BELLEVUE — Elizabeth Cantwell knows a thing or two about college football recruiting. The Washington State President revealed a fascinating nugget during the Cougs First! Show and Career Expo on Friday, when the topic of athletics came up during her conversation with former KOMO-TV anchor and WSU graduate Eric Johnson.
While at Arizona from 2019 until 2023, Cantwell made it a priority to be, as she called it, “apprenticed into athletics.” It led to a unique understanding of recruiting and how the system operates.
“I’m a geeky engineer who started life in research,” Cantwell said. “And when I went to the University of Arizona, I demanded to be apprenticed into athletics. Jedd Fisch was the football coach at the time, and I basically joined the recruitment team for football.
“I’m pretty good with the moms, by the way. And I learned a lot about recruiting at that time.”
Both Cantwell and WSU head man Jimmy Rogers are in the early days of their respective jobs, but Cantwell could become a valuable recruiting tool for Rogers and the Cougars. Presidential meetings aren’t common on official recruiting visits and could pay dividends, especially when it comes to selling the parents on the educational aspects and Pullman.
CANTWELL SAID RECENTLY that 40 percent of her time is currently devoted to athletics as WSU faces challenges on multiple fronts including federal freezes on grants, conference realignment, NIL, and more.
Despite the headwinds, Cantwell remains optimistic on the future of Cougar athletics.
“Every one of you knows all the vectors of change that are coming out of college athletics at the moment,” Cantwell said. “Those are just actually accelerating. I kind of find that landscape a little bit thrilling, and I will explain it in the following way.
“We are smart enough to negotiate this period of change in athletics to the benefit of the institution. If we don’t lose our heads, if we understand that this is a long game, if we focus on the right things … we’re going to devote this evening to thinking about the past amazing student athletes, for instance.”
Cantwell added that while the moments and history at WSU are exceedingly important, it is also critical to “get on to the bullet train of the future.”
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NAVIGATING “THE UNKNOWN” IS familiar territory for Cantwell, and her track record is impressive. For instance, she was at the helm of Utah State last fall and after not receiving an initial invite to the Pac-12, she helped position the Aggies to receive one. And now USU will be alongside Washington State, Oregon State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Boise State, Colorado State, and Gonzaga in the new Pac-12 next year.
Is that aggressive, opportunistic style of leadership what WSU fans should expect from Cantwell?
“Yes, although I will say there is always a place for modulation,” Cantwell said. “Universities in the college athletics realm, when a big rift happens, like the Pac-12 falling apart, it really tears at us, genuinely. We are not institutions that were built to be nimble. We will change our capacity for that, but we weren’t built for that.
“This is a moment where we might have to compete more than we have ever competed before. We have got to compete and we’ve got to win.”
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