Washington State missing top two receivers for bowl game vs. MSU

Submitted by Amaizing Blue on

While I like Mike Leach and find him highly entertaining, he does seem to have some issues getting along with players going back to his time at Texas Tech.  (Son of Craig James, allegedly locked in a shed as punishment.)  This is the latest incident-one receiver is transferring and so will not play in the game (A Speight-type situation, it happens.)  The other one claims he was kicked off the team because he asked for a release, while Leach said he was cut from the team before he asked for the release.

This will hurt WSU's pass-heavy offense.  Dantonio's deal with the devil has to expire sometime, right?  Guys?

http://www.mlive.com/spartans/index.ssf/2017/12/washington_state_will_b…

LSAClassOf2000

December 11th, 2017 at 8:41 AM ^

The easy answer is that it pertains to a conference opponent, and such news is typically considered on-topic even though in this case it is not about a Big Ten game or their game against us. I suppose you could argue that it is on the very perimeter of on-topic news with bowl news like this possibly being on the other side of said perimeter, but that's generally how it is interpreted. 

Basically, "Big Ten = on-topic-ish", 

 

Julian

December 11th, 2017 at 10:23 AM ^

I went back and looked through the mod sticky at the users who have been banned recently, and I do not see any reason to believe any of them were me, besides that I am not a complete newbie to the blog. If you look at Maizen, Inman, Maizeblue11, FranklinHatchet, and Yost, none of their personalities resemble mine at all. However, if you guys are more confortable with me staying out of most stuff I’m “not supposed to know yet” I will oblige.

ChuckieWoodson

December 11th, 2017 at 8:40 AM ^

I give Mork a lot of credit (besides for being a smug dickhead that I can't stand) he is a damn good coach.  But fuck me if in the last 5 years he also isn't the luckiest, too.

esanch

December 11th, 2017 at 10:40 AM ^

I just saw the ESPN freshman all american team. Josiah Scott made it. The 950th nationally ranked recruit. Mork is so lucky ro keep finding these players. Luck luck luck luck luck all the way to multiple 11 win seasons and low-ranked recruits making it to the NFL. Such bullshit. You'd think luck would run out eventually.

Jimmyisgod

December 11th, 2017 at 10:40 AM ^

And know this, Scott was not on Dantonio's radar, his DB coach found Scott and had to lobby to get him an offer.  Dantonio did not think he deserved an offer.

So that's not luck, that's having a good assistant who found talent where others didn't see it.  Scott was really really good this year, just below Lavert Hill in performance as a true freshman.  Crazy.

esanch

December 11th, 2017 at 10:58 AM ^

Thats what I said. He's totally lucky to have assistants that find that kind of talent. Multiple layers of dumb luck involved, basically a 1/100000000 shot.
1. Coach Mork lucky to have a good assistant.
2. Lucky assistant lucky to find highly skilled recruit time and time again
3. Lucky that inferior player develops into NFL talent time and time again
4. Steroids, rain, sun, injuries, lack of injuries, grass, turf, planetary alignment. Luckily their luck will run out soon.

StellaBlue

December 11th, 2017 at 8:43 AM ^

Not a big fan of Leach, but that thing with Adam James was totally blown out of proportion.  The hooker murderer (ok allegedly) had an axe to grind.  As to the main point, I do not think deals with the devil ever expire.  No personal experience however.

EGD

December 11th, 2017 at 9:17 AM ^

I don't think anybody came out of that Adam James situation looking particularly good.  

Craig James, who has always been a pretty loathesome personality to begin with, tried to pressure Leach into playing his kid more at Texas Tech.  That obviously made him look bad.

But the incident exposed the various unorthodox punishments Leach would impose on his players, such as "rolling the field" or locking guys in closets.  These things seemed more like ways of humiliating players than serving any legitimate educational or development-based purpose.  So that made Leach look pretty bad as well. 

I actually have a pretty favorable opinion of Leach generally, but the mistreatment of players stands out.  Hopefully he's stopped doing that kind of stuff by now.

Kermits Blue Key

December 11th, 2017 at 9:07 AM ^

MSU made it into the playoffs, and it didn't do shit for their recruiting. A meaningless bowl win againt WSU will be just as useless. We just need to start beating these clowns. We should never lose to them.

redhed

December 11th, 2017 at 10:05 AM ^

While I agree with the fact we need to turn this series around, some people never learn.  We've been talking about MSU's recruiting for a decade now.  Mork may be a douchbag, but he is exceptionally good at finding kids to play in his system.  Recruting stars are almost irrelevant to them because his kids show up to play when they see Maize and Blue on the opposing sideline.  

.

Mr Miggle

December 11th, 2017 at 9:21 AM ^

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/dec/10/top-washington-state-recei…

His star receiver is from Florida, in fact both of those WRs went to the same HS. The player said he wanted to transfer to be closer to family. He has two children there. Leach cut him from the team and restricted him from transferring to any division 1 school in Florida. He also dismissed the idea that it's hard to travel across the country for school.

This happened around the time when Mike Leach was negotiating with Tennessee. If true, he's truly the worst of the worst. I can see why Tennessee fired their AD for trying to hire him. 

His leading receiver's name is T. Martin. An odd coincidence for a coach who had just lost out on the job in Knoxville.

Perkis-Size Me

December 11th, 2017 at 9:24 AM ^

Luke Falk is still around so he's still got a good chance of doing some real damage on MSU's shaky secondary. They're nowhere near as good as a vintage MSU secondary from the last 4-5 years. 

That being said, I still think MSU weasels its way into winning this game in the manner that they always win these games: an ugly slopfest where they bring their opponent down to their level, play at a very meh, uninspiring level for 3 to 3.5 quarters, and then Lewerke leads some ridiculous game-winning drive where he converts two huge third downs, and scores a game winning TD with 35 seconds left. 

There's nothing wrong with bringing an opponent down to your level. It's how teams with inferior talent win these kinds of games. But son of a bitch does Dantonio just know how to close.