5 first-year college football head coaches who’ll contend in 2020
By Nick Fiore
5. Nick Rolovich, Washington State
A very interesting shift will be going down in Pullman this season. After the last eight seasons with Mike Leach running the show with his air-raid offense, Nick Rolovich is coming to town and bringing his run-and-shoot offense.
The schemes between Rolovich’s system and Leach’s air raid aren’t that different. The run-and-shoot implements a lot of pre-snap motion by the receivers looking to get favorable matchups, similar to how the air-raid stretches the defense giving receivers advantages in certain matchups. Both favor the pass.
In 2019, Washington State passed the ball on 77.92 percent of plays while Hawaii passed on 61.49 percent of plays, as both were top five pass-heavy offenses in the country. So the offense won’t be changing too much overall.
Rolovich had his most successful season last season, winning the Mountain West coach of the year award and leading the Rainbow Warriors to a division title. Some people might think Washington State is going to really suffer without Leach but I don’t think that’s necessarily the case.
The Hawaii and Washington State programs are pretty similar; they both aren’t funded at high levels like other Power Five programs and have a geographical disadvantage in regards to recruiting.
If Rolovich was able to succeed at Hawaii, I think he’ll be able to continue that in Pullman.
With Anthony Gordon gone, there’s gonna be a competition at quarterback. Redshirt sophomore Cammon Cooper will be competing with freshmen Gunner Cruz and Jayden de Laura for the starting spot.
Max Borghi led the team in rushing yards and receptions last year. He’ll have more rushing attempts and will still be used in the screen game a ton. Expect him to put up big numbers.
Implementing a new offense, even if it’s similar, is never easy and it will be especially difficult this year with the lack of spring practices. I don’t expect the Cougars to compete for the Pac-12 this year but I really do like the hiring of Rolovich and think he’s a great fit for this program.