COMMENTARY: How many Cougs will play in the Holiday Bowl?

Washington State coach Jake Dickert did not have a direct answer when asked how many players he expected to have suited up for the Holiday Bowl.

“All the guys that are there, willing and able will be out there,” Dickert said Monday. “We’re excited about playing a really good Syracuse football team.”

The Cougars (8-4) will face No. 21 Syracuse (9-3) of the Atlantic Coast Conference at 5 p.m. Dec. 27 in the DirectTV Holiday Bowl at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego. Fox will broadcast the game.

Dickert avoided a direct answer to an exact figure of players’ who may suit up versus players who may opt out of the bowl game largely because he does not know.

And with the transfer portal opening on Monday bringing with it a slew of opportunities and distractions, the players themselves may not have made up their minds yet.

The Holiday Bowl could feature an intriguing quarterback matchup as WSU QB John Mateer led the nation in total touchdowns with 44 (29 passing, 15 rushing) and Syracuse signal-caller Kyle McCord is the nation’s leading passer with 4,326 yards.

However, whether the QBs will play in the game remains to be seen.

Following a record-breaking season, Mateer could choose to transfer. Other schools have reportedly made million-dollar offers to the third-year Coug from Little Elm, Texas, while the Cougar Collective — WSU’s name, image and likeness organization run by alumni and fans — is working to put together an offer to keep Mateer in Pullman.

McCord, who transferred to Syracuse from Ohio State, had said prior to the bowl participant announcement that he could opt out to prepare for the NFL draft, however, Syracuse coach Fred Brown said on Monday that he expects McCord to play in the game.

Mateer was present at WSU’s Friday practice, its first since losing 15-14 to Wyoming on Nov. 30.

Following the Cougars’ Friday practice, Dickert spoke candidly about WSU’s efforts to retain Mateer and other players who may transfer.

“We show them why they should be here, we show them our developmental process, we build those relationships. But it’s just tough at the end of the day when you find a kid, you offer them and you’re the only big school to do that, once you develop them people come down and do some things with that,” Dickert said. “We’re just in a weird place with college football. It’s not just happening to us. It’s happening to everybody else in the country.”

Dickert said his pitch to players considering transferring is based on the brotherhood and culture of the Cougar football team, their trust in the coaching staff, particularly the weight training program, and the opportunity to play a significant number of snaps against FBS competition.

“People at the highest level are paying for backups,” Dickert said. “So if you’re a 70-snap guy here, you go be a 20-snap guy somewhere else, you just gave up 500 snaps to get better, to grow and develop and be evaluated by the NFL.”

Dickert said he has met one-on-one with every member of WSU’s roster, including Mateer.

“We’ve done an amazing job of putting together a package for John that I think is fair,” Dickert said. “He knows his value here, he knows how much he’s loved and it really means something for him to be here. I don’t take that for granted. I also take a step back and want to mentor him, want to help him, want to navigate him through this and the talks have been really positive and we’ll continue to navigate them as they go.”

If WSU hopes to keep Mateer, it will need to produce the largest NIL offer it can, get as close to $1 million as possible and be creative in the range of perks and opportunities in the deal.

A commitment to covering air travel for family members to get to games, discounts at local Pullman businesses and maybe even box seats for Mateer’s family when WSU visits North Texas, Ole Miss, Virginia and James Madison next year, are the kinds of ideas the Collective is likely considering.

There are all sorts of ways that the Cougar Collective could assemble an ideal NIL package for Mateer, but whatever it does, it will all boil down to Mateer taking a hometown discount because of the nature of where WSU is at financially versus the Oklahomas, Auburns, Texas A&Ms and Utahs of the college football world.

Only Mateer can weigh the benefits of staying at WSU versus transferring elsewhere.

Regardless of his decision, fans should respect it or have enough self-respect to not drag a 20-year-old’s name through the mud.

The transfer portal and NIL-era of college football is in its infancy. It has changed the calculus each player must make about his goals and opportunities and vision for his life.

NIL, in its unregulated present form, is quickly zapping people’s love for the game and their willingness to watch and support college football, especially if you’re a WSU fan.

However, the pre-NIL era where football players went home hungry as their schools, conferences and sport profited off of their success is not something we are or ever should return to.

The solution is somewhere in the middle where each student-athlete gets a stipend in addition to a scholarship and those able to garner NIL deals elsewhere must wait until the conclusion of the season to transfer.

Dickert addressed his concerns with college football’s chaotic timeline where coaches leave and players transfer before the postseason, leaving programs like WSU in a state of transition heading into its bowl game.

“We need to stop being tied to an academic calendar,” Dickert said. “That’s what causes all these problems. I look at the NFL, they don’t finish the regular season, then have the draft before the playoffs, then do unlimited free agency before the playoffs, right? Because they would say, ‘Oh, that’s chaos.’ They don’t have coaching turnover before the playoffs, but we do, because we’re tied to an academic calendar. So we got to figure this out.”

A wrinkle that makes this year’s transfer portal particularly interesting is the NCAA’s new 105-scholarship restriction for Football Bowl Subdivision teams. This means that a lot of walk-ons and backups will be incentivized to hit the portal for better opportunities.

Within the past several days, 15 WSU players — including freshman running back Wayshawn Parker, redshirt freshman cornerback Ethan O’Connor, sophomore defensive tackle Ansel Din-Mbuh and punter Nick Haberer — elected to enter the portal.

Their departure opens an opportunity for younger players on WSU’s roster to step into the limelight.

Dickert said defensive back Kamani Jackson and running back Josh Joyner are two he was particularly excited to see play.

WSU’s roster already looks much different than it did in November and may continue to change ahead of the Holiday Bowl.

WSU’s LA Bowl and Sun Bowl losses in 2022 and ’21, respectively, were largely due to incomplete rosters ravaged by the portal.

However, don’t doubt that the players still practicing and still committed to the team are there for a reason.

“We always say this is winter camp,” Dickert said in reference to the extra three weeks of practice the team receives ahead of the bowl game. “(Senior edge) Quinn (Roff) came to me and said ‘No, coach, this is ‘Winner’s camp.’ You gotta earn this.”

Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2268, staylor@lmtribune.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @Sam_C_Taylor.