Nick Rolovich Talks QB Jayden de Laura DUI Incident: 'He Knows He Made a Mistake'
Washington State quarterback Jayden de Laura was arrested back in February in Pullman, Washington on suspicion of driving under the influence. According to police, de Laura was pulled over at 2:13 a.m. after driving through a stop sign and subsequently driving the wrong way.
The Hawaiian native had an exciting first season with the Cougars, earning the starting role as a freshman. He appeared in four games and went 78-of-129 (60.5%) for 886 yards and five touchdowns. Prior to the incident, it was a general consensus that de Laura would return for his sophomore season as Washington State's leading gunslinger. However, his accident created uncertainty on if he would ever lead the Cougars once again.
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Following the arrest, de Laura was placed on a suspension and did not participate in spring camp. According to head coach Nick Rolovich, de Laura will get the opportunity to participate in fall camp, and compete for the QB1 role this fall.
"I think Jayden will I think definitely say he knows he made a mistake," Rolovich said during media availability at Pac-12 Media Day.
"But when that happened, I said, Jayden, this mistake will not decide your career. How you approach after this mistake will probably determine a good portion of your career. He got his head down, worked on his academics. I know it hurt him not to be in spring ball. It hurt us, right, not having a guy who has taken some game reps in the system being out there," said Rolovich. "I just felt for the betterment of that young man and his future and his ability to help us in the future, you know, it was the right punishment to make sure he understood the severity of his decisions."
Rolovich went on to say, "I'm excited to see what he can do in this competition as we enter fall camp. But I'm proud of him for fighting through. That's not easy with media scrutiny or social media or those things. He seems to be on the right track, not that he was off the tracks, he just made a bad decision. I'm sure it matured him. I'm sure of that. And listen, we all make mistakes."
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According to Rolovich, Pac-12 teams just might see de Laura out on the football field as in 2021. Rolovich also mentioned that de Laura is on the 'right track' after the accident.
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