If you listened to either The Team 980 or 106.7 The Fan Tuesday, you may have heard Solomon Wilcots tell Grant & Danny he doesn’t believe in Kliff Kingsbury as a QB whisperer, give Rooster his thoughts on potential Vegas distractions for the two Super Bowl teams, or expound on why he hates the name Commanders on both shows.
Well, Wednesday morning, he joined the Junkies to give some more thoughts on the game, but he also weighed in on a fellow Buffs alum: Eric Bieniemy, whom he didn’t play with at Colorado but did help recruit?
“I was part of the recruiting process for him, and I remember telling coach Bill McCartney at the time that if we want to beat Nebraska and Oklahoma, we need to get some guys where I'm from in LA,” Wilcots said. “I know some guys who are not afraid of those schools and programs, and we started recruiting the LA area really heavily, and he was very critical. I remember telling him on his recruiting trip that you're the guy, and if you come here, everything changes.He was such a dynamic personality with such courage and such strength; he was not always that way, but even as a freshman, this dude was a bad dude, and he delivered on that promise, bringing a national championship to the University of Colorado in 1990.”
Wilcots and Bieniemy have stayed close over the years, and Solomon thought despite being so maligned in his time here, EB brought some good things to Washington.
“I think he did a really good job and brought some stability to that offensive side of the ball. I think Sam Howell had greater success with Eric Bieniemy than he's had at any other time, and his caeer is gonna be fine for having spent time with Eric,” Wilcots said. “I think Eric's gonna land somewhere.
He'll be fine. This is a guy who's devoted to coaching, and if you knew Eric personally and some of the challenges he's had to overcome in his personal life, you’d be very proud of him, and you would see him through the same lens that many of us who know him intimately see him through.”
Wilcots then doubled down on his distrust of new OC Kingsbury, and even as he ‘has a lot of respect for Dan Quinn, who is a good coach,’ doesn’t see Quinn as the best fit.
“You saw some holes in Quinn’s defense, as teams sort of cracked the code and they didn't finish strong, but I look at a coach and an offensive coordinator who have had opportunities in our league as head coaches, but have not taken teams to that next level,” Wilcots said. “Quinn did get a team to the Super Bowl and they had a 25-point lead by halftime, but this is recycling. I’m not saying people shouldn't get second chances, because they should, but where you show me somewhere on the resume where there's been tremendous accomplishments that says they are deserving of the opportunity? I would have loved to see so many of the new innovative coaches come in and be provided this opportunity.”
That said, if the vision is bringing in Kingsbury and then going up to get DC native Caleb Williams, who played for Kliff at USC last year and could be what Kyler Murray wasn’t for the OC, then ‘that’s fine, but I'm just not seeing it.’
“I hope it works out, because I’m really rooting for the team to get going in the right direction, it was just a chin-scratcher for me when I heard the hires,” he said.
Take a listen to Wilcots’ entire segment above!