Washington State had won two games in a row, and the Cougars appeared to be on the verge of making it three straight. They led Stanford 27-16 entering the fourth quarter of their Oct. 16, 2021, matchup in Pullman.
Then the Cardinal rallied. They took the lead with 7:32 to play. WSU went three-and-out on its next possession.
“And I just I feel deflated. I feel terrible,” said Craig Stutzmann, the Cougars’ co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at the time.
Jayden de Laura wasn’t ready to give up.
“Coach, we got this,” the sophomore quarterback told Stutzmann. “The defense is gonna get the ball back. Let’s go.”
The defense did get the ball back. De Laura ignited WSU’s rally with a 41-yard pass. A 17-yard completion moved the ball to the 2. The Cougars scored the go-ahead touchdown with 1:30 remaining.
“For him to make those plays and win that game, I was like, ‘He’s a man now,’ “ Stutzmann said. “I’m getting goosebumps just talking about it.”
WSU improved to 4-3. Two days later, the school fired head coach Nick Rolovich and four of his assistants, including Stutzmann, for refusing to comply with a mandate that all state employees take the COVID-19 vaccine.
It was an inevitable outcome to what had become an untenable situation. But it was still a crushing blow for de Laura and his teammates.
“It is disheartening to be here today,” WSU athletic director Pat Chun said that evening. “Our football team is hurting. Our WSU community is fractured.”
The Cougars carried on. They qualified for a bowl berth under interim coach Jake Dickert. They won the Apple Cup for the first time since 2012.
But that sequence in mid-October symbolized de Laura’s time in Pullman. Every step forward seemed to be followed by a step or two backward.
The school and the quarterback eventually parted ways. De Laura entered the NCAA transfer portal in January. He now plays — and stars — for Arizona, which hosts WSU on Saturday.
Many have been asked this week to revisit de Laura’s career as a Cougar – particularly the way it ended. Dickert, now WSU’s full-time coach, summed it up best: “Sometimes change is good for everybody.”
‘Perfect storm’
“Just watch. ... This game, it’s personal.”
Those were de Laura’s words after he was asked about facing his former school. He was still wearing his uniform from Arizona’s upset win at UCLA — one that he helped fuel with his savvy scrambling.
It was the perfect soundbite — a delectable appetizer to a spicy storyline. But it’s what de Laura said in between — the words behind the ellipses — that was truly meaningful.
“When I was there with ‘Rolo,’ Coach Stutzmann and the other guys that got fired, they gave me the opportunity to grow and stay on the team with what I went through,” de Laura said. “I appreciate them.”
De Laura’s voice cracked as he spit out those sentences. He and that coaching staff went through a lot together.
A sought-after prospect from Honolulu’s prestigious Saint Louis High School — which he led to back-to-back state championships — de Laura signed with Washington State on Dec. 18, 2019. Mike Leach was the Cougars’ coach at the time. He left for Mississippi State three weeks later.
It took only four days for WSU to identify Rolovich as Leach’s success. De Laura couldn’t have asked for a better outcome.
“You had a guy who was the head coach (and) played at the University of Hawaii,” Stutzmann said. “And understood the island — understood the pressure that was put on Jayden and was able to help him go through some of the challenges that you face.”
Better yet, Rolovich brought along Stutzmann, who not only coached at Hawaii but grew up there, played at Saint Louis High School and had relationships with de Laura’s father and two of his uncles. If anyone outside of de Laura’s innermost circle gets him, it’s Stutzmann.
“Being able to be side by side, day by day, and just help him with his growth — not only on the field, but off the field — it was a perfect storm,” Stutzmann, now the offensive coordinator at Utah Tech, said in a phone interview this week. “You were able to see this young man come in who just has so much energy and so much to prove and such a huge chip on his shoulder. Being able to rein that in and use it the proper way to ignite a fan base and ignite his team ... although it was brief, it was a very special time to be around Jayden.”
Bumps in the road
It wasn’t a smooth ride, though. The pandemic hit in spring 2020, sending the world — and the world of college football — into chaos.
Spring practices were halted. Summer workouts were altered. The Pac-12 season was canceled, rebooted and rescheduled.
The Cougars played only four of seven scheduled games. De Laura started all four. He had an inherent advantage: Rolovich ran basically the same run-and-shoot offense that de Laura had operated in high school. “The graduate version,” Stutzmann said.
De Laura performed inconsistently — as one would expect from a true freshman who didn’t have a typical offseason and endured three in-season game cancellations — but showed promise.
The football element — the playbook, the X’s and O’s — wasn’t that difficult a transition for de Laura. It was “growing up” that was the hard part, Stutzmann said. Again, not unusual.
But in February 2021, de Laura was arrested on misdemeanor DUI charges. He was suspended indefinitely and missed spring practice.
Stutzmann said de Laura handled that setback as well as anyone could have.
“There’s two ways you can come out of this,” Stutzmann told de Laura. “You can let this define who you are and go downhill. Or you could go ahead and learn from this — come back stronger and use this to fuel your inner strength.”
“He got through a very tough time,” Stutzman said this week, “and he came out the other end stronger and more mature. Everybody makes mistakes. He learned how to handle certain things, and I’m so proud of where he’s at.”
De Laura was found not guilty in late July and was reinstated to the team. But the starting job was no longer his to lose.
In January, quarterback Jarrett Guarantano had transferred to WSU. Guarantano had played four seasons at Tennessee. Rolovich and his staff wanted to add a veteran presence and legit competition to the QB room. Guarantano checked all the boxes, which also included having high character and only one more year of eligibility.
Guarantano won the job and started the opener. But he got hurt in the second quarter. De Laura replaced him and outperformed him. The job would be his most of the rest of the way.
Despite some bumps, de Laura’s development was proceeding as Rolovich and his staff had envisioned it.
“When we came in, there were a lot of smiles,” Stutzmann said. “Rolo and myself and Jayden, we already had some big thoughts of what was going to happen for us. And he really lived up to the expectations all the way up until whatever happened ... happened.”
Washington State quarterback Jayden de Laura started, but did not finish, the Cougars’ Dec. 31 Sun Bowl loss to Central Michigan.
Unexpected ending
A lot happened.
The situation with Rolovich and the vaccine mandate had been festering since spring and came to a head in October. Dickert, de Laura and the rest of the Cougars managed to overcome it.
WSU clinched bowl eligibility with a 44-18 victory over Arizona in the penultimate game of the regular season. De Laura threw a career-high four touchdown passes despite wintry conditions in Pullman. UA coach Jedd Fisch — who had no idea de Laura would be coming to Tucson less than two months later — recalled being impressed with the second-year quarterback’s moxie and confidence.
WSU then ended a seven-game losing streak in the Apple Cup series with a 40-13 win at Washington. De Laura completed a career-best 84.4% of his passes. He punctuated the rousing victory by planting a crimson WSU flag in the turf at Husky Stadium.
The next day, Dickert was named the full-time head coach. Over the next month, with the Cougars prepping to play in the Sun Bowl, Dickert at various times praised de Laura. He seemed ensconced as WSU’s quarterback of the present and future.
On Dec. 8, one day after de Laura was named Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year, Dickert hired Eric Morris as offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach. The next day, Morris’ record-setting quarterback at Incarnate Word, Cameron Ward, entered the transfer portal.
The Cougars were set to fly from Pullman to El Paso right around Christmas. De Laura, who had gone home to Hawaii for a few days, got delayed returning to Washington. He missed the team charter and had to make it to West Texas on his own. He reportedly rerouted through Tucson, which is about a 4½-hour drive from El Paso.
WSU was down both starting tackles against Central Michigan. The Chippewas pummeled de Laura, sacking him three times in the first half. He completed only 7 of 17 passes for 47 yards.
De Laura didn’t play in the second half. Many WSU fans believe to this day that de Laura, perhaps under the belief that Morris was planning to bring in Ward to replace him, quit on the team.
Current WSU receiver Lincoln Victor shot down that theory.
“Knowing Jayden, he’s not a quitter,” Victor told reporters this week. “I don’t think he would throw in the towel like that. He was banged up all season.”
De Laura said that he got an X-ray on his ankle at halftime and that he and the team trainer agreed he should sit out the rest of the game.
Shortly after the Sun Bowl ended, Ward announced that he had received an offer from WSU. In a five-day span from Jan. 7-11, de Laura entered the portal; Ward committed to WSU; and de Laura committed to Arizona. Now they’re set to face each other.
De Laura described his time in Pullman as an opportunity to grow and become a better leader. The way it ended was “not how I pictured it,” he said. But he still cherishes the relationships he made at WSU, and he’s still proud of helping the Cougars end their skid in the Apple Cup.
Saturday presents a unique challenge. De Laura always plays with passion. But he can’t let his personal feelings about his former school and coach detract from his preparation and focus.
Stutzmann believes everything de Laura experienced over the past two years has prepared him for this moment.
“Everybody’s different. Everybody handles emotions differently,” Stutzmann said. “But I think Jayden has matured and grown so much in the last two years that he will naturally know how to channel it the right way. You just trust him and let him do what he’s gonna do.”
