Washington freshman safety Paul Mencke Jr. shares his thoughts on why he stuck with UW after Kalen DeBoer left.
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00:00January to February signing window with Kalen DeBoer leaving Washington, that whole coaching
00:04staff not being paid and Jedfish coming up.
00:07So just kind of take me through initially, what was, where was your head at?
00:11What was, what was kind of the mindset that you had to deal with that kind of month, month
00:15and a half period?
00:16Uh, dang, I just got played by the game.
00:21I thought I was in control and I got played badly too.
00:24So this is my, that was my second coach walking out from right under me.
00:29I was like, dang, I can't, uh, I can't like just leave now because it's like, uh, what
00:36is, I don't think I signed yet.
00:38Yeah, I signed.
00:39They were like, oh, we can get you out to this, your deal.
00:42Yeah.
00:43Yeah.
00:44And I was like, you know what?
00:45This is the second time this happened to me.
00:46So you know what I'm gonna do?
00:47This is a really good football school.
00:48I'm just going to stay.
00:49I'm just going to stay.
00:50It's going to pan out better for worse.
00:52I like the place I'm at.
00:54It's home.
00:55So I'm from Washington state.
00:56And yeah, that's, that's, that's what it really was.
01:00And I was like, I'm like, SMU was hitting me up.
01:02They're like, Paul, if you need to go on a spot, we can have you.
01:05Please come.
01:06I was like, no, I'm sorry.
01:07Yeah.
01:08How much did having the transfer portal, and again, I'm not saying you're going to take
01:13that, but just down the line, knowing if, if for some reason you didn't get playing
01:17time in your first two years of Washington, that you would at least give it a shot.
01:20And then you can have a chance to go find another school.
01:23Was that, was that kind of part of the process?
01:26Uh, mate, that wasn't my initial thought.
01:29I feel like, uh, if you're going into a program or if you are a good recruit or even a crew
01:35in general, uh, you just haven't thought of, I should get developed my first year, second
01:40year actually, no matter what shouldn't be okay.
01:43Second year of developing don't like this.
01:45I'm transferring.
01:46It's like, no, you want to think that you're going to be able to play and all this stuff.
01:50So, uh, that's what that was my test for, I don't really like the transfer portal.
01:54I'm an old school kind of guy.
01:55I might use it.
01:56I don't know.
01:57I'm, I can't say cause it's too, too, too long, too far in between.
02:02So I don't like it cause it's like, it's not loyalty to the school, the coach and all that
02:07stuff.
02:08Why is it moving so much?
02:09But, uh, so yeah.
02:11And then with that, it's just, I never really thought it was a portal cause I liked where
02:16I was.
02:17I liked, uh, coach, not DeBoer, Morrell, Morrell.
02:23I really liked him.
02:24I liked what he said about like what I would, how dumb Hampton, how all this stuff, uh,
02:30played out and how he's one of the top tacklers because of the system.
02:34And then really it's been on an incline for me cause it's like, okay, there's only six
02:38safeties.
02:39There's only six, including me, there's only six safeties and they're not all six, two.
02:45They're not.
02:46And, uh, there's a lot of, uh, DBs or cornerbacks where there's not a lot of six, two safeties.
02:53And so I just, just looking at that, it's like, okay, I have a chance to get running
02:57to this game and all that stuff.