Story time: How UW fucked up the 2021 class (Long)
To my surprise it wasn't the lazy coach hires, the disappointing 2019 season, or even the uncertainty of Lake as a first time head coach. He pinpointed the biggest reason was the removal of Cooper Petagna and promotion of Justin Glenn as the director of recruiting. Cooper came from a strong pedigree with experience at Alabama, LSU, and Michigan before joining UW in 2018. Extremely detail oriented, organized, and a key contributor in building up the UW recruiting machine (yes, the type of guy I want to fuck my daughter, ISANFRC). His role was behind the scenes (social media engagement and marketing strategy, targeted communication with recruits, getting administrative items sorted out, managing communication with high schools and coaches, etc) and he wasn't allowed to have direct communication with recruits except on OVs.
Why the change? Lake wanted to distance himself from the CP "OKG" brand and thought it would be a good move to install a former player with more passion and energy as the face of the recruiting team. Glenn is popular within the program but he absolutely did not have the experience or skillset to run the entire recruiting operation. Lake was semi aware of this but assumed the recruiting assistants would help hold his hand as he grew into the position. That backfired when Cooper poached his top assistant who joined him at Oregon.
So even before COVID hit, the recruiting department was going into the critical 2021 cycle in a state of flux without an experienced leader in charge. When COVID shut everything down UW was caught with their pants down and had no idea how to pivot. Meanwhile Cooper took his methodical approach to Eugene and paired with the Oregon marketing machine they signed the best class in school history despite a 4-3 season. It's not a coincidence that for the first time in a while Oregon beat UW in head to head recruiting battles (Franklin, Moliki, Walden, etc).
Overall he's heard that in a normal year Glenn's inexperience probably wouldn't have had such an impact but it was a tough spot for someone brand new to the job to be in. It was unfair to Glenn because Lake put him in a position where he wasn't qualified for and was setup to fail. Things should improve going forward but it was still an incredibly risky and boneheaded decision. I have no reason to think my source made any of this shit up and it was obvious someone within the program fed him this info.
TL:DR Lake's questionable personnel decisions extended to off the field positions too. Firing Cooper and promoting Glenn helped torpedo the 2021 class. Lake's poor judgement should be a major concern to fans until proven otherwise.
Comments
-
Slick jimmy does it againinsinceredawg said:First weekend of indoor dining reopening and I immediately ditched the wife and kids at home to get shitfaced at the closest watering hole. Ran into an old acquaintance who is dialed into the local HS football scene and also has some contacts within the UW football department. He had some interesting insight into what he's heard was the main driver behind the underwhelming 2021 recruiting class.
To my surprise it wasn't the lazy coach hires, the disappointing 2019 season, or even the uncertainty of Lake as a first time head coach. He pinpointed the biggest reason was the removal of Cooper Petagna and promotion of Justin Glenn as the director of recruiting. Cooper came from a strong pedigree with experience at Alabama, LSU, and Michigan before joining UW in 2018. Extremely detail oriented, organized, and a key contributor in building up the UW recruiting machine (yes, the type of guy I want to fuck my daughter, ISANFRC). His role was behind the scenes (social media engagement and marketing strategy, targeted communication with recruits, getting administrative items sorted out, managing communication with high schools and coaches, etc) and he wasn't allowed to have direct communication with recruits except on OVs.
Why the change? Lake wanted to distance himself from the CP "OKG" brand and thought it would be a good move to install a former player with more passion and energy as the face of the recruiting team. Glenn is popular within the program but he absolutely did not have the experience or skillset to run the entire recruiting operation. Lake was semi aware of this but assumed the recruiting assistants would help hold his hand as he grew into the position. That backfired when Cooper poached his top assistant who joined him at Oregon.
So even before COVID hit, the recruiting department was going into the critical 2021 cycle in a state of flux without an experienced leader in charge. When COVID shut everything down UW was caught with their pants down and had no idea how to pivot. Meanwhile Cooper took his methodical approach to Eugene and paired with the Oregon marketing machine they signed the best class in school history despite a 4-3 season. It's not a coincidence that for the first time in a while Oregon beat UW in head to head recruiting battles (Franklin, Moliki, Walden, etc).
Overall he's heard that in a normal year Glenn's inexperience probably wouldn't have had such an impact but it was a tough spot for someone brand new to the job to be in. It was unfair to Glenn because Lake put him in a position where he wasn't qualified for and was setup to fail. Things should improve going forward but it was still an incredibly risky and boneheaded decision. I have no reason to think my source made any of this shit up and it was obvious someone within the program fed him this info.
TL:DR Lake's questionable personnel decisions extended to off the field positions too. Firing Cooper and promoting Glenn helped torpedo the 2021 class. Lake's poor judgement should be a major concern to fans until proven otherwise. -
Yet another entry on a long list of evidence of Jimmy being a shitty CEO.
As for Petagna, I suppose we should be thankful that he recently left Oregon. -
Nobody seems to have any answers why Cooper left Oregon. Seemed pretty broad, "pursue other opportunities". Was he fired from Oregon?
-
Apparently the recruiting assistant he took with him to Oregon just got poached by Avalos to be the director of recruiting for Boise. We? might start losing recruiting battles to G5 schools if Lake doesn't turn things around.GreenRiverGatorz said:Yet another entry on a long list of evidence of Jimmy being a shitty CEO.
As for Petagna, I suppose we should be thankful that he recently left Oregon. -
Top 20 class
-
Pac 12 North Champs
-
But is something brewing?
-
So Glen couldn’t figure out how to use excel and outlook reminders along with social media to create a “drip” style recruiting effort with individual players.
What a fucking idiot.
Lake, you’re dumb as fuck as well.
They could’ve plucked a single half intelligent student intern who would’ve easily had a sound, and easy to execute, strategy. Christ I would’ve done it for free and it would’ve been damn good and I’m half retarded. -
Seems like this could be what was the difference between UW having a fine class, borderline Top 20 class, and what it became. Being able to bring in JTT and/or Emeka with Huard was really what the class was all about and I just don't think this affected that - though I'm sure it didn't help. What it did seem to affect were those high/mid-four-star type guys they needed to fill out the class who they had been getting in recent cycles. Worse yet, most of those guys signed with Oregon.
-
The disorganized mess of the recruiting operation may have not had a direct impact on the JTT and EE recruitments but I'm sure the overall lack of buzz around recruiting and the underwhelming class was turned them off. If UW entered December with 10-12 4*s committed I think JTT and EE would have had a completely different perspective about UW. Recruiting is all about perception and sales.WoolleyDoog said:Seems like this could be what was the difference between UW having a fine class, borderline Top 20 class, and what it became. Being able to bring in JTT and/or Emeka with Huard was really what the class was all about and I just don't think this affected that - though I'm sure it didn't help. What it did seem to affect were those high/mid-four-star type guys they needed to fill out the class who they had been getting in recent cycles. Worse yet, most of those guys signed with Oregon.
-
I think this is right. Trying to make sense of JTT's supposed very serious with Oregon, I think them signing such a highly-rated class around him should he sign has to make a difference when explaining away why a team that lost to the Beav, got choked out by Cal, and got body slammed off the top rope by Iowa State is a national title contender in reasoning that they will be a better team when this Top 5 class is on the field while UW's 13-man low-rated class is a major question mark. My thing with that though is if either of those guys are the level of recruit they are projected to be the three classes signed ahead of them are probably more important to them than the class they sign in since those are the guys they will actually be playing with outside of any other player on their level that signs in their class, which I don't think any Pac-12 team other than USC with Foreman, signed this year.insinceredawg said:
The disorganized mess of the recruiting operation may have not had a direct impact on the JTT and EE recruitments but I'm sure the overall lack of buzz around recruiting and the underwhelming class was turned them off. If UW entered December with 10-12 4*s committed I think JTT and EE would have had a completely different perspective about UW. Recruiting is all about perception and sales. -
So how many people saw the warning in the subject line that this was a "long" thread, and clicked it anticipating that there would be one sentence or a stupid gif?
-
DerekJohnson said:
So how many people saw the warning in the subject line that this was a "long" thread, and clicked it anticipating that there would be one sentence or a stupid gif?
-
While I have no doubt this info was fed to someone. What a bunch of fucking loser excuse load of shit this was. There was plenty of time to solve problems this past recruiting cycle. They started in the lead for plenty of 4 star guys they got blown out for. Fucking loser program.
-
Eli Mandel. I went to UW with him, hung out with him a bunch in the freshman dorms. He was a diehard UW fan and helped get me into following recruiting. The fact that he went to go work at Oregon was a major red flag for me, because I knew he was a big UW fan.insinceredawg said:
Apparently the recruiting assistant he took with him to Oregon just got poached by Avalos to be the director of recruiting for Boise. We? might start losing recruiting battles to G5 schools if Lake doesn't turn things around.
Had no idea he climbed up to being the director of recruiting at Boise, good for him. -
Red flag? Maybe, when you pair his move with UW’s recruiting performance this year but If you make college football your career, whatever the position, I think you take whatever job comes up. Oregon has sizzle so even a die hard UW fan/alumnus has to realize taking that job is an opportunity for career advancement. Now your friend has indeed advanced his career and taken a promotion at Boise. Does this mean Oregon is sinking? No. Absolutely not. You gotta go where the jobs are. Good on him for making savvy career moves and getting a pretty dang good job at Boise.NEsnake12 said:
Eli Mandel. I went to UW with him, hung out with him a bunch in the freshman dorms. He was a diehard UW fan and helped get me into following recruiting. The fact that he went to go work at Oregon was a major red flag for me, because I knew he was a big UW fan.
Had no idea he climbed up to being the director of recruiting at Boise, good for him. -
The last few years, recruiting buzz around UW has always at least been, well, a "buzz", a constant noise of something happening, and of exciting prospects showing interest and taking visits. Even last year, we had Jalen and co. making noise on the recruiting trail, reaching out quite visibly to fellow recruits.
It's all fallen flat in recent months. It feels like the level of excitement just isn't the same. I don't get the impression that prospects are actually all that interested in coming to play for Jimmy. You'd think his reputation for pumping out NFL-caliber DBs would at least sell that position to high-level recruits, but even there it feels like we got a base hit or two, when we should be hitting home runs.
Hopefully the on-field product improves. That's the only thing I can think of that will improve our recruiting at this point, since nothing else seems to be heading that way programmatically. -
This makes sense though I guess if there was ever a class to have misses, it was 2021 since the roster was mostly full anyway. Polk helps the Emeka miss some but Martin doesn't really help the JTT miss.
-
#GoDawgs #ScoDucks #WarEagleBCoveysLifeInsPolicy said:The last few years, recruiting buzz around UW has always at least been, well, a "buzz", a constant noise of something happening, and of exciting prospects showing interest and taking visits. Even last year, we had Jalen and co. making noise on the recruiting trail, reaching out quite visibly to fellow recruits.
It's all fallen flat in recent months. It feels like the level of excitement just isn't the same. I don't get the impression that prospects are actually all that interested in coming to play for Jimmy. You'd think his reputation for pumping out NFL-caliber DBs would at least sell that position to high-level recruits, but even there it feels like we got a base hit or two, when we should be hitting home runs.
Hopefully the on-field product improves. That's the only thing I can think of that will improve our recruiting at this point, since nothing else seems to be heading that way programmatically. -
We beat exactly one P12 North team...barely.HuskyJW said:Pac 12 North Champs
-
We played the two best North teams besides us.justthrowitinthebag said:
We beat exactly one P12 North team...barely.
Ahh man we missed shit tier cuoglet, 0-3 Cal and the quook team they beat.
Totally undeserving North champion having the best win % after conference play. -
I posted in December that I had heard from a family friend who texts with Brandon Huffman that Justin Glenn was fucking up and a primary reason for the poor recruiting. Didn’t provide nearly as much context as @insinceredawg but I was first and turns out I was RIGHT.
-
I don't want to blame Glenn because he never should have been in that position to begin with. It's the equivalent of Jimmy hiring me to be the DC. I'd have no fucking clue where to start but for that kind of coin fuck it I'll fake it til I make it. This is 100% on Jimmy. At this point I'd caution those who want KB or Will Harris fired because there's an 81% chance they'll be replaced by an unqualified intern.Edwin_Bambino said:I posted in December that I had heard from a family friend who texts with Brandon Huffman that Justin Glenn was fucking up and a primary reason for the poor recruiting. Didn’t provide nearly as much context as @insinceredawg but I was first and turns out I was RIGHT.
-
I saw Justin Glenn on twitter and I had no idea he was affiliated with UW in an official capacity. I thought he was a former player turned cringey super fan. I found out through here that he is officially involved with recruiting.
-
There's an 81% they could be outperformed by an unqualified intern.insinceredawg said:
I don't want to blame Glenn because he never should have been in that position to begin with. It's the equivalent of Jimmy hiring me to be the DC. I'd have no fucking clue where to start but for that kind of coin fuck it I'll fake it til I make it. This is 100% on Jimmy. At this point I'd caution those who want KB or Will Harris fired because there's an 81% chance they'll be replaced by an unqualified intern. -
Reminds me of something Whittingham said on the P12 network after Lake was hired. They asked Whittingham if he had any advice for Lake since Whittingham kept some of the success going at Utah after Urban Meyer - and Lake was taking over for Pete.
Whittingham said "don't change something just for the sake of changing it."
It sounds like Lake is doing exactly that. Letting his hubris think he can do things better than Pete without fully thinking through his actions.
Pete gave Lake a well-oiled machine. It was already running at near-maximum efficiency. Lake tinkered too much and fucked it all up. -
8 and 5DoogDawg said:Reminds me of something Whittingham said on the P12 network after Lake was hired. They asked Whittingham if he had any advice for Lake since Whittingham kept some of the success going at Utah after Urban Meyer - and Lake was taking over for Pete.
Whittingham said "don't change something just for the sake of changing it."
It sounds like Lake is doing exactly that. Letting his hubris think he can do things better than Pete without fully thinking through his actions.
Pete gave Lake a well-oiled machine. It was already running at near-maximum efficiency. Lake tinkered too much and fucked it all up. -
6th in the conference in 2021 class rankings despite three top 10 national players in stateRaceBannon said:
8 and 5
Back to back 21 point halftime deficits at home to unranked teams -
If 8 and 5 was a smooth running machine Jimmy has nothing to worry about
-
7-6, 7-6, 7-6 was an effective argument due to the sustained mediocrity. You had a significant sample of Sark- he was who we thought he was.RaceBannon said:If 8 and 5 was a smooth running machine Jimmy has nothing to worry about
8-5 is not a great argument since it was preceded by 12-2, 10-3, 10-4.
