA Cheer this
year (LSU, San Diego State, Texas State and BYU). The Crimson Girls are one of
three Pac-12 dance squads competing in the Division IA Dance, joined by Arizona
State and Colorado.
Second-year Sprit Coach Chris
Opheim is coaching WSU Cheer, while former Crimson Girl Maggie Kazemba, in her
third year at WSU, is coaching the Crimson Girls. Opheim is a former head judge
at the competition and a 10-year UCA staff instructor. The Cougar Spirit Squads
are competing in the Division IA Cheer, Hip Hop and Jazz divisions, competing
against Division I FBS school spirit squads.
……………….
Link to story “Keith Jackson,
Voice of College Football, Dies at 89,” by Richard Goldstein, New York Times
Jan. 13, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/13/obituaries/keith-jackson-dead.html?_r=0
….
John Blanchette: Though the
voice for college football fans across the country, Keith Jackson’s heart never
left Pullman
UPDATED: Sat., Jan. 13, 2018,
8:17 p.m.
By John Blanchette of the Spokane
S-R
Keith Jackson started calling
football games as a boy shucking corn in his grandmother’s barn and … well,
never left.
He retired, yes.
But until that point in 2006
when he finally shucked his headset for good, if you switched on the TV on an
autumn Saturday and heard Jackson’s modified Georgia twang you were certain
there was straw on the floor of his broadcast booth and a milk cow standing
next to him.
It’s the way college football
was supposed to sound and feel, and it just flat doesn’t anymore.
So in that respect, Jackson’s
passing late Friday night – in his genteel, respectful phrasing no one would
have ever “died” – allowed those who grew up with football accompanied by his
soundtrack to remember the best times.
Legendary broadcaster Keith
Jackson, ‘the soundtrack of Saturday afternoons in the autumn,’ dies at age 89
Throughout a career that
spanned 52 years, Keith Jackson’s voice accompanied the telecast of a few of
the country’s – and world’s – classic sporting events. He worked 15 Rose Bowls,
16 Sugar Bowls, 10 different Olympic Games – both Summer and Winter – the World
Series and Monday Night Football. | Read more »
Though as he would often point
out off-mic, those times were never as innocent as we prefer to imagine.
On mic? Any editorializing was
kept to a minimum. Keith Jackson wrote his own job description and it was
simple: “Educate, illuminate and then get the hell out of the way.”
Commendable, but not precisely
on point.
The greatest broadcasters have
the knack for marrying their narration to the moment without stepping all over
it, and this was Jackson’s special gift. You have to think only of Desmond
Howard’s magical punt return in the 1991 Michigan-Ohio State game and Jackson’s
minimalist caption: “Goodbye … hello, Heisman!”
When Howard struck the trophy
pose in the end zone just a couple of beats later, you had to wonder whether
Jackson’s call was being piped into the player’s helmet.
It was just another instance of
Keith Jackson being the voice every college football fan had in his ear.
But he was Washington State’s
special conceit.
Fresh out of the Marines and
armed with the G.I. Bill, he enrolled at Wazzu in 1950 intending to study
political and police science and probably head back into the Corps. Then he met
Turi Ann Johnson “under the willow trees of the old golf course,” which her
parents owned, and fell in love with her – about the same time he fell in love
with broadcasting. A professor named Bert Harrison helped steer him into the
booth, and in 1952 he called the Stanford-WSU game for KWSC radio – launching a
54-year career.
After graduation, he landed
with KOMO in Seattle and it was there that he became the first to broadcast a
sports event from the Soviet Union – a University of Washington crew race.
In fact, Jackson’s long association
with college football masked a diversified portfolio – from local news anchor
to covering Barry Goldwater’s nomination at the Republican National Convention
with Walter Cronkite to an array of sports assignments.
He was the original play-by-play
man on Monday Night Football, until Roone Arledge’s love affair with Frank
Gifford was requited – a transition which, even if handled badly, at least
spared Jackson the indignity of further fencing with Howard Cosell. He called
MLB playoffs, the NBA, the Olympics and even the old “Superstars,” the original
trashsport.
But his métier was college
football and his postings all the game’s citadels – Tuscaloosa, South Bend,
State College, Lincoln.
Just never Pullman, until 1997.
After 30 years of doing network games for ABC, Jackson was finally back on
campus for the season opener against UCLA – the game that jump-started the
Cougars’ march to their first Rose Bowl in 67 years. Jackson, naturally, was
there to call that, too, with Bob Griese, whose son Brian quarterbacked
Michigan to a 21-16 victory.
But his heart was never far
from Pullman. He rallied donors to build the alumni center, he was given the
school’s Distinguished Alumnus Award, spoke at commencement and in time the
campus broadcast center was named Keith Jackson Hall in his honor.
“My kind of place,” he called
Pullman and the WSU campus, “with my kind of people.”
He shot straight with his kind
of people. He was withering in his analysis of college football’s endless money
suck – at his alma mater, too – and warned of “all kinds of cracks and
crevices” threatening to swallow up the sport.
He retired, he said, because he
“didn’t want to die in an airport parking lot,” but you also got the feeling he
didn’t want to be just another voice on a Saturday slate that stretches from 9
a.m. to midnight, or later.
But when he donned the headset,
he stepped off the pulpit. Then he was just a pro – OK, the pro – with
cornbread touches. Coaches hitchin’ up their britches. Linebackers laying on
good licks. Linemen who were lucky enough to get an in-person audience lit up
when he called them “big uglies.”
Oddly, his signature line was
quoted far more often than Jackson ever used it – and we never got
clarification if it was “Whoa, Nelly!” or “Whoa, Nellie!” Fact is, it didn’t
matter.
If you were reading it instead
of hearing it out of Keith Jackson’s mouth, you were missing out on all the
fun.
…………
Grip on Sports: Keith Jackson
was our connection to college football and part of this area’s rich
broadcasting history
Sun., Jan. 14, 2018, 8:58 a.m.
By Vince Grippi Spokane S-R
A GRIP ON SPORTS •
Nuggets have a way of showing
up in out-of-the-way places. Which is my meandering way of saying goodbye to
Keith Jackson, one of, if not the, best to ever call a college football game.
Read on.
Others knew Jackson better. Others will write
better tributes to the Washington State graduate.
Heck, I could never come close
to summarizing Jackson’s life as well as John Blanchette did here on The
Spokesman-Review’s website and in its newspages.
But one thought hit me
yesterday as I was contemplating Jackson’s days, which ended Friday night after
89 descriptive years on this planet: Washington State has produced two of the
most memorable and important broadcast journalists of the past century.
Think about that for a second.
A school 100 miles from nowhere, in the middle of Eastern Washington’s wheat
fields, has sent the country two voices that shaped their times and other
generations of broadcasters.
The first, of course, is the
man whose name adorns the Edward R. Murrow School of Broadcasting these days.
The World War II and Cold War-era giant, who shaped and reshaped radio and
television journalism for the Greatest Generation and its Baby Boomer children.
Murrow was a Northwest story,
through and through. Though born down South – something he shares with Jackson
– his family moved to Skagit County when he was six.
You probably know his story as
well as I. He grew up near the Canadian border, headed off to Washington State
College in the fall of 1926, graduated and moved to New York.
From there he became a legend,
with his radio coverage of the war for CBS from London changing our culture.
After the war, he became CBS’ shining radio and then TV star until his
principled stands on everything from poverty to Eugene McCarthy became too much
baggage for William S. Paley and CBS.
An incessant smoker, Murrow
died much too young, in 1965 at age 57. He had been out of broadcast journalism
for four years.
But while his star shined, it
attracted a galaxy to CBS, as every broadcast journalist wanted to bask in his
light. Murrow influenced a generation of journalists with his work ethic and
principles, many of which can be traced back to his time in the Northwest.
Jackson’s calling was
different, but nearly as influential. His path from Georgia, where he was born
and grew up, to Pullman was bulldozed by the U.S. Marine Corps, as he attended
the school on the G.I. Bill.
He discovered at WSC the joy of
describing sporting events and found out he was good at it. (He also discovered
his lifetime partner and wife, Turi Ann.)
The obituaries we link today,
from our Theo Lawson to the New York Times and everywhere in-between, will tell
you his life story.
What they don’t tell you is the
incredible number of young men and women Jackson’s voice touched in the 1960s
through the early years of this century. And how those young men and women,
hearing a game called the way it was supposed to be called, decided that’s what
they wanted to do.
Jackson’s college football calls
were sports broadcasting at its finest, never too much, never too little and
always – always – memorable.
Keith Jackson knew the value of
silence. He knew the value of a perfectly timed pause. And he knew the value of
a well-turned phrase.
Though “whoa, Nellie” may not
have the historical significance of “this … is London,” the two signature
phrases of two giants have one thing in common.
They have their roots in a
small town on the Palouse.
WSU: Stop the presses. Robert
Franks connected on a school-record 10 3-pointers – the final one with a
20-plus-point lead and only a few seconds remaining – as the Cougars won their
first Pac-12 game this season, 78-53 over reeling California. Theo Lawson was
joined by a bit more than 3,000 folks at Beasley to see it, but he’s the only
one to write it for the S-R. He also posted postgame interviews with Ernie Kent
and players, including Franks. … Tavares Martin Jr. is not transferring.
Instead, he's entering the NFL draft. Theo has the story. … We linked Theo’s
Keith Jackson obituary above, but we also wanted to add a few more links to
other stories about the broadcast legend’s life and career and the reaction to
his death. We also can pass along this photo gallery. … Back to hoops, we can
pass along a couple stories with a California emphasis.
……………………..
Legendary broadcaster Keith
Jackson, ‘the soundtrack of Saturday afternoons in the autumn,’ dies at age 89
UPDATED: Sat., Jan. 13, 2018,
8:04 p.m.
By Theo Lawson Spokane’s S-R
WSU graduate Keith Jackson,
legendary voice of college football, dies at 89
PULLMAN – With a voice that was
identifiable to fans from one coast to the other, a spirit that nearly every
one of his viewers could connect with and a southern charm that gave his
telecasts a special comfort, Keith Jackson for the better part of five decades
established himself as one of college football’s beloved characters. He was
adored on a national spectrum, but few places embraced the sportscasting giant
like Pullman and Washington State University.
And even as Jackson’s legend
grew, the small college town in the middle of the wheat fields never felt too
far away.
“I’m delighted to come back
home, and my thoughts are, who wouldn’t want to go to school here?” Jackson
told Cougars radio broadcaster Bob Robertson before a 2014 game in Pullman.
Jackson, a 1954 graduate of
WSU’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication who was known as “the voice of
college football” to some and “Mr. College Football” to others, died around
11:30 Friday night at the age of 89. The cause of death wasn’t specified, but Jackson
died in his Sherman Oaks, California, home “with those who loved him around
him,” according to longtime friend and Washington State Association of
Broadcasters President Keith Shipman.
Throughout a career that
spanned 52 years, Jackson’s voice accompanied the telecast of many of the
country’s – and world’s – classic sporting events. He worked 15 Rose Bowls, 16
Sugar Bowls, 10 different Olympic Games – both Summer and Winter – the World
Series and Monday Night Football.
“I remember vividly watching the
1972 Munich Olympic Games and his call of Mark Spitz’s seven gold medals,”
Shipman said. “And that’s what inspired me to pursue my dream of becoming a
sportscaster. … And then while in Pullman, I was fortunate enough to earn the
Keith Jackson Scholarship and that helped put me through school. Little did I
know I would become a friend and he would become one of my most profound
mentors during my career.”
Those who didn’t know Jackson
on such a personal level still felt an intimate connection to one of the industry’s
all-time greats.
Because of Jackson, Michigan’s
enormous football stadium is “the Big House” and the Rose Bowl is “The
Grandaddy of them All.” Jackson coined the phrase “Whoa Nellie” – an homage to
his father and Roopville, Georgia, upbringing – and expressions such as
“Fum-BULL,” “Hold the phooooonne!” and “Big uglies” – referring to a team’s
offensive linemen – became familiar staples of Jackon’s ABC broadcasts.
“He was the soundtrack of Saturday afternoons
every autumn,” Shipman said, “and still 10, 11 years later I miss that sound
emanating from fall.”
Jackson’s specialty was college
football, but he possessed the rare gifts of range and breadth, so he didn’t
limit his work to Saturday afternoons in the fall. Toward the beginning of his
career, Jackson was covering Seafair hydroplane races for KOMO TV in Seattle.
Later on, he was ringside when he interviewed Fidel Castro at an amateur boxing
championship in Cuba.
In 1958, while working for
KOMO, he traveled to Moscow, Russia, for a University of Washington rowing
event. Jackson historically – and controversially – became the first American
to perform a live sports broadcast in the Soviet Union.
But a career that had plenty of
pit stops, taking Jackson from Pasadena, California, to Munich, Germany – and
33 countries in total, he’s claimed – was rooted in Pullman.
“Every time you see him on TV
doing his thing, he’ll always find some way, some way on the television
broadcast to mention Washington State,” said Pullman Mayor and longtime voice
of the Cougars Glenn Johnson. “… The best part about it, yes you leave, you
have a fantastic career but you always stay back home and you’re always taking
care of Pullman.”
The wandering grain fields of
the Palouse are where Jackson obtained his undergraduate degree and met his
wife of 63 years, Turi Ann. In 2014, WSU invited the couple back to Pullman to
dedicate Keith Jackson Hall in Jackson’s honor. That was just a small way of
repaying someone who regularly opened his checkbook to give to his alma mater,
donating more than $1 million since receiving his diploma in ’54.
“You know when we get old
enough to look back and reflect upon our experiences and achievements, I guess
most of us can recall a special teacher, a coach, a particular class in school
or a place where we’ve lived that left a lasting impression on us,” Jackson
once said. “All these kind of things come tumbling back through the mind and
memory when we recall our years at WSU.”
Jackson was generous to the
Murrow College not only with his money, but his time. He organized a
sports-specific symposium, Johnson recalled, and “brought in some of the big
ABC talent, leaders in sports … had them all here, put a great symposium
together.”
“He’s just a nice guy,” the
Pullman mayor said. “He means a lot to this community.”
Jackson’s broadcasting career
began in 1952 when he called a Washington State-Stanford football game for the
school’s radio station. Seldom did his tenure with ABC bring Jackson back to
Pullman, but he did return many years later for a 2003 game against UCLA.
Shipman has distinct memories
of the game. He’d brought his son Greg along and the two had spent the day
touring the WSU campus.
“He was clad in crimson and
gray from head to toe … we were waiting in line at the will call window, my son
tugged on my arm and looked up at me and said, ‘Dad, I am so going to
Washington State when I grow up,’” Shipman said. “I was so proud at the moment
and right behind me, I hear the distinctive voice of college football say,
‘Well, we’re going to have to get him academically eligible then.’ And I turn
around and Keith and Dan Fouts are laughing.”
Jackson, at the time, was a
spokesperson for Gatorade and appeared regularly in commercials for the popular
sports drink. That’s how Shipman’s son recognized the sportscaster.
“My son looked up at Keith and
said, ‘I know you, you’re the Gatorade guy,’” recalled Shipman. “Keith leaned
over to me and whispered … he said, ‘For 50 years I’ve been the voice of
college football and now I’m the (expletive) Gatorade guy.’ From that moment
on, whenever we talk, he always asks ‘So how’s the little Gatorade guy doing?’”
The Jackson that college
football loyalists saw and heard was a down-home southerner who, much like
ex-Los Angeles Dodgers sportscasting legend Vin Scully, had the ability to let
his broadcasts breathe.
“Silence is an interesting
thing,” Jackson said. “A lot of things go on when things are quiet. You don’t
have to fill every moment with a syllable.”
“The thing I admire most about
him is he treated the viewer or the listener as if they had a brain,” Shipman
said. “He allowed you to digest the information, use it to formulate your
opinion. … But he never told you what to think.”
Jackson subscribed to a simple
philosophy – “Amplify, clarify, punctuate and let the viewer draw their own
conclusion” – and used the model to capture radio and TV audiences for half of
a century.
Jackson famously stood up Bear
Bryant when the Hall of Fame Alabama coach made him wait nearly an hour for a
postgame interview.
“(Bear) came and stepped out of
the little crowd and said, ‘Do you want to see me?’” Jackson recalled. “And I
said, “Not anymore coach. We’ll catch you next time.’”
He signed off for the final
time in 2006 at the USC-Texas national championship football game in Pasadena.
“Fourth and 5, the national
championship on the line right here,” Jackson said, depicting the scene as
Longhorns quarterback Vince Young came up to the line of scrimmage with UT
trailing by five points inside the final minute. “He’s going for the corner … he’s
got it!”
One of Jackson’s signature
pauses followed before the famous voice returned to the airwaves: “Vince.
Young. Scores.”
Jackson is survived by his
wife, his three children, Melanie Ann, Lindsey and Christopher, and his three
grandchildren.
………………..
::: Correction: Robert Franks’
record performance playing yesterday, Sat., Jan. 13, 2018, for WSU Cougar
basketball took place on Friel Court in Beasley Coliseum on the WSU campus in
Pullman. A headline posted by News for CougGroup at the News for CougGroup and
Die Hard Cougs Facebook pages incorrectly said the WSU vs. Cal game was played
in Berkeley. :::
………….
Analysis: Robert Franks pumps
in school-record 10 3-pointers to lead Washington State past Cal
UPDATED: Sat., Jan. 13, 2018,
9:38 p.m.
By Theo Lawson S-R of S p o k a n e /Inland Empire
PULLMAN – If this is the result
every time, Washington State coach Ernie Kent might make the phone calls to
Robert Franks a permanent part of his pregame routine.
Franks shot the Cougars out of
a four-game Pac-12 slump and shot them into the win column Saturday afternoon
against Cal, burying a school-record 10 3-pointers while scoring a career-high
34 points in a 78-53 victory over the Golden Bears at Beasley Coliseum.
There were 3,178 on hand to see
Franks break a single-game record that had been standing for 24 years – so
long, actually, that one of Franks’ WSU mentors was actually the one who set
it, years before the junior forward was born. So then perhaps it was apropros
that when Franks stepped into his ninth 3-pointer from the left wing, assistant
coach Bennie Seltzer, was sitting only a few feet away on the home bench.
“Somebody told me Bennie was
one of the people (with the record),” Franks said, “so I wanted to make it and
have fun with him.”
Franks pulled the trigger for
the final time with 43 seconds left and launched his 10th 3-pointer into a
basket that looked more like a crater for the sharp-shooting forward. No. 10
pushed Franks ahead of his assistant coach, Seltzer, who set the record in
1993, later matched by Chris Crosby (1998), Marcus Moore (2002) and Derrick Low
(2007).
At 17.3 points per game, Franks
has been WSU’s best producer on offense this season, but the Vancouver,
Washington, native scored just eight points in Thursday’s loss to Stanford. He
wasn’t one of Kent’s five players on the floor in the final, crucial minutes of
the game against the Cardinal.
Franks, who also committed six
turnovers and four fouls in the loss, had individual meetings with Kent each of
the last two days and received an encouraging phone call from his coach hours
before arriving at Beasley Coliseum for Saturday’s game.
“I said, ‘Let’s have a special
game for you, a bounce-back game,’” Kent said. “So it’s not about lighting a
fire, he was just out of whack and these are still college student-athletes. We
do our best to parent and coach them, but at times they’re going to show up not
as focused. … He’s not going to be like that often.”
Indeed, Franks left that
version of himself behind. The Cougars would probably be fine if they never saw
it again.
On Saturday, he shot 11-of-17
from the field and 10-of-13 from 3-point range to bag his highest-scoring game
in three years with the Cougars. Franks’ previous best was 31 points vs. UC
Davis. He pulled down five rebounds, committed only two turnovers and fouled
once.
“My emotions were high,” Franks
said. “I give a lot of praise to my teammates. They saw I was hot and they kept
feeding me and they wanted me to shoot it, so it just felt even better, seeing
they wanted me to break the record.”
The Cougars, who’d lost eight
of their last 10 games before Saturday, are now tied with Cal at the bottom of
the Pac-12 standings. On a night the hosts shot the 3-pointer better than 50
percent (15-of-28) and led by as many as 25 points, the visitors never looked
capable of catching up, shooting 4 of 24 from beyond the arc and 21 of 66 from
the field.
Turnovers had been a black
stain for the Cougars over the last five games. They still loomed on Saturday
as WSU committed 15 more, but that total wasn’t nearly as troublesome as the 23
committed vs. UW, or the 22 vs. Stanford.
“I thought we played too
carelessly and maybe didn’t anticipate their athleticism in the first half,”
Kent said. Of the 15 turnovers, just five came after halftime. “… I thought we
did a much better job of taking care of the ball and the big reason for that is
not over-dribbling. This is a passing system, not a dribbling system.”
Malachi Flynn finished with 14
points and three assists and Drick Bernstine was effective in 36 minutes on the
floor, scoring 10 points to go with nine assists and six rebounds. Kwinton
Hinson added seven points and six assists.
……………………
Reports: Utah State
co-defensive coordinator Kendrick Shaver joining Washington State staff
Sun., Jan. 14, 2018, 11:24 a.m.
By Theo Lawson Spokane S-R
PULLMAN – Washington State has
reportedly filled the position formerly held by outside linebackers coach Roy
Manning, hiring Utah State co-defensive coordinator and outside linebackers
coach Kendrick Shaver.
The news was first reported by
UStateAggies.com, a 247Sports.com website, and later confirmed by The Seattle
Times.
Shaver would presumably be the
third and final coaching hire of the offseason by Mike Leach, who also brought
Tracy Claeys aboard to replace Alex Grinch and elevated former defensive
quality control assistant Darcel McBath to assistant coach, filling the
Cougars’ “10th assistant” position.
It’s unclear what position
group Shaver would work with at WSU, but during his six seasons in Logan, he
wore a variety of different hats, coaching the outside linebackers, the
cornerbacks and the safeties. McBath is expected to work primarily with the
Cougar DBs.
Shaver was part of an Aggies
staff that went to five straight bowl games and helped USU win the 2012 Western
Athletic Conference championship. In 2016, his secondary was one of the best in
the nation, allowing 176.5 passing yards per game – third in the MWC and 10th
nationally.
After the successful 2012
season, Shaver was named Co-Defensive Backs National Coach of the Year by
FootballScoop.com.
Before Utah State, Shaver had
stints coaching the secondary at Northern Colorado (2007-10) and Northeastern
Oklahoma A&M (2006). The native of Eufaula, Oklahoma, played DB for two
seasons at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M before transferring to Missouri State.
……………………………………………..
Tavares Martin aiming for NFL
and building bridges back to WSU
Roommate Johnson-Mack
reportedly eyeing FCS school in Pennsylvania
COUGFANcom -
IN ONE TWEET YESTERDAY, Tavares
Martin Jr. declared early for the NFL draft and aimed to shore up his
relationship with Washington State coach Mike Leach and Cougar Nation generally
...
Martin, a third-year junior
from Belle Glade, Fla., was either dismissed from the team for a violation of teams
rules -- as Mike Leach stated -- in the weeks between the Apple Cup and Holiday
Bowl or asked for his release from WSU and then was dismissed, as Martin has
stated.
One thing is certain: Martin
and the coaching staff butted heads this season and it resulted in Martin being
suspended for the Colorado game.
He concluded the year as WSU's
top wideout in receptions (70), yards (831) and TDs (9). Those 70 receptions
land him in WSU's single-season all-time top 10 and elevate his career total to
150, which puts him in the school's career top 10.
NFL pundits did not consider
Martin a candidate to come out of college early so it will be interesting to
see where gets slotted on draft boards or gets an invitation to the NFL
Combine.
Martin's WSU roommate -- and
fellow Belle Glade product -- Isaiah Johnson-Mack also left the team following
the Apple Cup, stating that he wanted to be closer to his young children back
home in Florida. He reportedly is on an official visit this weekend to
Duquesnse, an FCS school in Pittsburgh that plays in the Northeast Conference.
Johnson-Mack, a sophomore, wouldn't lose a year of eligibility by transferring
to an FCS school.
………………….
Utah State co-DC Kendrick
Shaver headed to WSU to replace Roy Manning; will Jim Mastro leave for Oregon?
Kendrick Shaver, Utah State's
co-defensive coordinator, will join Tracy Claeys' new defensive coaching staff
at Washington State. But now the spotlight is on running backs coach Jim
Mastro, who is being pursued by Oregon.
By Stefanie Loh Seattle Times
Utah State co-defensive
coordinator Kendrick Shaver is headed to Washington State to join Mike Leach’s
staff, two sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed to The Seattle
Times Sunday morning.
Shaver’s potential move was
first reported by UStateAggies.com, the Utah State 247Sports fan site.
Shaver has been at Utah State
with Matt Wells since 2011, steadily working his way up within the staff.
Shaver just finished his second year as the Aggies’ co-defensive coordinator,
and his first year as the Aggies’ outside linebackers coach.
Shaver coached the Utah State
secondary in each of his first six seasons in Logan, and in 2012, he was named
Co-Defensive Backs National Coach of the Year by Football Scoop.
He comes to WSU as a
replacement for outside linebackers coach Roy Manning, who left to become
special teams coordinator at UCLA. However, with defensive coordinator Alex
Grinch gone, and Tracy Claeys now in charge of the defense, there’s a chance
that Claeys might re-divide responsibilities among the position coaches. Darcel
McBath, whose hire was announced last week, will likely coach the secondary in
some fashion. Shaver has experience with both linebackers and defensive backs.
Shaver is a native of Eufaula,
Okla., and he played two seasons at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M Junior
College before transferring to Missouri State, where he was a safety and
cornerback from 2000-01. He also earned a masters in physical education Eastern
Kentucky in 2005, and served an NFL Minority Coaching Fellowship with the
Oakland Raiders in 2014.
With Shaver’s hire, WSU’s
coaching staff now appears to be complete.
The wild card, however, is WSU
running backs coach Jim Mastro, who is
being heavily pursued by Oregon. New Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal has
offered Mastro a job on his staff, per a source.
Mastro was one of Leach’s
original hires at WSU in 2012, and in six seasons he’s helped to rebrand the
way running backs are perceived in the Air Raid, and has been instrumental in
WSU’s offensive success.
As a group, Mastro’s running
backs are coming off back-to-back 1,000-yard receiving/1,000-yard rushing
seasons — the first time this has ever happened in a Leach-coached offense.
Mastro is known for his
recruiting prowess, and he was instrumental in WSU’s signing of Pomona (Colo.)
running back Max Borghi in December. Borghi picked WSU over a strong late push
from Stanford, which he once considered his “dream school.” Borghi cited his
relationship with Mastro as one of the primary reasons why he chose WSU over
Stanford.
Mastro is well-regarded in
coaching circles. He helped Chris Ault develop the pistol offense as an
assistant at Nevada from 2000-10, and has also worked at UCLA, Idaho, San Jose
State and Cal Poly.
Mastro is the second WSU coach
Oregon has come after in consecutive years. The Ducks hired WSU defensive line
coach Joe Salave’a last offseason and Salave’a opted to stay in Eugene with
Cristobal instead of leaving for Florida State with Willie Taggart.
If Mastro does decide to join
Cristobal’s staff at Oregon, WSU would have to find a replacement fast because
recruiting is picking up again as the February signing period nears.
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