Washington State Head Coach Jimmy Rogers: “We have an opportunity” against Oregon State
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For Oregon State & Washington State, Saturday’s rematch on the Palouse marks the regular-season finale for both schools. For the Cougars, it also marks the approach of a deadline: it is their last opportunity to reach bowl eligibility. While that weighed on his mind, Washington State head coach Jimmy Rogers spoke with the media yesterday. This piece offers highlights from that conversation.
Washington State head coach Jimmy Rogers on the state of his program
“Well, to recap Saturday’s loss: disappointing loss. It felt a little bit like Groundhog Day in the sense of being so close versus really good teams. That JMU [James Madison] team is a really good football team. We hung with them the whole game, and a game that we should have won, and we believe that that’s four games now where we’ve lost by a total point differential of twelve points, three of those teams being ranked. One of those teams, we’re going to have another opportunity at this week. So that was kind of my messaging to the team this morning: we have another opportunity at a team that we lost to, that we felt like we could have surely beat, and we didn’t take advantage of it.”
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Washington State head coach Jimmy Rogers on stopping Anthony Hankerson
“Yeah, I think tackling in space, setting edges on defense, making sure that we are physical up front and control the line of scrimmage, all things that I would say every week that its important to stop a great running back. I thought the running back from last week [the James Madison game] was really good. Going into the half, we had kind of held their whole offense in check, and it only takes one play for a great player to make a play. It’s the same thing this week. They have talent. They play hard. They do a good job up front and we’ve got to make sure that we’re not taking anybody for granted or checking out because we got a game to finish, and I do believe in finishing. As much as it may not seem like I put emphasis on that, we break everything down on focus, finish. Since we started here, we have an opportunity to be bowl eligible. We’ve been competitive against a lot of really good teams. There is no out. We’ve lost, and we got to find ways to win, and that’s on me and the staff, and the players buying into it, regardless of the record itself.”
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Washington State head coach Jimmy Rogers on playing in close games
“...You know, nobody can judge how hard we play. You turn on the film, you can’t say that we don’t play hard and we haven’t been physical. Outside of two games, the U Dub [Washington] game got away from us late, we were competitive in that, we’re a really talented team. North Texas, that was the game that just fell apart on us. Then the four other games, three of those teams are ranked, and we just didn’t come out and play well verse Oregon State. Would I love to have those games back? Absolutely. Is it frustration? Everybody could say, well, you know, we should have won, or if we could have won one of those games, but I can’t live in the past. I can just control how we move, and the thought process of having the right mindset moving into the future.”
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Matt fell in love with radio during his college days at Oregon Tech, and pursued a nine year career in sports broadcasting with Klamath Falls' and Medford's highest-rated sports radio stations. He currently lives in McMinnville wine country and is excited to talk about the Beavers again.