What we know about Nick Rolovich’s stance on #WeAreUnited and the situation with Kassidy Woods

It was an eventful Sunday for the Pac-12, and especially for the Washington State Cougars football program.

Let’s start at the top with the #WeAreUnited campaign a number of Pac-12 football players launched Sunday morning.

Jeff covered more of the details, as well as how some Cougars are participating. While details of the players’ push for fair treatment were fresh off the press, another layer to the story began to circulate on Twitter, tied to how WSU was handling players involved in #WeAreUnited.

There was a lot of back and forth and several deleted Tweets, but here is the high-level view of the situation, as best as I can tell.

• WSU wide receiver Kassidy Woods is opting out of the 2020 season due to concerns about COVID-19 and his health.
• WSU and head coach Nick Rolovich have accepted that decision, and Woods will remain on scholarship for 2020.
• Woods’ status with the team, and scholarship, beyond 2020 remains unclear.
• The uncertain status for Woods, and potentially other players, is tied for their involvement in #WeAreUnited, which Rolovich implied that WSU is not supportive of.

Jonah Javad, a sports anchor in Dallas (Woods is from Texas), spoke with the Woods family and shared more details.

And more from Theo Lawson of the Spokesman Review:

It turns out that the recording of the call was posted to SoundCloud, and it was transcribed by The Dallas Morning News. You can read the whole thing, but this is the relevant portion:

WSU has not issued any official comment on the situation.

Let’s first start with whether WSU and Nick Rolovich are “cutting” players who participate in #WeAreUnited. I put the word “cutting” in quotes, because that is a point of discrepancy. There were some initial tweets, including one from Washington football player Ty Jones, that said WSU had cut players participating.

Jones would later delete that Tweet.

Again, WSU has not refuted or commented on anything officially. But, multiple members of the media — both local and national — tweeted this sentiment, which was likely flowing through the school’s sports information department.

It does not appear any players have been “cut” in the traditional sense where they would immediately lose their scholarship. Their long-term future and status with the team beyond this year, however, doesn’t appear to be clear either. Woods has said his scholarship situation is unclear beyond this season, so while he may not have been cut, he also isn’t given the same assurances most players receive when they sign with a school — even if most scholarships are technically year-to-year.

That said, the much bigger issue here is Rolovich’s and WSU’s stance on players participating in #WeAreUnited moving forward.

Opt out of the season because of concerns about COVID, no problem. Participate in #WeAreUnited and all of a sudden a player’s current and long-term status seems to be in question. Four-year scholarships are quickly becoming wait and see, should you advocate for yourself as a player.

There will be a lot more to come as the #WeAreUnited movement unfolds. Hopefully for Rolovich and WSU, they handle the next stages of the process a lot better than they handled this.

*****

Football:

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