For the Beavers to be success in football, and athletics as a whole, they need new leadership atop the OSU Athletics department. Firing S. Scott Barnes is a crucial step for the university.
Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that is going to happen. Which is really too bad because Barnes (who essentially makes DOUBLE his peers in the Pac-12) has made mistake after mistake over the last few years. He needs to go, yesterday.
Every Pac 10 president approved the Larry Scott hire in 2009. They approved the addition of Utah and Colorado, the $3B ESPN media deal and in 2017, approved Scott's extension. Name the school that spoke up before it was too late. Phil Knight holds more responsibility for breaking up the Pac12 than Ed Ray.
I wonder if coaches will start getting paid less in this era. You don’t really need to recruit anymore. It’s all about how much money you can pay players. It’s seems like 5m would be a lot better spent on players. Find a coach that will do it for 500k. It’s still a pretty good job.
How do you define being overpaid? No one is overpaid if someone is willing to pay you the money to do a job. It's a "free market", it's "capitalism". Unless you're a communist, capitalism is the way of the world. Put simply, you're worth what someone is willing to pay you. Is it fair?
".....how money will best be spent." If that is really the issue and clearly, it is not, those dollars would best be spent on educating young people. Promoting professional sport does not exactly fit into that category.
Supply and demand determine their pay. Demand is determined by the value each coach is perceived to have individually. Coaches are not a commodity. Think of coaches as being items in an auction, not as something you buy off the shelf.
I said yesterday I expected WSU to win but hoped Oregon State would. I got my wish. Big time upset. Finally the Beavs just looked like they wanted it more and refused to lose
The Beavers showed some heart tonight and didn’t quit. Sometimes a coaching change will do wonders. It took way too long, but at least there’s hope for November. And 2026.
“Come up with the money, these days, and you can matter.”
The time (was long ago) is now. Remain an important part of college football. Especially for this state.
It was nice to see the Beavers playing good fundamental football under interim coach Robb Akey. Trent Bray’s tenure this year was a comedy of errors with players being uninspired. It’s like a whole new season in Corvallis.
Amazing what a coaching change can do. I actually thought the team would be solid fundamentally under Bray because he was as a player. But wrong positioning on plays, poor tackling, poor blocking technique, anything but fundamentally sound. I saw mistakes by the Beavs last night, just not as many as WSU. No turnovers for one thing while WSU committed two, three if you count the TO on downs. Usually, between teams with similar talent, the team making the fewest mistakes wins
First time all season I've seriously questioned coach Rogers. I haven't seen the Cougars that soft, entitled and casual in a long time. They look like they're going to the county fair during pregame warm-ups the coaches didn't look very invested either. Oregon State wanted it more and has a Cougar Fan that bothers me a bit. Rogers says the right things but now he's lost three straight games by three points each, and they'll come back saying moral victories don't count. He's right. Also what doesn't count are coaching staffs that take any game casually. It was really disturbing to me. Dropped passes, lots of holding calls cougars starting quarterback throwing Junior High School type passes right into coverage. It was one of the most poorly coached and executed WSU games I've seen in a while.
As much fun as the game was for us Beaver fans it's probably time to admit that neither team is very good. WSU will probably win at home and we can all get on with supporting our new conference and having at least of a semblance of normality. I want to treat this two year interregnum as a bad dream.
I tried warning everyone who was anointing him the next Nick Saban. Rogers has never built anything. He inherited a top national FCS offense and maintained it for 2 years. Just 2 years. Then inherited a national champion and maintained it, for just 2 years. That's his resume. Not enough in his background to ever suggest HE had what it takes to build a program and instill his brand. Nobody knew what "his" brand actually was. Rogers needs to thank John Steiglemeier for his paycheck. He didn't even coach with any real responsibilities under John long enough to learn enough. This guy wasn't ready to make this big of a move in the HC world.
I'm starting to agree with you. Rogers was deer in the headlights all night long. The lack of intensity and focus was stunning to me, reminded me of last year's season, the final three games where the coach and the quarterback had already taken deals with other schools and quit on the team, the university, and the fans. A hard-nosed athletic director needs to deal with this.
Agree completely Tim. Remember Rogers wasn't even the first choice. They wanted Vigen but couldn't meet his asking price. At least Vigen had 5 years HC experience and has actually built up Montana State. Another thing nobody has brought up. Until this year, Rogers has only coached with one QB leading his offense, both as an OC and HC, Mark Gronowski, whom he did not recruit. All 4 years of his OC and HC career he had Gronowski to lead his offense, and now that QB is starting for Iowa in the Big 18. There are also a few other players he inherited from Steigelmeier that are playing in the NFL. Again, he was gifted all of this. Not hard to win when you're playing in the FCS with Big 18 starters and NFL players you inherited.
It's all coming into the light for me now, sadly. I was one who drank the Rogers kool-aid. There's a Cougar website out there I really like, but boy they genuflect in Jimmy's direction night and day.
I think reality is starting to set in. He's horrible in late game situations, three straight losses by three points all settled in the final minutes. Correct on him inheriting all that talent at South Dakota State. Yes, Vigan was the one I wanted initially because of that head coaching experience. Even with the Pac-12 castration, it's still tough to be a head coach with minimal head coaching experience. Despite Robb Akey's substandard record at Idaho, he did win a bowl game there and he cleaned Rogers clock last night in the coaching area. These feel-good hires, Rolo, Dickert, now Rogers, need to go. They need to make cold hearted business decisions.
The NFL has equal revenue shares on its national TV contracts. The Packers and Bills, the two smallest markets, earn the same amount from CBS, FOX, ESPN as the Jets and Giants, the two largest.
One league knew, when it adopted equal revenue sharing, that a league is only as strong as its weakest member. Owners (back in the day) put the success of the league ahead of its individual members.
Some members of another league (the Pac-12) adopted an "every man for himself," selfish philosophy.
When I got to the part you wrote about Mateer I realized tears were running down my face. Can we ever go back from the unintended influence of money in College football? It feels so off.
Unlike a lot of these guys today, I think there is a part of Mateer who feels bad about the situation, despite contributing to it. During Apple Cup week this year, he gave an interview to the Daily Evergreen student newspaper. It’s clear to me that he genuinely loved Pullman and being a Coug. But I think he also realized that he had a responsibility to himself and his family to take the extra $2.2 million. For a guy who likely won’t quite make the NFL, turning down that kind of pay increase would be hard for anyone to do.
Mateer quit on his team, quit playing hard late in the year. Sure you can take the money most of us would, doesn't mean I have to like him. He quit on the Cougars and flipped off the university on the way out of town. He's a punk I'm glad he failed this year at Oklahoma.
Dickert flipped off the university on the way out of town with his tone deaf post on the plane whisking him away to Wake Forest. Mateer posted a photo of himself in front of his locker with his WSU uniform on. You don’t have to like him, but I think to call him a punk is a little harsh. He gave the Cougs three seasons and was a significant contributor to an Apple Cup win for the ages.
Mateer quit. Quit playing hard and that's a sin for a football player. He's getting ankle tackled by Wyoming 5 ft 9 defensive backs when at the apple cup he was pounding husky linebackers. Idaho's backup quarterback it was still a backup went down to Laramie and won. Mateer lost to Wyoming at home. He quit against Oregon State. He just quit playing hard and I can't forgive that. I don't care how many cowboy hats he wears on the sideline or jerseys he wears in the locker room, he quit on his team that is Unforgivable.
The New Mexico and Oregon State losses weren’t on John. The defense was the problem in those games. Yes, the Wyoming game was abysmal, but he still had a rushing TD and a passing TD. He wasn’t the reason why the Cougs gave up the game losing touchdown on 4th and 10.
Quitting is what Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi did at Colorado State this year or what Matthew Sluka did at UNLV last year.
Yes and cam ward, too. I went to the Bowl game in Boise The Potato Bowl when Josh Allen was playing in it. He'd already been projected as a top 10 pick in the draft. It was colder than hell out and a win in the bowl probably wouldn't have put Wyoming into the top 20. During the game Allen is diving for first downs on a rock hard turf. He was actually blocking guys. He really sold out for the victory. After the game the announcer asked why he didn't skip the game and he looked at him like he was nuts and said, number one I'd never give up on my brothers, meaning his teammates. Number two I just love playing football. That's the kind of guy I want leading my team not a quitter.
Yea, I reread my comment and realize how naïve I sound. I know incentives were always present in sport, even if it was just pride of wearing a school jersey or the doors that opened because of association or college degree. Who knew my 1974 UW college course called "The business of College Sport" or something like that would outline why we are here $....
My oldest brother would just be shaking his head and saying, "I told you so". We had numerous discussions about what would it take to form a top 40 teams division. This was almost 15 years ago - he saw what was coming long before that.
There is an irrational belief among some that the Cougs will dominate in the new PAC-12. Fearless prediction: when they fail to dominate, the fans will be blamed for not donating enough. Guilting the fans is evergreen at Wazzu.
My feelings were for all the kids involved including the players and the students. That funeral march known as the Trent Bray era was so deflating. So happy to see the players and the students having a good time at a football game for a change. They don't care about the actual quality of the football. They like winning.
This transition period has been rough on the Cougs and Beavers 🦫. The football world has changed, and OSU/WSU are playing catchup.
BTW, great win for the Beavers.
For the Beavers to be success in football, and athletics as a whole, they need new leadership atop the OSU Athletics department. Firing S. Scott Barnes is a crucial step for the university.
Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that is going to happen. Which is really too bad because Barnes (who essentially makes DOUBLE his peers in the Pac-12) has made mistake after mistake over the last few years. He needs to go, yesterday.
Ray was maybe the second worst thing to ever happen to the Pac, behind only Larry Scott himself.
Every Pac 10 president approved the Larry Scott hire in 2009. They approved the addition of Utah and Colorado, the $3B ESPN media deal and in 2017, approved Scott's extension. Name the school that spoke up before it was too late. Phil Knight holds more responsibility for breaking up the Pac12 than Ed Ray.
Bingo! And the moron top admins that allowed that professor to tell them to tell ESPN "$50 Million". I still haven't read much about that stupid plan.
All 15 men who served as the University of Oregon president during Larry Scott's tenure as Pac-10/12 commissioner supported him.
I wonder if coaches will start getting paid less in this era. You don’t really need to recruit anymore. It’s all about how much money you can pay players. It’s seems like 5m would be a lot better spent on players. Find a coach that will do it for 500k. It’s still a pretty good job.
Amen to that...Coaches are way way way overpaid at present.
Why are they overpaid if someone is willing to pay them? Should the Starbucks CEO get paid $95 million a year, Microsoft CEO $79 million, or Uber’s CEO getting $39 million? Should there be a "cap" on how much someone should make? https://www.equilar.com/reports/119-table-equilar-new-york-times-top-100-highest-paid-ceos-2025.html
How do you define being overpaid? No one is overpaid if someone is willing to pay you the money to do a job. It's a "free market", it's "capitalism". Unless you're a communist, capitalism is the way of the world. Put simply, you're worth what someone is willing to pay you. Is it fair?
They deserve whatever someone is willing to pay them. Just thinking universities might rethink how money will best be spent.
".....how money will best be spent." If that is really the issue and clearly, it is not, those dollars would best be spent on educating young people. Promoting professional sport does not exactly fit into that category.
…and if you don’t produce you get fired!
Who wrote this for you--it makes complete sense.
That' s really good point. Good coaches will still make great money but the Brian Kelly's of the world will come back to reality.
Recruiting skills still matter. But also very important is coaching skills and game-day coaching. Just ask Miami fans.
Supply and demand determine their pay. Demand is determined by the value each coach is perceived to have individually. Coaches are not a commodity. Think of coaches as being items in an auction, not as something you buy off the shelf.
Cougs Coug’d it. Per usual.
It wasn't exactly Pac12 After Dark fireworks. But, two squads who both looked like the game meant something to them. That's a start.
And the students looked like they were having a blast, no matter the score. Fun to see.
I said yesterday I expected WSU to win but hoped Oregon State would. I got my wish. Big time upset. Finally the Beavs just looked like they wanted it more and refused to lose
The Beavers showed some heart tonight and didn’t quit. Sometimes a coaching change will do wonders. It took way too long, but at least there’s hope for November. And 2026.
“Come up with the money, these days, and you can matter.”
The time (was long ago) is now. Remain an important part of college football. Especially for this state.
It was nice to see the Beavers playing good fundamental football under interim coach Robb Akey. Trent Bray’s tenure this year was a comedy of errors with players being uninspired. It’s like a whole new season in Corvallis.
Amazing what a coaching change can do. I actually thought the team would be solid fundamentally under Bray because he was as a player. But wrong positioning on plays, poor tackling, poor blocking technique, anything but fundamentally sound. I saw mistakes by the Beavs last night, just not as many as WSU. No turnovers for one thing while WSU committed two, three if you count the TO on downs. Usually, between teams with similar talent, the team making the fewest mistakes wins
First time all season I've seriously questioned coach Rogers. I haven't seen the Cougars that soft, entitled and casual in a long time. They look like they're going to the county fair during pregame warm-ups the coaches didn't look very invested either. Oregon State wanted it more and has a Cougar Fan that bothers me a bit. Rogers says the right things but now he's lost three straight games by three points each, and they'll come back saying moral victories don't count. He's right. Also what doesn't count are coaching staffs that take any game casually. It was really disturbing to me. Dropped passes, lots of holding calls cougars starting quarterback throwing Junior High School type passes right into coverage. It was one of the most poorly coached and executed WSU games I've seen in a while.
As much fun as the game was for us Beaver fans it's probably time to admit that neither team is very good. WSU will probably win at home and we can all get on with supporting our new conference and having at least of a semblance of normality. I want to treat this two year interregnum as a bad dream.
I tried warning everyone who was anointing him the next Nick Saban. Rogers has never built anything. He inherited a top national FCS offense and maintained it for 2 years. Just 2 years. Then inherited a national champion and maintained it, for just 2 years. That's his resume. Not enough in his background to ever suggest HE had what it takes to build a program and instill his brand. Nobody knew what "his" brand actually was. Rogers needs to thank John Steiglemeier for his paycheck. He didn't even coach with any real responsibilities under John long enough to learn enough. This guy wasn't ready to make this big of a move in the HC world.
I'm starting to agree with you. Rogers was deer in the headlights all night long. The lack of intensity and focus was stunning to me, reminded me of last year's season, the final three games where the coach and the quarterback had already taken deals with other schools and quit on the team, the university, and the fans. A hard-nosed athletic director needs to deal with this.
Agree completely Tim. Remember Rogers wasn't even the first choice. They wanted Vigen but couldn't meet his asking price. At least Vigen had 5 years HC experience and has actually built up Montana State. Another thing nobody has brought up. Until this year, Rogers has only coached with one QB leading his offense, both as an OC and HC, Mark Gronowski, whom he did not recruit. All 4 years of his OC and HC career he had Gronowski to lead his offense, and now that QB is starting for Iowa in the Big 18. There are also a few other players he inherited from Steigelmeier that are playing in the NFL. Again, he was gifted all of this. Not hard to win when you're playing in the FCS with Big 18 starters and NFL players you inherited.
It's all coming into the light for me now, sadly. I was one who drank the Rogers kool-aid. There's a Cougar website out there I really like, but boy they genuflect in Jimmy's direction night and day.
I think reality is starting to set in. He's horrible in late game situations, three straight losses by three points all settled in the final minutes. Correct on him inheriting all that talent at South Dakota State. Yes, Vigan was the one I wanted initially because of that head coaching experience. Even with the Pac-12 castration, it's still tough to be a head coach with minimal head coaching experience. Despite Robb Akey's substandard record at Idaho, he did win a bowl game there and he cleaned Rogers clock last night in the coaching area. These feel-good hires, Rolo, Dickert, now Rogers, need to go. They need to make cold hearted business decisions.
If we talk about Jensen Huang now, we need to include Peter Thiel. I’m not sure I want my Alma mater in bed with Thiel money. The optics suck.
The NFL has equal revenue shares on its national TV contracts. The Packers and Bills, the two smallest markets, earn the same amount from CBS, FOX, ESPN as the Jets and Giants, the two largest.
One league knew, when it adopted equal revenue sharing, that a league is only as strong as its weakest member. Owners (back in the day) put the success of the league ahead of its individual members.
Some members of another league (the Pac-12) adopted an "every man for himself," selfish philosophy.
One league is flourishing. The other died.
But USC and UCLA are not mourning the loss of the PAC12.
Maybe the Ducks and Huskies agree with them.
Not yet. Give it time.
I don't think anyone associated with UCLA football is happy with the move.
When I got to the part you wrote about Mateer I realized tears were running down my face. Can we ever go back from the unintended influence of money in College football? It feels so off.
Unlike a lot of these guys today, I think there is a part of Mateer who feels bad about the situation, despite contributing to it. During Apple Cup week this year, he gave an interview to the Daily Evergreen student newspaper. It’s clear to me that he genuinely loved Pullman and being a Coug. But I think he also realized that he had a responsibility to himself and his family to take the extra $2.2 million. For a guy who likely won’t quite make the NFL, turning down that kind of pay increase would be hard for anyone to do.
Go Cougs.
Mateer quit on his team, quit playing hard late in the year. Sure you can take the money most of us would, doesn't mean I have to like him. He quit on the Cougars and flipped off the university on the way out of town. He's a punk I'm glad he failed this year at Oklahoma.
Dickert flipped off the university on the way out of town with his tone deaf post on the plane whisking him away to Wake Forest. Mateer posted a photo of himself in front of his locker with his WSU uniform on. You don’t have to like him, but I think to call him a punk is a little harsh. He gave the Cougs three seasons and was a significant contributor to an Apple Cup win for the ages.
Go Cougs.
Mateer quit. Quit playing hard and that's a sin for a football player. He's getting ankle tackled by Wyoming 5 ft 9 defensive backs when at the apple cup he was pounding husky linebackers. Idaho's backup quarterback it was still a backup went down to Laramie and won. Mateer lost to Wyoming at home. He quit against Oregon State. He just quit playing hard and I can't forgive that. I don't care how many cowboy hats he wears on the sideline or jerseys he wears in the locker room, he quit on his team that is Unforgivable.
The New Mexico and Oregon State losses weren’t on John. The defense was the problem in those games. Yes, the Wyoming game was abysmal, but he still had a rushing TD and a passing TD. He wasn’t the reason why the Cougs gave up the game losing touchdown on 4th and 10.
Quitting is what Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi did at Colorado State this year or what Matthew Sluka did at UNLV last year.
Yes and cam ward, too. I went to the Bowl game in Boise The Potato Bowl when Josh Allen was playing in it. He'd already been projected as a top 10 pick in the draft. It was colder than hell out and a win in the bowl probably wouldn't have put Wyoming into the top 20. During the game Allen is diving for first downs on a rock hard turf. He was actually blocking guys. He really sold out for the victory. After the game the announcer asked why he didn't skip the game and he looked at him like he was nuts and said, number one I'd never give up on my brothers, meaning his teammates. Number two I just love playing football. That's the kind of guy I want leading my team not a quitter.
Not a chance.
Yea, I reread my comment and realize how naïve I sound. I know incentives were always present in sport, even if it was just pride of wearing a school jersey or the doors that opened because of association or college degree. Who knew my 1974 UW college course called "The business of College Sport" or something like that would outline why we are here $....
It truly is sad, Leslie. Tragic in many ways, what's happened. Even those few teams who have benefitted feel the loss deep down.
My oldest brother would just be shaking his head and saying, "I told you so". We had numerous discussions about what would it take to form a top 40 teams division. This was almost 15 years ago - he saw what was coming long before that.
Hey, you stole Bryant's QB.
?
There is an irrational belief among some that the Cougs will dominate in the new PAC-12. Fearless prediction: when they fail to dominate, the fans will be blamed for not donating enough. Guilting the fans is evergreen at Wazzu.
Money talks and bs walks. College sports is now semi-pro.
My feelings were for all the kids involved including the players and the students. That funeral march known as the Trent Bray era was so deflating. So happy to see the players and the students having a good time at a football game for a change. They don't care about the actual quality of the football. They like winning.
Embarrassing Wazzu, embarrassing. Go Cougs!