What we learned from UW’s Jimmy Lake, WSU’s Nick Rolovich during the Pac-12 media webinar
With most teams preparing to launch their training camp practices, the Pac-12 held a media webinar with all 12 head coaches on Wednesday.
In a makeshift media day, each coach held a 30-minute video call with reporters. Washington had coach Jimmy Lake and Washington State head coach Nick Rolovich each took their turns early in the afternoon.
Here are some takeaways from those sessions:
Early kickoff times
Lake and Rolovich disagreed on the Pac-12 implementing 9 a.m. PT kickoff times. The first game of the Pac-12 season — Arizona State at USC — will start on Nov. 7 at 9 a.m. Presumably, more 9 a.m. games will be announced at a later date.
Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said last year the conference considered 9 a.m. kickoffs to increase visibly on the East Coast. Several coaches opposed the idea, and there were no early-morning kickoffs during the 2019 season.
That will change during a 2020 season that was shortened to seven games. Count Lake among the coaches who sees the virtues of morning kickoffs.
“I see a lot of positives in it,” Lake said. “I used to live on the East Coast, and it is hard to watch West Coast games because the times are just so different. We’re fortunate on the West Coast that we get to watch all the games at a decent time and at a decent hour.
“I don’t mind the 9 o’clock games at all. I think they’ll be great. They’ll be great for the Pac-12. They’ll be great for the East Coast teams and the media and the fans and the other football coaches across the country to be able to watch what an exciting and talented conference the Pac-12 is. I’m excited about it.”
Rolovich isn’t as thrilled, and he’s not the only one. During his session, Stanford head coach David Shaw cited the early mornings and resulting lack of sleep for college students who will struggle to go to bed early.
“I’m not necessarily a fan,” Rolovich said, “especially with the new (COVID-19) testing we have to get done. I know we possibly can do that at night. I’m not sure where that deal is at. But you’re talking about having the pregame meal at 5 a.m. I get it where it could help for TV. But as far as the kids, I’m not sure that’s the best thing we want to do. I wouldn’t necessarily be a fan of it.”
Pac-12 in the CFP?
Lake has a whole plan, and he’ll gladly tell you the details.
He thinks there should be a six-team College Football Playoff with the Power Five conference champions and a final spot reserved for an independent team, a Group of Five representative or an exceptional second-place team from a Power Five conference. The teams would be seeded, with the top two seeds earning a bye. The winners of the opening games — No. 3 vs. No 6; No. 4 vs. No. 5 — would move on to the final four.
“You take all the subjectivity out of it, all the politics, the East Coast (bias), all of it,” Lake said. “Let the champions move on. Let the teams play and we’ll see who the best team is at the end of the year.”
With the help of his oldest son, Lake went back and worked out what the seeds and match-ups would have been for each year of the CFP era. In 2018, UW would have played Notre Dame.
Are you sold yet?
Even though Lake believes 2020 would be the perfect time to implement his plan, the chances of that happening are microscopic. Stiil, Lake believes a Pac-12 champion could make an appearance in a four-game CFP. The conference is not only starting later than the rest of the Power Five but also playing just seven games.
“I think the Pac-12 champion should definitely end up in the playoff if somebody goes 7-0 or 6-1,” Lake said. “I think you also have to pay attention to how we’re playing and watch those games close. I see a bunch of teams ranked right now that gave up 60, 62 points on defense. I don’t know how if you’re a voter and you still rank them in the top 25 with their defense giving up points like a basketball game. These guys got to watch the games.
“For the most part, I know the committee does a really fantastic job since the thing began back in 2014. If they watch one of our teams go through the conference … and go undefeated or one loss and they look good doing it, we deserve to be in that discussion to be in the CFP.”
Rolovich, who said the Pac-12 “did the right thing” by postponing the season and then choosing a November start date, admitted he hasn’t spent much time thinking about it. But he did agree with Lake on at least one point.
“If somebody runs through it, I think people would want to see (them) in the playoffs,” Rolovich said. “It’s 2020. It’s different.”
Opportunity knocking
Since the NCAA decided to freeze eligibility for the 2020 season, athletes on fall sports rosters across the country won’t lose a season no matter how much they play.
Lake said it will give teams more flexibility in terms of getting players on the field.
“I think we’ll definitely use that resource here, especially with the coronavirus,” he said. “Maybe having a few guys who are out for contact tracing and now they’re sitting for two days or maybe they’re unfortunate enough to have the virus and they have to sit out.
“I think that’s going to be a great resource for not only us but the whole country to use our players so we don’t put our guys at risk of injury by taking too many reps. It’s a great decision by the NCAA, and we’ll definitely use that at Washington.”
The frozen eligibility is just another unusual element of the 2020 season. Rolovich believes the oddities can favor teams like Washington State, which was picked to finish last in the Pac-12 North. There already have been a series of upsets in the early part of the college football season.
“Everyone’s had an abnormal prep in whatever ways they had to deal with,” Rolovich said. “This is an opportunity for us to jump in and make some real noise. I see this as a real opportunity. I didn’t necessarily want to take that stance publicly with you guys, but I’ve already done that.
“For our guys, it’s 60 minutes of football. Everyone is getting the same amount of training camp. There’s six or seven games. It’s about who gets hot and who stays together and who gets hot early on and who stays on a roll. Who knows what can happen? It’s going to be a short season.”
Lake on coaches of color
Arizona State recently released a study that shows Black men have a more difficult path to becoming college head football coaches than white men, even when they have more playing and coaching experience.
The study showed that over the past 10 seasons, just 24 of 111 (21.6%) Power Five head coaching hires were people of color. Of those, 21 were Black and three were Latino.
Lake, who is the second Black coach in UW history, was asked about the study. He had this to say:
“I’ve discussed this with a lot of coaches in the past few years. The first thing we have to do is we have to get more coordinators, offensive coordinators and defensive coordinators of color across the country. As soon as we get to that model, I think we’ll start to see more candidates that can go and interview for head jobs and be successful. … You look across the country and there are not a lot of coordinators that are minorities and not a lot of position coaches coaching running backs, wide receivers, O-line, D-line that widen and accelerate and go up to becoming head football coaches. If we can get more coordinators across the country, I think that’s going to help the low levels of head coaches of color.”
Extra points
▪ UW was picked to finish third in the Pac-12 North by the media with 161 points. Oregon (222 points, 35 first-place votes) was chosen to win the division followed by Cal (176, 3). Stanford was picked fourth (105) followed by Oregon State (76) and Washington State (58), respectively.
▪ USC was picked to win the South with 220 points and 32 first-place votes followed by Arizona State (181, 2). Utah was picked third (168, 4). UCLA (109), Colorado (63) and Arizona (57) rounded out the South.
▪ Oregon was chosen to win the championship game with 21 votes. USC got 15 votes.
▪ Lake said the Pac-12 will decide whether schools will have noise pumped into the stadiums like NFL teams and several college programs are doing. The decision will be conference-wide and won’t change school to school.
This story was originally published October 7, 2020 at 3:55 PM.
