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Caple's piece in the Athletic:
Last season represented something foreign. McClatcher had broken his ankle and torn his ACL during his junior season in 2017, then rehabbed like crazy to make it back in time for his senior season. It’s fair now to wonder if he could have benefited from a longer recovery time. He didn’t look right. He says now that he didn’t feel right, either, though he stops short of concluding that he wasn’t fully healthy. Regardless, his game lacked the electricity that made him such a coveted prospect and valuable player, and his confidence plummeted.
The Huskies still ran a few plays for him each game, seemingly in an attempt to get him going again, but those opportunities only wrought more frustration. There was a dropped pass against Arizona State … a fumbled punt late in a victory over BYU … a fumble against Colorado that went through the end zone as he tried to score.
The latter effectively ended his season. It might have ended his career, under different circumstances. McClatcher was done with football, he told coach Chris Petersen the following week. It wasn’t fun anymore and he just wanted to get away. McClatcher said recently that he also was dealing with “personal things,” which may have played a bigger role than some realized. But Petersen knew McClatcher would regret it forever if he walked away.
So he didn’t let him.
“ ‘Cheek, you’re not quitting,’ ” Petersen recalled telling him. “ ‘Go do what you need to do.’ ”
Instead of giving up the game, McClatcher took a leave of absence — with Petersen’s support and approval — that lasted the rest of the season.
Worried that he was trying to come back too soon after injury, McClatcher’s mom, Kam Warner, tried to convince him before the season to take it slow, and give his leg more time to heal before returning to the field.
McClatcher is quiet, and he doesn’t often communicate his feelings or emotions. So his leave took Warner by surprise, even if she could sense things “coming to a head,” as she put it.
At first, she was shocked, even disappointed, that McClatcher was willing to walk away from all the work he had put in to get to where he was. “He’s got to adjust to adversity,” she thought. “He’s having a hard time. This is life. Don’t quit on yourself.” But as the weeks wore on, she backed off. They stopped talking about football, she said, which was her way of “taking the mom pressure off.”
Aside from not attending practices or meetings, McClatcher said life during his leave of absence was more or less normal.
“Honestly, I was just kicking it with my family and my friends, really,” he said, adding that he still watched film while he was away. “I was training at the same time. Focusing on school. I was being a student and everything. Just the regular, aside from football. I was just chillin’.”
UW’s patience and understanding during that time did not go unnoticed by those close to McClatcher.
“They got him resources. They didn’t quit on him,” Meagher said. “They knew what he was going through. They got him to be able to see some people and get some things figured out in his world, and extended the opportunity to continue his schooling and his football career there. I don’t know that all schools would do that.”
They had spoken over the phone after he took his leave, but it wasn’t until McClatcher’s graduation party, in June, that Meagher finally had a chance to speak with him in person. The occasion itself was significant enough that Meagher repeats himself: “He graduated from UW, which is a huge, huge accomplishment for Chico. A game-changer. I’m so super-proud of him for that.” Meagher remembers how McClatcher struggled to qualify academically out of high school and how hard he worked to achieve the needed ACT score to get in.
McClatcher is proud of himself, too, even if he isn’t the type to boast out loud. “He still has his cap and gown plastered in his room,” Warner said. “I think I underestimated how much of an accomplishment that was in his mind.”
The hiring of new receivers coach Junior Adams should help. Warner isn’t sure McClatcher had the same relationship with former position coach Matt Lubick that he did with offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan, who coached receivers in 2017. But McClatcher and Adams have history: Adams recruited him out of high school, first to Eastern Washington, then to Boise State. McClatcher considered Boise until receiving an offer from UW, informing Adams the day he was scheduled for an in-home visit that, uh, you know what, we might have to cancel that one.
“It stabbed me in the heart,” Adams recalled with a smile, “because I’d known the kid since he was in ninth grade. It’s a pleasure to be around ‘Cheek.’ Life comes full circle sometimes.”
So it is that McClatcher finds himself atop the depth chart as Washington enters the 2019 season. He looks strong and fast these days, making tough catches in traffic and accelerating with the kind of burst that was absent a year ago. He has goals for his senior year, though he doesn’t want to say what they are.
Warner prefers not to think that far ahead. Her son is healthy again, and he is happy, and he is feeling like himself. That’s enough. She knows what it took for him to get back to this point, and would hate for him to feel like anything that happens on the field could detract from that.
“Anything else is just icing on the cake,” she said. “He got through it. He made it out the other side.”
Last season represented something foreign. McClatcher had broken his ankle and torn his ACL during his junior season in 2017, then rehabbed like crazy to make it back in time for his senior season. It’s fair now to wonder if he could have benefited from a longer recovery time. He didn’t look right. He says now that he didn’t feel right, either, though he stops short of concluding that he wasn’t fully healthy. Regardless, his game lacked the electricity that made him such a coveted prospect and valuable player, and his confidence plummeted.
The Huskies still ran a few plays for him each game, seemingly in an attempt to get him going again, but those opportunities only wrought more frustration. There was a dropped pass against Arizona State … a fumbled punt late in a victory over BYU … a fumble against Colorado that went through the end zone as he tried to score.
The latter effectively ended his season. It might have ended his career, under different circumstances. McClatcher was done with football, he told coach Chris Petersen the following week. It wasn’t fun anymore and he just wanted to get away. McClatcher said recently that he also was dealing with “personal things,” which may have played a bigger role than some realized. But Petersen knew McClatcher would regret it forever if he walked away.
So he didn’t let him.
“ ‘Cheek, you’re not quitting,’ ” Petersen recalled telling him. “ ‘Go do what you need to do.’ ”
Instead of giving up the game, McClatcher took a leave of absence — with Petersen’s support and approval — that lasted the rest of the season.
Worried that he was trying to come back too soon after injury, McClatcher’s mom, Kam Warner, tried to convince him before the season to take it slow, and give his leg more time to heal before returning to the field.
McClatcher is quiet, and he doesn’t often communicate his feelings or emotions. So his leave took Warner by surprise, even if she could sense things “coming to a head,” as she put it.
At first, she was shocked, even disappointed, that McClatcher was willing to walk away from all the work he had put in to get to where he was. “He’s got to adjust to adversity,” she thought. “He’s having a hard time. This is life. Don’t quit on yourself.” But as the weeks wore on, she backed off. They stopped talking about football, she said, which was her way of “taking the mom pressure off.”
Aside from not attending practices or meetings, McClatcher said life during his leave of absence was more or less normal.
“Honestly, I was just kicking it with my family and my friends, really,” he said, adding that he still watched film while he was away. “I was training at the same time. Focusing on school. I was being a student and everything. Just the regular, aside from football. I was just chillin’.”
UW’s patience and understanding during that time did not go unnoticed by those close to McClatcher.
“They got him resources. They didn’t quit on him,” Meagher said. “They knew what he was going through. They got him to be able to see some people and get some things figured out in his world, and extended the opportunity to continue his schooling and his football career there. I don’t know that all schools would do that.”
They had spoken over the phone after he took his leave, but it wasn’t until McClatcher’s graduation party, in June, that Meagher finally had a chance to speak with him in person. The occasion itself was significant enough that Meagher repeats himself: “He graduated from UW, which is a huge, huge accomplishment for Chico. A game-changer. I’m so super-proud of him for that.” Meagher remembers how McClatcher struggled to qualify academically out of high school and how hard he worked to achieve the needed ACT score to get in.
McClatcher is proud of himself, too, even if he isn’t the type to boast out loud. “He still has his cap and gown plastered in his room,” Warner said. “I think I underestimated how much of an accomplishment that was in his mind.”
The hiring of new receivers coach Junior Adams should help. Warner isn’t sure McClatcher had the same relationship with former position coach Matt Lubick that he did with offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan, who coached receivers in 2017. But McClatcher and Adams have history: Adams recruited him out of high school, first to Eastern Washington, then to Boise State. McClatcher considered Boise until receiving an offer from UW, informing Adams the day he was scheduled for an in-home visit that, uh, you know what, we might have to cancel that one.
“It stabbed me in the heart,” Adams recalled with a smile, “because I’d known the kid since he was in ninth grade. It’s a pleasure to be around ‘Cheek.’ Life comes full circle sometimes.”
So it is that McClatcher finds himself atop the depth chart as Washington enters the 2019 season. He looks strong and fast these days, making tough catches in traffic and accelerating with the kind of burst that was absent a year ago. He has goals for his senior year, though he doesn’t want to say what they are.
Warner prefers not to think that far ahead. Her son is healthy again, and he is happy, and he is feeling like himself. That’s enough. She knows what it took for him to get back to this point, and would hate for him to feel like anything that happens on the field could detract from that.
“Anything else is just icing on the cake,” she said. “He got through it. He made it out the other side.”