The debut of head coach Nick Rolovich in Pullman was more of a slippery stumble into the water instead of a cannonball splash, but in his defense, the former Hawai’i leader and Oregon State-hater should be given some slack. The Cougars hopped into 2020 with confusion at the quarterback spot, played most of the year without their top talent in running back Max Borghi and knew they needed to reworked a whole defensive unit across the board.
The problem is that besides Borghi returning to the mix, most of 2021’s issues look to be the same.
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Starting with the defense, the Cougars are incredibly top-heavy with linebacker Jahad Woods being good enough to start for anyone in the league, but the rest of the crew performing as a spotty bunch.