Marcus Mason received scant playing time as a senior after leading Washington State in rushing and all-purpose yards as a junior in 2013. To say Mason is bitter would be a major understatement.
Mason blasted unnamed WSU coaches in an interview posted on the NFL Draft Diamonds website.
“I was fooled by my coaching staff going into my senior year … I outworked everybody and to be beat out by politics alone was crushing,” Mason is quoted as saying. “Not one single coach had the heart to tell me what was going on every single time I asked until it was too late.
“They held me back as much as they could, would not let me switch positions and would try to keep me off the field as hard as they could no matter the circumstances just so they wouldn’t look bad. I wanted to give up but could not let them beat me.”
Mason had just five carries for 7 yards last season. He caught one pass for 2 yards. The year before, Mason led WSU with 87 carries, 427 rushing yards and 865 all-purpose yards. His 52 receptions (for 390 yards) ranked second on the Cougars.
Redshirt freshmen Jamal Morrow and Gerard Wicks handled most of the running duties last season. Morrow led WSU with 351 yards on 87 carries, and he had 61 catches for 460 yards. Morrow scored no touchdowns; Mason scored four times in 2013 (two rushing, two receiving).
“The frustration, anger, and hate that build up inside of me were ruining my life,” Mason said. “I would not talk to but a few people and never talked or even looked at my coaches unless I had to.
“Going through some of the ridiculous stuff we were made (to) do did not help but it did not make it worse and I took my frustration out on some of my teammates during practice.”
Mason is not one of the 1,500-plus players ESPN rates as prospects for the 2015 NFL draft.
8 Comments
Leach is taking the high road which is the right thing to do. Knowing his history, I’d say his non-use of Mason wasn’t about his skills and abilities as opposed to his attitude and habits. And not necessarily his practice habits. If he kept Mason on the team instead of kicking him off he must have thought at some point he’d come around. Hope Mason can hook on with a pro team somewhere.
This quote caught my eye: “I would not talk to but a few people and never talked or even looked at my coaches unless I had to.”
I notice he won the Randal Simmons Offensive Coaches Award in 2013 and was a team captain five times as a Junior, so it’s not as though his contributions went unrecognized. A lot of seniors who’d gone from starting to third on the depth chart in less than six months might’ve talked to one of those coaches at least once instead of simmering and taking it out on his teammates during practice all season because there IS a reason…stuff like that doesn’t happen from coaches playing rock-paper-scissors.
Anyway, I hope Marcus at least attends his classes and is on schedule to earn his degree, since he presumably is having his tuition, room and board (about $100K over four years) paid for via a full-ride scholarship. It’s an old saw, but when one door closes, another one opens.
It would seem that there is more to this story than is apparent here. It would be rather satisfying, if it turned out that Mason got picked up by an NFL team as an undrafted free agent and did well like Jermaine Kearse and Doug Baldwin.
Leach is obviously a wacko given his history. Mason should tell us the details of the ridiculous stuff leach made them do at practice.
Stalwick, why you such a Douchebag Cougar hater? You seem to find every piece of crap that wants to say something bad about Leach and Cougs. Or my guess they Just take your purple and gold sweatshirt….roll it up really tight…and stick up your butt.
My colleague Howie probably would want you to know that douchebag is not a proper noun but a common noun, hence no need for capitalization.
Could douchebag also be a substitute for a verb if it’s used to describe an action (or the reaction thereof)?
Please, if anyone here really follows the Cougars they would know that he was beaten out by 2 red shirt Freshman. Even Haliday thought the world of Morrow. It’s another Wulff Recruit that complains or says something else.