Jimmy Rogers wanted to explain his exit from Washington State, but the explanation only seemed to stir up more doubt.
Last week, Rogers spent time talking about how players chase money and bigger opportunities. This week, the question came back to him: what makes a coach any different, especially after he went from South Dakota State to Washington State and then from Washington State to Iowa State in just 11 months?
“When I decided to leave my alma mater, which was extremely hard for me, what was told to me wasn't also true when I showed up," Rogers said. "It was significantly different, and they fired the people that hired me.”
Anne McCoy, the athletic director who hired Rogers, was fired last November. Kirk Schulz was still the Washington State president when Rogers was hired, though Schulz had already announced his retirement five months earlier and simply left sooner than planned. But the idea that McCoy’s firing was the reason Rogers left doesn’t hold up.
If Rogers expected more support in NIL, that part is easy enough to understand. Washington State was clearly behind in that area.
In fact, the new president, Betsy Cantwell, fired McCoy for not moving the needle. That hardly sounds like a leader who wanted to leave Rogers stranded.
Money problems at Washington State weren’t new, either. They’ve been part of the program for decades. Rogers, for his part, had said during his short time in Pullman that he wasn’t going to complain about what Washington State didn’t have and would instead focus on what it did.
Still, it takes more than one firing to sell the idea that Rogers was blindsided into leaving. Anyone buying that story probably also has some ocean-front property in Kahlotus to consider.
The Iowa State move was always going to be the destination. Rogers said Tuesday that he “wasn't thinking anything like this would happen,” when asked about the opening in Ames, but the breadcrumbs were there.
Iowa State AD Jamie Pollard, in a moment he may regret, helped make that clear. Eugene Rapay of the Des Moines Register reported that Pollard said Rogers asked him back when he was at South Dakota State what it would take to someday become the Cyclones’ head coach. Pollard told him to get to the FBS level, and the two stayed in close contact.
Rogers was also known to text Pollard before Cougar games.
That’s why the attempt to frame Washington State as some sort of detour feels off. Rogers was always trying to get to the next stop, and for him that stop was Iowa State - first at South Dakota State, then at Washington State.
Pollard is gone now, too. He just retired, which means the athletic director who hired Rogers at his last two stops is no longer there. If that becomes a problem, the new Iowa State AD may be the one left to deal with it.
For now, Iowa State sits at 3-4, with Eric Morris - Rogers’ nemesis - and No. 24 Oklahoma State coming up this week.
For Washington State fans, Rogers’ comments land the way you’d expect: not as a clean explanation, but as another reason to roll their eyes. His talk about loyalty and circumstances rings hollow to plenty of Cougs.
There was, though, one line from Rogers’ final meeting with Washington State players that rings true. He told them, “You can have two responses: you can either enjoy the time we had together, or you can say f*** this guy.”
Based on the reaction around Pullman, plenty of them would pick the second option.
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