The First: Jerome Harrison had maybe the best
season ever for a Cougar running back, certainly he
produced the most total yardage (1900 yards). It
is hard to say he is the best running back ever to play
at WSU. Could the best running back ever help produce
such a horrible record? If he was a difference
maker why didn't he make a difference? Was the 9th
rated passing defense in the Pac-10 too bad to be made
up for, no matter who was at running back? We will
never know. I do know that Jerome Harrison
electrified the crowd each time he touched the ball.
The Second: Beating the Huskies 26 - 22 Yes,
the Huskies were the only team worse than WSU this year
in the Pac -10, but being a worse team than us hasn't
kept them from spoiling our party in the past.
After such a heart breaking season being able to slap
the Huskies like the Dawgs they are had a cathartic
affect and lessened the recruiting nightmare that would
have ensued had we lost that game too. The best
players in the Pac-10 still look at USC first, but at
least Washington High School players will compare us
favorably against our cross state rivals.
The Third: It wasn't a play or a player, it was
the Cougars winning the donation battle over the hated
Huskies, which gave all Seattle Cougars the unique
pleasure of seeing the top of the Space Needle painted
Crimson and the Cougar flag hoisted above Seattle's most
famous landmark. By the way, it also increases the
number of out-of-stater's that will ask you "WSU, that's
in Seattle, isn't it?".
Below I have reorganized my notes for the season into
chronological order, so if you want to sift through the
tears, knock yourself out! (No, really knock
yourself out, it will be less painful).
The big question is at quarterback - coach Doba is
one who would start Josh Swogger if he was healthy (the old
"can't lose your starting job because of an injury" thing), but
since Josh is still hobbled, Alex will get most of the snaps in
spring training, and red shirt freshman Gary Rogers the rest.
The Alex plays and impresses, the tougher that decision
will become. And hey, anyone who can beat the Huskies has
to be given a lot of consideration.
With 9 returning starters on offense, there will
be no excuses this year for poor performance, from the
quarterback or any other position. Who ever gets the job
had better put up some good numbers. I feel like last year
was the rebuilding year, and this year I want a Christmas
vacation someplace warm!
Watch for tons of stories this spring about Tony
Thompson, Jack Thompson's son. The scary thing is that I
am old enough to remember when Jack Thompson was the Savior of
WSU football, and the only thing worth talking about in crimson
and grey. His son is joining the club in a different era,
and at tight end instead of quarterback. Because of Jacks
strong association with the club Tony will get a good chance to
compete. If he has his dads moxie he'll be a fun
player to watch. GO COUGS!
The best article I read about the end of spring football was
written by Craig Smith at the Seattle times, so instead of
paraphrasing him, I'll just link to him
here - I love computers!
So, did I make our preseason ranking of 50th not sound so bad?
When you take into account the fact Athlon generally under ranks us and over
ranks the huskies, this should be an exceptionally good year for the Apple Cup -
For a full breakdown of the Athlon
review click here
Details: There were supposed to be two women in the room
with Mike - Believable, we do have a reputation after all - but
why haven't we heard from the other? Surely she wouldn't
want to miss out on her 15 minutes of fame? Wait, no, the
woman supposedly involved then told the SI fact checker that
there were two other women in the room with her and Mike, not
one. Now, I've got a poor memory, but I remember exactly
how many people were in the room every time I've had sex in my
life. Its just one of those things you don't easily
forget. Raise of hands?
In addition, Yeager (The reporter) gave one interview subject
$200.00 for cab fare.......To where? Sounds like he paid for
more than talk. I heard from a confidential source that
Yeager regularly had strange relations with a woman that
involved microphones and a dog collar. What is to stop me
if I know I will never have to prove its true? It is even
possible that Yeager had sex with the woman, paid her $200.00,
and used Mike Price to cover his trail. How would you
know?
The woman who DID sleep in Mike Price's room that night is
testifying on Mike Prices behalf that she did sleep in the room
and no sex occurred.
I assumed that Mike Price was caught with his hand in the cookie
jar, in cosmic retribution for taking the Alabama job right
before the rose bowl, now I'm not so sure.
This is another case making the point (Dan Rather) that we can
no longer trust journalists to be impartial unbiased and
painfully truthful in their reporting. I know, I am naive,
but if I am then so is the law protecting reporters sources.
We've put ourselves in a situation where we trust a protected
gossip class that tells us what they think we need to hear to
prove their point or world view, facts be damned. Its time
the laws protecting the press are updated to allow those whose
lives are being ruined the right to face their accusers.
There is a need to protect sources from recrimination, but those
trying to protect their sources should be required to show that
significant damage could be done to the source by being named.
In any case the source should be revealed to a judge in chambers
at the very least. You can read the full
story here.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the anonymous
source the magazine relied upon in an article about Price is
"almost certainly" one of three women whose names have surfaced
in the case. Before the magazine has to disclose the source,
Price's attorneys must question them under oath about whether
they were the source for the 2003 story, the appeals court said.
But here is some free advice: One, at 19 the "I'm just too
young and stupid" defense used in your defense is weak, you are
responsible for everything you do. Two, install a reverse
three date rule - Wait at least three dates before you
try anything with a woman. There are even people who
believe in getting married first - no, really, there are.
Three, the only reason you are being given the benefit of the
doubt at WSU is that everyone believes Coach Doba will do the
right thing based upon the information he has. Don't fail
his trust. We are rooting for you to succeed in life as
well as football.
Fall practice is so exciting. Its the time of year when
you can hear the offensive motor revving up in the garage, and
you can't wait to take it for a spin.
To give credit where its due, I got a
great email from NWsource.com that had so much great
information. It was full of the newest information
on transfers like Darryl Blunt from Portland State who
looks like he'll step in nicely for Kyle
Basler next year (60 Yard plus punts are always nice!).
Since I am not actually AT fall camp I need help from any of you
who are in the area and can drop by! Email me
here and let me know the scoop!
We'll have a report on the 2005 Cougar Clam bake in a couple
days, including pictures.
Included is a picture of a bunch of guys huddled around Randy
Martin right after his concussion and neck sprain. He was
taken to the Pullman Memorial Hospital. According to the
trainers He was going to be OK, all the test results came back
negative, but you have to be careful. I have a friend who
has been an "on the edge guy" all his life, and after his last
concussion was told he had to stop everything, because the next
one would probably kill him. Now he can't do anything but
play cards and drink beer... I guess it could be worse.
Concussions often don't seem that bad to fans, because there are
no crutches or blood, but it only takes one wrong hit to start
thinking "I'm batman!" Like that old Snickers commercial.
According to Scott, Will Derting was not suited up Thursday.
One trainer said Will was "In the locker room/training room" But
Scott caught a photo of him standing next to Cole Morgan on the
sidelines. We found out later that Will had a left
hamstring pull, and will miss Saturdays scrimmage. Be
careful Will! A couple more nagging injuries and his draft
stock will begin to drop. Think positive!
Scott got to see Alex Brink wing a perfect 45 yard strike to
Jason hill, thought Gary Rogers threw well, and thought Swogger
spent more time handing off than anything else. Every day
of practice is different, so it doesn't mean anything, but it
sure makes me wish I was there. Like a lot of you I used
to love running run stadium steps and study in
Martin Stadium. Looking at these pictures I could remember
how nice and warm it is there this time of year.
That's possible, but I really like Alex, he moves kind of like
Doug Flutie or Jason Gesser. Very smooth. You can
also count on at least one of those other three quarterbacks
washing out or leaving at the end of the season, which ever one
thinks he has the least shot at starting. Brink could
become on of those one year as a senior starters if he doesn't
take Josh's job this fall. Now is his chance.
Either Coach Doba believes Josh needs a kick in the pants, or he
is leaning towards making Alex the starter. Either way
Josh needs to step it up a notch if he expects to start against
Grambling.
Thanks to Scott Linklater again we have some pictures and more
comments about Saturdays Scrimmage for you. Click on
August 13th
Scrimmage For more.
I've always taken the position that Coach Doba is going to get
our young defense to play much better than the pundits expect.
Saturday was not an indication of that. Watch for the
offense to do much better in the next scrimmage.
The defense looked better than it was supposed to, the offense
looked worse. I am going to assume that's because Coach
Doba has been able to raise the bar for the defense and get them
up to speed quickly even though they are young. Even
without Will Derting (out 2 weeks for his left hamstring)...
The other possible explanation I'll leave for my Husky
acquaintances to make (I know them... but I don't really trust
them!).
When you look at the pictures check out the steak! If you
look carefully you'll be able to see the WSU logo seared into
the meat. Makes you want your branding iron doesn't it?
Turn out was a little light this year compared to last year even
though the weather was awesome, but we'll make sure to let you
know about it early next year so that you can come be a part.
Click on Clam
Bake 2005.
If the starting quarterback for Cougs was picked based on
Fridays practice, Josh Swogger was the winner. After on-and-off
play over the past two weeks of scrimmages, #9 played like the
starter (assist Jason Hill). Swogger was poised and accurate,
confidently commanding his offensive squads (#1’s and #2’s) down
the field. At one point, Swogger threw a 40 yard bomb,
while being rushed, off his back foot – amazing arm strength!
DeMaundray Woolridge #35, played like a
seasoned veteran, even though he turned 18 last spring.
He has several nice runs, took on hits, juked, and kept
going. Michael Willis had the hit of the day on
Wooldridge, as these two freshmen went head to head, drawing
“uh’s” and “awh’s” from the scrimmage crowd. Jason
Hill made one-handed catch that made the local news.
Michael Bumpus had another great day, and on one occasion
left Alex Teems picking up his socks. Freshmen
linebacker Gary Trent had another good day – very
impressive. On Defense, Aaron Johnson again, Wally and
D-Backs played well, the Defense End Duo of Braidwood and
Bruce recorded several sacks.
This is a good team, all the way around.
They are a lot of fun to watch and should make for a good,
bowl-bound second place finish in the Pac-10. - Scott
Linklater
One possible reason Brink is the WSU Starting
Quarterback.
The Brink v. Swogger thing has been interesting.
Tim Rosenbaugh recruited Brink where as former coach
Mike Price recruited Swogger. I always thought
Swogger was a big catch as far as recruits go, but a
friend close to Rod Commons and the football program
said that Swogger was just a big fish in a small
pond …he came from a small school where he did
great, but wasn’t necessarily recruited that hard by
the Big Ten schools (he’s from Ohio). He was
Ohio state player of the year, but excelling at a
small school doesn’t always translate into big time
success. Swogger himself seemed to always be
trying to live up to the “big name recruit” label,
where as Brink was always fighting to be recognized
and comes off as a Doug Flutie type underdog,
although their styles are much different.
Alex Brink fits this team better.
I watched the preseason preview of the Pac-10 and
WSU was the last and least team previewed.
They asked the analyst’s what the big surprises of
the season would be. One said USC would be
upset by Oregon and the other said WSU would make a
bowl. Make a bowl? I have a good friend,
we’ll call him The Greek, who is a math teacher and
he does preseason predictions based on the number of
returning starters and seniors, plus some other
misc. variables, and his number 1 pick for the last
8 years or so has been correct, or the team ended up
2nd. He picked WSU in the Rose Bowl in 1997.
This year, he’s saying the Cougs will finish between
2nd and 4th, hinging heavily on the quarterback
position. In the press, the Cougs are picked
between 4th and 7th. Alex Brink plays much
better when he’s the underdog and we’re certainly
that…at least in relation to the respect we think we
should get….
- Scott Linklater
WSU Cougar Starting Quarterback? Alex Brink
After a See-saw battle during fall camp, Coach
Doba has finally settled on Alex Brink as the starting
quarterback for the 2005 Cougar football team. A strong
performance by Swogger on Friday was not enough to overcome what
the coaches have seen from Alex. Alex has always seemed
smoother in his delivery and motion than Josh. According
to Coach Doba Alex came into camp heavier and with a much
stronger arm than last year - arm strength was one of the areas
where Josh used to have the advantage. Not any more.
Click for another
Brink picture.
WSU vs.
University of Idaho
Thursday Night, 7:00 PM in Pullman. As
usual anything positive in this game will be discounted, and
anything negative magnified, because Idaho is expected to Finish
9th in the WAC out of, well, 9 teams. It is good for them
in the long run to be in the WAC but hard, since they won only 3
games last year in the lesser Sun Belt Conference. This
years hope is a nice senior quarterback named Michael Harrington
(Yes, the brother of the more impressive Joey Harrington).
One other advantage U of I will have this year (Except Thursday)
is that their home games will be played back in the bubble
confines of the Kibbie dome. It had to really irritate
them to drive to Pullman for their home games the past couple
years. None of that will change the outcome of this game,
though. WSU wins big.
WSU vs.
Auburn Tigers set for 2006
WSU will open the 2006 football season at
Auburn. Why? Big payday. National exposure. Our Bowl game
exposure to the Texas audience helped to bring several good
Texas players into the fold, not the least of which is Greg
Trent, who filled Will Dertings' spot at Linebacker while he was
injured (Will is expected to suit up on Thursday).
U of I =
UW = U of I?
Lets talk new math. At his press
conference yesterday Vandal Coach Nick Holt declined naming a
quarterback for this Thursdays game with WSU (I put my money on
Michael Harrington, by the way. Over at Mountlake coach
Willingham is also keeping mum - U of I = UW.
Last year UW finished last in the Pac-10 while Idaho finished
last in the Sun Belt Conference - UW = U of I. This
year they are both picked to finish last in their conferences
again - UW = U of I. Both are expected to lose to WSU by
big margins this year - UW = U of I. And finally, both are
insulted that they are being compared to the other program - UW
= U of I. Sorry about that, U of I.
U of I Names Michael
Harrington starting Quarterback vs. WSU
Coach Nick Holt named Michael Harrington his starting
quarterback yesterday, which comes as no surprise. Michael
has played against WSU a couple times already, so he is less
likely to panic when WSU throws an 8 man rush against him
Thursday (Not that it will make any difference). It was an
obvious move for Coach Holt, who is trying to create a more
consistent program after several years of new coaches, new
players, even new leagues almost every year. Michael
Harrington is not the reason they are bad. I remember last
years game watching him and almost feeling sorry for him as he
struggled in vain to make something happen while WSU cruised to
a lopsided win.
WSU
struggles against U of I but still wins 38-26
Let's hope Idaho is good enough to go to a bowl game.
If it weren't for two great plays in the first two minutes of
Thursdays game, U of I would have won, and that's scary. U
of I is the kind of team that the USC's of the world dispose of
in the first quarter, and good teams dispose of in the first
half. That WSU let them hang around - and drive the length
of the field for points 3 times - makes you want to tear your
hair out. 3 straight quick touchdowns by WSU in the at the
end of the 3rd and beginning of the 4th quarter put the game out
of reach, yet Idaho still managed another touchdown in the final
minutes. You have to give Idaho and their coach credit, they
didn't give up until the final gun sounded.
It seemed Idaho won the battle on both the offensive and
defensive lines for a large part of the game.
On defense our linebackers made too many tackles and Will
Derting was not himself, frequently being held up at the line of
scrimmage (He is recovering from a hamstring injury and
obviously not 100% right now). Will did make 11 tackles
but a lot of them were past the line of scrimmage, not behind
it. After the first play from scrimmage (an 80 yard off
tackle touchdown by Harrison) the Idaho defense stuffed the line
and made the WSU running game look anemic, forcing WSU into
swing passes just to get something going.
On offense Alex Brink, as seemed very tentative. He
completed 17 for 29 attempts for 230 yards, with most of the
success coming in the second drive and late in the game.
One reason he struggled was the play of Jason Hill, who dropped
4 passes that were right too him. Another reason was
that for most of the game Alex did a poor job of looking off the
defense. Too often it seemed like he was telegraphing who
he was throwing to almost from the beginning of the play.
To give him credit, he did a great job of looking off the
defense and throwing to Hill for a 72 yard touchdown later in
the game. He looked so awkward that the announcers were
beginning to hang out their "We want Swogger" banner in the
third quarter, before the offense hit stride and scored three
straight touchdowns. The game and assessment of Alex might
be different if Jason Hill had arrived at the game before the
3rd quarter.
Jason Hill dropped 4 passes to start the game, two of which
could have gone for touchdowns. He made up for it at the
end of the game, but against a Pac 10 Team he might not have had
the chance to redeem himself. Jason and Michael will make
a good 1-2 punch as the season goes on.
Positives? Michael Bumpus picked up the load in the middle
of the game, seemingly catching everything thrown to him,
fighting through blocks for extra yards, though he did make a
poor decision on a kick off that resulted in a turn over.
And WSU did pull it out at the end.
Cal Quarterback out:
One of the teams picked to finish
ahead of the Cougs this year suffered a major setback Saturday
when Cal starting Quarterback Nate Longshore was lost for
the season with a broken left leg. His replacements were
horrible. While they can count on solid play from their
running back Marshawn Lynch. We do not play Cal until
October 10th. The new quarterback should be settled in by
then, but that has got to help our chances in that game
which was already expected to be close.
Jim Sterk schedules extra time
for Cougs: Washington State
has extra time to prepare for each of its three opponents
following last weeks win vs. Idaho. The Cougars will have
one extra day for their Sept. 9 game at Nevada and Sept. 17 game
against Grambling State in Seattle. WSU has a bye week before
opening Pac-10 play at Oregon State Oct. 1. This bodes
well because WSU is 6-4 over the last five seasons when having
extra time to prepare, including 5-2 following a bye week
WSU
vs. Nevada Wolfpack Friday night
The Wolfpack is employing a new offense that
has the quarterback half way between the shotgun and the
traditional under center approaches. They call it the
pistol. To me it seems like you are keeping the fumble problems
but losing half of the time you get to scope the defense after
the ball is snapped. The idea is to get the quarterback some of
the shotgun time, while still keeping the running back involved
in those plays and keeping the defense off balance. This
is their first game of the season, so they are probably as
uncertain how this will work as the Cougs. If they are
really successful with that package watch WSU add it to our
offense. Using a pistol formation seems like it would fit
well with our one back schemes. Because of their young
offensive line, for Nevada to win they will have to use the
pistol formation to successfully run the ball enough that they
can get their very talented receivers open deep. Nichiren
Flowers is their receiving ace, and is considered the best
returning receiver in the WAC, which means a lot more than it
did a few years ago. Quarterback Jeff Rowe will be looking
for him every chance he gets.
On the fun side, Nevada is another team that is expected by
Athlon sports to be better than the UW huskies this year (Nevada
81, UW 86). Nevada is picked to finish 3rd in the
WAC.
WSU beats
UW again
The attendance at the UW vs. Air force game
last Saturday fell short of the attendance at Thursdays WSU vs.
Idaho game in Pullman (26,482 vs. 28,339). Maybe if the
Huskies moved their home games to a Major population center like
Tacoma they would fill more seats? I guess it is just one more
bit of evidence that the economics of modern sports make college
football unfeasible in Seattle.
WSU
beats Nevada Wolfpack 55-21
This is how Pac-10 schools are supposed to
treat WAC schools - Smack them up side the head and put them out
of their misery early. The score in the 3rd quarter
when WSU really started pulling its starters was 41-7.
From Michael Bumpus on special teams (including the longest punt
return for a touchdown in WSU history, 87 yards), to a defense
that seemed to put three defensive players in the back field on
almost every play (6 sacks), this was a great effort.
Nevada was supposed to be a much better team than the University
of Idaho but didn't look it, as WSU dominated the offensive line
early, giving Alex Brink time to make good passes without
feeling pressure. They then used the pass to set up some great
runs later in the half. It is notable, though, that none
of the cougar touchdowns were via the run until Woolridges' 1
yard run for the final score of the game. One of Coach Dobas'
goals has been to create a stronger running game within the WSU
Scheme, it still seems that inside the red zone the Cougs are
having a difficult time punching the ball in without passing it
to someone.
On defense WSU stuffed the run and harassed
Nevada QB Jeff Rowe relentlessly, causing hurried throws and a
team panic that kept Nevada from crossing mid field until there
were only a couple minutes left in the first half. The
pistol formation looked neat, though. It will be
interesting to see if they can make anything significant out of
it as the year goes on.
One play in the first quarter showed how quickly
WSU was adjusting to Nevada’s “Pistol” offense:
Both teams came to the line (Nevada had the
ball). Nevada set up, WSU set up, then showed a strong side
blitz. The Nevada quarterback Jeff Rowe audibled away from the
blitz, then at the last second WSU audibled out of the blitz
into something completely different, forcing Nevada to burn a
time out. As a cougar fan you definitely had a “HA! Gotcha!”
Feeling. WSU faked the blitz much more than they actually
end up blitzing, but the fake blitzes caused almost as much
panic as the real ones.
A key moment came with three minutes to go in
the second quarter. WSU should have been punting on 4th down in
the shadow of their own goal posts - giving the Wolfpack good
field position and the ability to cut the lead to 7 points -
when a penalty on Nevada gave WSU an extra play that turned into
a 47 yard pass to Jason Hill to midfield. WSU marched the rest
of the way for a 98-yard drive and a 24-point lead.
The lone highlight of the game for Nevada was
their opening drive of the second half, which resulted in a
quick touchdown. Their spirits were up until Michael Bumpus
took a punt on the 13-yard line and ran 87 yards for the longest
punt return for a touchdown in WSU history. Josh Swogger came
into the game on the next series and tossed a beautiful pass to
Brandon Gibson to make it 47-7. Game set and match. WSU
brought in all the guys who didn’t play earlier, and the defense
gave up a couple meaningless touchdowns that made the game look
slightly closer than it really was.
Jason Hill continued where he left off in the
second half vs. Idaho, grabbing 5 balls and 2 touchdowns.
DeMaundray Woolridge, the Freshman out of Texas made the most of
his first game as a cougar, with 15 carries for 133 yards and a
touchdown. All off a sudden the Cougar running back
situation looks a little brighter.
A friend asked me who got all of the sacks last night in Nevada.
Here they are:
| Player |
Sacks |
Yards |
| Adam Braidwood |
1.5 |
-4 |
| Mkristo Bruce |
1 |
-8 |
| Matt Eichelberger |
1 |
-2 |
| A'i Ahmu |
0.5 |
-3 |
| Matt Mullennix |
1 |
-1 |
| Bryan Olson |
1 |
-3 |
| Total Sacks |
6 |
-21 |
5 of the 6 sacks came in the first half, which
is good, but Will Derting's name is missing, which is not.
Will did share the team lead for total tackles with Adam
Braidwood with 5 sacks.
The cougars couldn't have played much better. Go
Cougs!
Ruben
Mayes to play for Grambling Tigers...
Fortunately for WSU this one does not have the
same talent as our own Reuben Mayes that broke so many records at
WSU in the early 80's. The Grambling Ruben is decent,
though. He is a 6-foot-2 inch, 245-pound junior fullback
who was a first team All-SWAC selection during the 2004 season.
He was also on (Let me get this right): 1-AA.org
Magazine's preseason Division 1-AA All-America football team....
Third team... Their quarterback Bruce Eugene is very
experienced, since he has been granted an extra year of
eligibility because of a knee injury last year, and good
receivers for the division they are in. They did Whoop up
on Alabama A&M last week 44-0. They are picked to win the
Western division of the SWAC this year, so the game should be a
little closer than people think? They should be able to
score some points anyway, but won't be able to keep up with the
WSU offense. WSU wins big, unless they are overconfident,
in which case they will still win big. If I believed in
Jinxes.... Nope, they still win big.
There is no truth to the rumor that Grambling will be changing
their school motto to "Yeah, but the band" before the game.
Next week is WSU's first real test, Oregon State, who beat Boise
State Last weekend. WSU should have plenty of confidence
going into that game, at the very least.
The cougars were pretty much injury free against Nevada, but
defensive end Adam West suffered a concussion and may not play
Saturday. Another defensive end, Lance Broadus, suffered a
shoulder sprain but may be available. The preseason fear
that we had no legitimate back up for Jerome Harrison seems to
have been unwarranted, as DeMaundray Woolridge ran for 133 yards
against Nevada and looked good doing it. Not bad for a
true freshman.
Grambling
is famous for their band and...
The fact that everywhere they play, part of
the week is spent on race relations and lamenting the fact that
there aren't more black head coaches in football.
Earlier this year Terry Bowden (Now that he can't be forced to
trade his white coaches for black ones himself), came out in
favor of a quota program that would allow every NCAA
college football team to add one an additional assistant coach
to their team provided he is white - black.
If that seems racist one way and not the other, YOU are the
racist. As are those who lament the fact that about 50% of
all football players are black while only 3% of head coaches
are. They overlook the fact that black coaches like UW
coach Tyrone Willingham have been given incredible opportunities
to coach some of the best programs in the country, only to fall
flat on their faces. Did they fail because their school
was racist, or because they were black? No, they failed
because they were mediocre coaches that couldn't produce a
winning record. Rest assured that any black coach that
wins a lot of games (like Dusty Baker does in baseball) will
have a long career and be in high demand. To quote the
great ex-coach of Grambling Eddie Robinson "...But don't come
back and say the reason you didn't make it was because you were
black."
The number of
athletic departments today that would avoid hiring a black coach
because he is black is extremely limited, and if that were ever
discovered as a criteria in a program, those who were in charge
would lose their jobs before the sun set. Contrast that
with our own ex-coach George Raveling, who proclaims his "I
always chose the black player over the white one" policy in his
book without shame or repercussions, and is seen by the black
coaches association as a coach to emulate. Racist?
Of course. Especially if your non-black son wasted his
college career trying to play for Raveling, not knowing he had
almost no shot. So why does our society look the other way?
If you average the 26% of coaches that are black in basket ball
(hired by the same athletic directors who aren't hiring black
football coaches) with the 3% in football you come out at just over 14%, the same
percentage as the total percentage of blacks in the United States.
For those who continue to look at one number and scream racism,
noodle this: Since about 14% of America is black, how is
it possible that 50% of the college football players are black?
Racist scholarship programs? Random chance? Or are blacks
just better at football? If you take the position that 50%
means blacks are just better athletes - as is professed by some
in our society (white guys can't jump, etc.) - then you open
yourself to the philosophical claim that whites are just better
coaches. Take your pick, but be consistent. Anyone
who has been paying attention the last 20 years has seen that
the only place that diversity is required is at white
institutions. By the way, the percentage of white coaches
at racially enlightened Grambling? 0%, from what I have
been able to determine.
If diversity is the answer to the
ills of our society, let those schools lead by example. Maybe
then one of the historically black colleges will become a
national power in football.
Commentary by Mark Owen
WSU WR/Punt Returner Michael Bumpus May Not Play vs. Grambling
Michael suffered an ankle injury vs. Nevada that
may keep him out of this Saturdays game. It must have
swollen later, because he apparently injured it BEFORE his
record breaking punt return of 87 yards for a touchdown Saturday
against Nevada. Lorenzo Bursey is his replacement on punt
returns. I guess that means that if the game is close, he
will play.
So who is Lorenzo Bursey? He is a JC transfer from
West LA College, and started High School at Beverly Hills High
in California. He was mixed up in an illegal recruiting
scandal at in High School when he changed schools to Long Beach
Poly (Yes, the school Bellevue beat last night) after becoming a star player at Beverly Hills High.
The coach at Beverly Hills, Carter Paysinger then allegedly tried to ruin
Burseys football career, according to a report found on
http://www.beverlyunderground.com/. According to
Burseys' father there were several classes that Bursey was
taking but that did not get NCAA accreditation, because of the coach
at Beverly Hills. That caused Oregon State to revoke his
acceptance to that University.
"Despite graduating with 30-40 extra credits, he was one
semester of English short of meeting the requirements.
Bursey had no idea until it was too late."
According to sources at Beverly underground Coach Paysinger also
sabotaged Bursey with the UCLA coaches. Bursey eventually
ended up at West LA College, where he compiled 1,025 yards and five touchdowns on the ground, averaged
5.9 yards per carry, chipped in 260 receiving yards and 248
return yards for a total of 1,533 all-purpose yards on the one
season he played there, which caught the attention of the WSU
coaching staff. He was offered a Scholarship by WSU this
year.
Is he good at returning punts? Hell, I don't know. I
do know he won't be as good as Michael Bumpus, but he'll get his
shot Saturday against Grambling.
WSU 48 - Grambling State 7
After Grambling won 44 last Saturday I wondered if
my prediction of 54
- 13 was too high, but it turned out just about right.
Those who predicted a closer game were just being tactful
(or Grambling homers). It was the last of three games
allowing WSU the luxury of seeing everyone get into the game but
did little to tell us how good the Cougars really are.
That test will begin in two weeks against a middle of the road
Oregon State team.
Alex Brink gave us our the only scare of the game on the first play from
scrimmage for WSU, when he one handed the ball onto the turf and right into the hands of
Grambling. Everyone thought oh no, and visions of incredible upsets went
through the mind of everyone on both sides of the ball. Grambling was not
able to move the ball and had to settle for a field goal attempt from the 8 yard
line, which they missed (How do you do that?).
After that "back breaking stop" WSU proceeded to roll down the field 80
yards in just 7 plays. Jerome Harrison scored on a one yard run to make the
score 6-0. Langley made the PAT and the route was on.
Grambling took the ensuing kick off, ran one play and fumbled. This
time it took WSU two runs for Harrison to score (But he was really in the end
zone on the first try). the extra point was good and the cougars lead 14-0 with
only 6 minutes gone in the first quarter.
Later in the first quarter the Grambling punter fumbled the ball and WSU
recovered at the Grambling 18 yard line. Brink was able to toss the ball
to J Hill for an easy score, with the PAT the score was 21-0. Grambling
had a hard time holding onto the ball all day. They recovered the
ball several times after putting it on the ground themselves, in addition to the
times that WSU took the ball away from them.
Josh Swogger got playing time
in this game, as did every other Cougar that had a number on his back.
While Brink played just fine, he wasn't spectacular, as he should have been
against a team this far below WSU in ability. Jerome Harrison and Jason
Hill carried the load (Harrison 26 rushes for 121 yards and 3 touchdowns, Hill
had 10 receptions for 139 yards). When you add Woolridges 14 rushes for 109
yards you get the feeling that the running game is starting to shape up.
This was Jerome Harrison's 6th 100-yard game in a row.
Defensively WSU gave up a lot of yardage through the air, but
stiffened up inside the red zone. It is troubling that Grambling
State Quarterback Bruce Eugene tallied 197 yards passing.
If WSU wants to avoid being blown out by the better Pac-10
teams, the secondary will need to play much better. With
all of that passing WSU didn't come up with a single
interception, even though they came close twice. Kudos to
their quarterback and receiving core. If Grambling could
have run the ball on WSU they would have scored at least a few
times. The WSU defense against the run was stout, allowing
Grambling only 11 yards on the ground.
Grambling's longest and only successful drive of the day was
late in the third quarter that went for 10 plays and 80 yards,
against mostly the WSU 2nd string defense.
Almost the entire 4th quarter went by quickly as both teams
basically ran the ball into the defensive line of the other team
to get the game over quickly. For instance WSU's final
possession consisted of 10 plays, all of which were hand offs to
DeMaundray Woolridge, 6 of which were directly up the middle.
Grambling is so far beneath the Cougars that this still resulted
in a 57 yard drive that stalled at the Grambling 4 yard line as
WSU tried to not embarrass Grambling any further.
By the way, Lorenzo Bursey did get into the game, and
returned one kick off 21 yards. Go Lorenzo! After hearing
about the scandal (see the next article) he went through in High
School you've got to root for the guy.
The best thing about this game is that no one was injured
that won't be better by the OSU game.
All of these points were scored while WSU played a very
simple offense that seemed designed to not give anything away to
WSU's next opponent, Oregon State (OSU lost to Louisville 63-27
Saturday). WSU should be able to beat Oregon State when
they meet in Corvallis October 1st, but the game will be much
closer than the games WSU has already played. The debacle
Oregon State played today against Louisville is not
representative of how good the Beavers are. Louisville
came into that game ranked 11th and should move up at least one
spot after that performance. I know you haven't forgotten,
but WSU hasn't played ANYONE yet. The easy early season
continues, though as WSU gets a week off to prepare for Oregon
State and get people like Michael Bumpus and Will Derting to
100% before the real grind begins.
UCLA
Senior Wide Receiver lost for Season.
Junior Taylor - His name is Junior, this was to be
his Senior year - Probably UCLA's best wide receiver, was lost
for the season Saturday when he tore his anterior cruciate
ligament in his left knee. While that makes things a
little easier for WSU, the fact that UCLA beat the Oklahoma
Sooners 41-24 on Saturday says that UCLA is a better team than
some suspected. WSU plays UCLA on October 15th in Pullman.
UW
Thrashed by Notre Dame
The Washington Huskies lived down to their
reputation Saturday, bowing down to the Irish 36-17 (It wasn't
that close). The beautiful thing is, the score is about
what everyone expected. It's enough to make you want to
watch the broadcast, isn't it?
WSU Season finally begins Saturday at Oregon State
Your Washington State University Cougars get
to lace them up against their first Pac-10 opponent this week,
as they head into Corvallis for the Conference opener.
Thank goodness, it feels like we've been waiting in the green
room for the last 4 weeks. The players must feel the same way.
Oregon State is coming off of a thrashing on Saturday by Arizona
State (ASU 42 - OSU 24) including giving up an awful 28 points
to the Sun Devils in the third quarter alone. The Beavers
turned the ball over 6 times (3/3)! Is WSU as good as ASU?
Probably not yet, but fortunately we don't play them for several
weeks. OSU also lost two weeks ago to a decent Louisville
team, and lost buy a much larger margin than expected.
Before the season began Oregon State was picked to finish one
spot behind us in the standings, and was ranked by the Athlon
pre-season guide as number 53 to our 50. Their strength is
on offense, particularly the wide receiver and tight end
positions. A WSU win depends upon stopping the fabulous
OSU receiving core, including Mike Hass. Arizona State was
not able to stop them, as the OSU offense piled up 525 yards of
total offense. Take away the 6 turnovers and OSU could
have won that game. We can't count on 6 turnovers this
week, so our defense will have to find a way to get to the
quarterback quickly. I don't believe our secondary can run
with OSU after seeing the Idaho receivers beat us several
times. Even Grambling was able to get behind them, though
the quarterback was unable to get the ball to them when they
did.
This Saturday Vegas will be giving the nod to WSU, even in
Corvallis. I also pick WSU to win this game 28-27,
counting on our defense to at least slow down Mike Hass and
friends. It will be a much tougher game than the easy wins
by us and losses by them indicate, particularly because the game
is not in Pullman.
After this its back to Pullman against and average Stanford
squad.
Coach Doba derided the NCAA
red shirt policy Tuesday, saying:
"...When you Red Shirt it's like dying a year early, It's a
year of your life wasted I try to tell kids that.
That's why I wish the NCAA would just give us that 5th year and
let everybody play 5 years of eligibility, it would be better
for the graduation rates, and I think better for the kids."
Maybe he's right. The current system can derail the
attitude of a marginal player. It would be interesting to
see what the percentage of red shirts that leave school or never
graduate is vs. the graduation rates of football players that
don't red shirt. The flip side is that red shirting has
allowed teams to spread out the years of good players backing up
better players, instead of having two great quarterbacks
graduating in the same year, for instance.
Last year in at Oregon State
we were embarrassed for the first time as a Doba coached team,
with a complete offensive collapse. If you don't remember,
it was Alex Brinks first start, and the offense was 1 for 14 in
third down conversions, losing 38 to 12. On the flip side
it was the game that Jerome Harrison began to assert himself as
the lone Cougar Running back with punch.
WSU Coach
Bill Doba on Oregon State:
Coach Doba was very complimentary towards OSU
in his press conference this week, noting that they looked
better than ASU everywhere except on the Scoreboard. The
difference was giving the ASU offense the short field because of
the 6 turnovers and 8 sacks. He also singled out Bryan
Olsen for stepping up with a couple tackles against Grambling
last week.
About the soft WSU early season schedule vs. Oregon
State's tougher one he said:
"I think if you have young team, and you go out and get beat
playing a top 20..... a tough schedule early and you lose ball
games it can really hurt your self confidence and you have a
hard time getting 'em back. But if you have an experienced
team, like we should have next year that's why I wasn't opposed
to opening up with Auburn, A really good football team, and if
we happen to not be successful down there, I think these
kids are mature enough to overcome it and come back the next
week and play tough."
WSU goes into this weekend a very healthy team, the only
major player not available is Ropati Pitoitua. They are going to
jog him some next week and he may be available in limited duty
against Stanford.
How good
is OSU receiver Mike Hass?
Against USC the last two years he made 16
catches for 327 yards. You watch him and wonder how much
better the Cougars would be if they had just offered him a
scholarship (No one else did). He reminds me of Steve
Largent - not supposed to be big enough or fast enough, but
still manages to make the defense look slow and stupid week in
and week out. Bud Withers wrote an awesome article about
Hass that gives you a sense of how good he really is,
click here to read it. Of course this weekend we hope
that Will Derting and company will be able to slow down the OSU
receivers. Derting can cover Hass, the question is how
often will they be within 10 yards of each other. With
Will healthy offenses tend to play call more down the sides or
over the top of him. You seldom see that slant route
across the middle against the Cougs, even when the cougars are
blitzing. "Listen" for that Saturday? So far there is no
scheduled television coverage, so those not actually at the game
will have only the theater of the mind created by Bob Robertson.
We love you Bob, but we'd rather watch it! If you actually
make it to the game (I can't) please email me your impressions
and we'll post them. Pictures would be welcome as well.
Send them here.
I was So
excited at halftime....OSU 44 - WSU 33.
Visions of an undefeated season. Thoughts like
"Why didn't we play someone tougher early to show the nation how
good this team is going to be?" ran through many Cougars heads
as WSU rolled up an easy half time lead of 30-16. With
half time stats like:
Jason Hill, 21 grabs for 179 yards and 1 touchdown
Jerome Harrison 119 yards on 24 carries and 3 touchdowns
Alex Brink well on his way to a team record setting 531 yards
through the air.
we Cougar faithful were wallowing in our own greatness...
Unfortunately, in the other locker room OSU, far from
acknowledging our destiny, was preparing a defensive resurgence
that would surprise and stop our offense cold in the 3rd
quarter, force the Cougar defense away from the run and allow Jerome Harrison only 1 yard
rushing in the third quarter when we needed it most. Even
though OSU only scored 7 points in the third quarter they gained
momentum as each drive went by. The Cougar defense saved two touchdowns by OSU in the third quarter,
one on an interception in the end zone, another on an awesome
4th and 1 stand on the 10 yard line. The fact that OSU
went for it instead of settling for the field goal showed how
much confidence OSU had in their ability to move the ball.
But it was the WSU offense that moved the ball best for OSU from
that moment on, as Alex Brink threw an interception in the next
drive that allowed OSU the short field. They scored, and
the momentum really swung to Oregon State. WSU was on its heels
the rest of the day.
There were two key plays in the second half that made the OSU
come back possible, the first was in the third quarter, when
Jason Hill limped off of the field with an upper thigh bruise,
never to return. The second was a play in the 4th quarter,
with 8 minutes to go, when Brink connected with Michael Bumpus
for what looked like a sure touchdown. 40 yards later an
OSU player punched the ball lose and the resulting fumble was
returned for 19 yards. Three plays later Matt Moore
escaped Will Derting and lobbed a bomb to Hass (You knew it was
going to be him, didn't you?) and 64 yards later what
should have been a comfortable 10 point WSU lead had turned into
a 4 point deficit.
Things just kept getting worse until WSU limped off of the
field at the final gun. In the 4th quarter WSU coughed up
the ball 4 times in what has to go down as one of the most
depressing
quarters ever for a WSU offense, in the middle of one of the
best offensive performances ever - how does that happen? OSU knows,
they piled up 525 yards to ASU just last week, and lost because
of 6 turn overs. They were happy to have the shoe on the
other foot this week.
OSU is not one of the best teams in the Pac-10. If the
cougars are going anywhere this year, the team that waltzed up
and down the field in the first half is the one that has to show
up consistently from now on. We found out just how
important Jason Hill is to this offense, and so did everyone
else in the Pac-10. Watch for a more concerted effort to
shut him down from this point forward.
WSU adds
injury to insult - Will Derting out 2-4 weeks.
What could be worse than collapsing against
OSU? Collapsing and losing several players. Everyone saw
or heard Jason Hill suffered a quadraceps contusion in the third quarter right before
our epic collapse began, and while he probably will be back this
week, some other players won't be back so quickly.
Cornerback Alex Teems is unlikely to play, and neither is
standout linebacker Will Derting, who got stepped on by a
defensive lineman and Will suffered an ugly injury to his medial
collateral ligament in his left knee. He is out 2-4 weeks.
By the way, the answer to the burning question in the 4th
quarter was "Uh, we forgot". The reason DeMaundray
Woolridge never made it into the game as a change up for Jerome
Harrison was that coaches somehow didn't think about it.
DeMaundray is not as good as Jerome (Yet), but after OSU figured
Harrison out in the third quarter you really expected to see
Woolridge get some carries. He has sparkled in his limited
playing time so far, albeit against lesser teams. You can
bet he'll get a couple carries against Stanford. Its just
another indication of the panic that set in on the WSU sideline
as they realized how well OSU adjusted at half time (and how
poorly we did). Tuesday we'll start talking about Stanford
(Thank you lord!).
Huskies
Lose again. Is local Indian gambling involved.?
Since illegally firing UW Coach "Slick" Rick
Neuheisel for gambling with friends (Thank Clete Casper the next
time you see him) and replacing him with Keith Gilbertson in
July of 2003, the Huskies have struggled to an 8 and 20 record
over the past 3 years. That includs a 1 and 10 record last
year and 1 for 4 so far this year. Could it be that local Indian
gambling interests, aiming to punish the UW for firing Neuheisel
and set a chilling example for others, have fixed the games?
Has Indian organized crime been buying off officials and Husky
players to ensure the worst possible results for the Dawgs of
Montlake? After another not so crushing loss to UCLA 21-17
last weekend (They are getting used to it after all), could it
be that it's not really their fault? UW alumni may wonder,
but we know better. The Huskies are finally taking their
rightful place in the world as the new moped in the Pac-10.
Cougar fans can continue to bask in Husky quotes such as "This
one cuts deep", "We're going to use this experience as a
positive and move forward" (Both from UW linebacker Scott
White), and "We all go through growing pains" (UW Offensive
Coordinator Tim Lappano).
Most expected "Tyee" Willingham to breath some
life into the Huskies and at least take them to the middle of
the conference, but once again the Huskies are going nowhere
except the bottom of the Pac-10. Man, I never get tired of
writing that....
WSU Coach
Bill Doba wishes the games were shorter
I read in a column by Craig Smith of the
Seattle Times that coach Doba thinks college football games are
too long, and blames Will Dertings injury on the excessive
number of clock stoppages in the NCAA vs. the NFL. We hear
you coach, we wish Saturdays game had ended sooner too!
You would think that all of the clock stoppages, while extending
the game, also give the players another second or two to catch
their breath.
Will Derting is supposed to be out for a month. At some
point (today, actually) the "Injury prone" label will be affixed
to Will. He has yet to play a full season without
significant time sidelined by injuries. As a freshman he
missed half the season with a high ankle sprain, last year he
had that club on his hand because of a wrist injury, now this.
A month means he will miss games against Stanford, California,
UCLA, and, oh yeah, USC. The final three are the only
undefeated teams left in the Pac-10. If we can't beat
Stanford Saturday (We will), things could get ugly.
WSU vs.
Stanford Game Day
The strength of the Stanford football team
this year is the new coach Walt Harris, hired in the off season
to replace the inept Buddy Teevens (How inept was he? When
he was a kid his last name was "Stevens"). The frequent
coaching and offensive coordinator turn over at Stanford has had
the expected result in the years since Tyrone Willingham left,
with losses piling up like lumber on a big rig. Walt
Harris (Like each coach before him, of course) was hired to stop
that cycle. Harris is known as a quarterbacks coach,
perfect for a school that still holds John Elway up as the
ultimate college quarterback. So far the report card
hasn't looked good. A loss to UC Davis this year indicates
that Elway's successor is probably not on campus. With 17
returning starters they are a team that has more experience than
most Pac-10 teams, so you would think they would be able to
learn the new system quickly. WSU is a good test for them.
We are seen as an average Pac-10 team at this point, even though
we think otherwise.
Even when Stanford is good we expect to beat
them, and this year is no exception. This should be a fun one for the Cougars, and
one step closer to a bowl game. Last week they were beaten by Oregon
by roughly the same margin OSU beat us, but we we won't let that
second half performance happen again. Their last in the Pac-10 offense
will not be able to catch up to us, even without Will Derting.
Also look for an improvement in our special teams as Coach Doba
switches out younger players (Worked against Grambling, but not
the Pac-10) for more experienced ones from the regular lineup.
No TV again this week.
Prediction: WSU 24, Stanford 10.
The Best Places to Watch WSU on
the Internet?
Yahoo and ESPN. No Really. Did you know that almost all
sports websites get the same information at the same time from
the same place? That place is http://biz.stats.com/. They
collect the stats, including play by play, and farm it out to
everyone else, so that they don't have to send someone
themselves. Who uses this service? Here is partial
list: Yahoo, EA Sports, Fox Sports, DirecTV, ESPN.com, SI.com,
MSNBC and AOL. Yup, that's pretty much everyone who is
anyone in sports. Sites like ESPN add
their own content for games they are covering, and many of these
outlets have some kind of writer on staff that creates original
content for the site. But for play by play and in the game
stats they all come from the same place. I found ESPN and Yahoo to
be quicker at posting things and their presentation of the
information seems more
complete that's why both get 5 Cougs out of 5.
ESPN in particular have an awesome in game pop-up that will blow
you away (click on "Gamecast" in the . If you have found a site that you really like for that let us
know, so we can include it!
Email us here.
If you want to just go to the WSU Yahoo sight right now click
Yahoo. For
ESPN (The rest of site does not look as cool as the Gamecast)
click
ESPN.
If you want a more in depth review of the sites I looked through
along with links to them, click
Review
of internet College football sites.
Of course, to get the WSU play by play broadcast with Bob
Robertson and company you need to pay for the subscription
click here. Make sure you come back to
http://www.coug.com/ for the
best insight into the games and commentary afterwards!
WSU loses
to Stanford 21 - 24
let the quarterback controversy begin.
Last week we found out what happened when Jason Hill doesn't
play, this week we found out what happens when neither Jason
Hill or Derting Plays for this years Cougs. The
answer is, they are not good enough to win.
Jerome Harrison
tried hard to take the team on his back Saturday
against Stanford. He rushed 29 times for 218 yards, his
8th Straight 100 yard plus game in a row. Unfortunately the rest of the
team didn't step up and help him. Alex Brink (13/26
for 158 yards and 2 interceptions) was so cautious after his
first interception that he became a non-factor for much of the
game. That's a bad thing when you are the Quarterback.
After last week and this week there will certainly be a
quarterback controversy, even if the coaches don't admit it out
loud. Teams that lose when they should
win deserve one. I found myself watching for that one
drive of the game that coaches play the backup QB, to see what
Josh Swogger could do if given the chance. If he got into
the game I missed it.
All of a sudden the
weakest part of this team seems to be Alex Brinks propensity to
throw to the other team. He didn't have Jason Hill this
week, but that is not an excuse to throw interceptions.
With Jerome Harrison running wild you knew that there was a lot
of man to man coverage in the secondary, but that didn't seem to
matter.
At the half Coach Doba mentioned mistakes like the Michael
Bumpus fair catch of a punt on the Cougar 1 yard line, and was
most concerned about the Stanford offensive line that was giving
their quarterback great protection. Time for that awesome
halftime pep talk to make sure recent history didn't repeat
itself.
Last week we came out flat in the third quarter and it went
down hill from there. You would expect WSU to come out
fired up this week to make sure that didn't happen again.....3
and out, punt on 4th and 10. What would it take to light
the fire under the WSU offense? You know that during
halftime the Stanford coach
said something like "If we come out strong in the third quarter
we can beat WSU mentally and win this game". Stanford tried to do just that, exploding down the field twice,
missing a field goal the first time but scoring a touchdown the second.
At 7:55 to go in the third quarter Stanford had twice the
time of possession that we did (24:27 to 12:38). WSU just
could not get their offense off of the field. If it
weren't for a missed field goal and a blocked field goal we
would have been even further behind. At that point things
started to feel very familiar. As with Oregon State, we were
not able to stop the Cardinal passing game. It was only a
matter of time until they broke one and scored, which they did
at 7:55 left in the 3rd quarter to go ahead 14 - 7.
Trandon Harvey caught a huge pass for 45 yards in the ensuing
drive that seemed to spark the Cougars - 3 plays later Jerome
Harrison rushed 8 yards around the right end for a touchdown.
Stanford scores 7 again, WSU answers with 7 again.... Of course
you can't actually WIN a game doing that.
In the 4th quarter Stanford tacked on a 36 yard field go by
Michael Sgroi to go up by 10 points.
In the final minutes of the game WSU forced a Stanford
punt and took over the ball with 1:01 left to play. WSU's
strategy should have been run Jerome Harrison until Stanford
stacked to stop him, then throw a touchdown pass to win the game
in the final seconds. They seemed to be doing that and
Jerome did his part. First down 13 yards for
Harrison, then an incomplete pass by Alex brink, next play 10 yards for
Harrison, then a penalty of 5 yards. On the final Cougar
play Trandon Harvey was running free down the field waiting for
the winning touchdown grab, but Alex chose instead to pass
directly at Stanford's Nick Sanchez and was intercepted. Game
over, WSU loses to Stanford 21 -24. My Dad wants Dobas' head on
a platter, but he'll get over it.
Josh Swogger will certainly get another look this week in
practice. He seemed to win the position at the end of
spring training, but the job was given to Alex (I agreed with
the "He'll be quarterback for us one more year than Swogger"
mindset). That is not looking like a good decision now.
In the Cougar "you know your
record could be better" department:
Kyle Basler collected 218 punting yards and moved into first
place ahead of Gavin Hedrick on the WSU career list for punt
yardage with 9,573. That is one of those records you only
get if you punt A LOT during your career. If this years
cougar squad keeps up its current pace of 3 and outs, Kyles' leg
might fall off.
How tough is Alex Brink?
When I watched the highlights on the
"Official" website yesterday (look at the Stanford
highlights) I noticed that even when Alex has time he seems to
roll out or throw off of his back foot instead of standing tall
in the pocket. You just can't get any zip on the ball that
way. (Actually Ryan Leaf used to do that all the time, but
his throwing arm was bigger than Alex Brinks' leg). Even
when he steps into the throw the ball doesn't seem to jump out
of his hand, but looks soft. Is that something coach
Rosenbaugh trained him to do? Here is the question:
is our offensive line so bad that Alex has to run backwards just
to buy time? Or is Alex get happy feet because he is
mentally weak and not tough enough to stand in there and take
the hits?
My evidence of a lack of toughness is one play in the second
quarter of the Stanford game. WSU had started the drive on
the 11 yard line and had driven to the Stanford 36. On
second and six Alex Brink faked a hand off, ran the ball around
the left side of the line, and scooted up the sideline for a
solid 11 yard gain, but hopped out of bounds long before any of
the defensive players were within shouting distance of him.
from the looks of it he could have gained at least 5 more yards,
the defenders were all the way up at the 10 yard line. We'll
never know because he quit on the play to make sure he didn't
take a hit. Those extra yards might have led to a
touchdown, and certainly would have given us better field
position for the field goal attempt (Missed) that followed.
If that turns into 3 points the game goes into overtime, 7 and
we win. It didn't look like much at the time, but looking
back on it, Alex Brink may have turned the
tide/momentum/direction/outcome of the game on that one play.
I've found that the toughness and attitude of the Quarterback is
contagious and can inspire the whole team. Think of the
toughness of our past great quarterbacks, from Thompson, to
Rypien, Bledsoe, Leaf, even Jason Gesser (who was no rock
physically). Alex needs to learn that toughness quick and
stop worrying about taking a hit that lets Swogger take his job.
It's weird to question Alex two weeks after setting a passing
record, but if you can't lead the team to a win, it doesn't mean
anything.
WSU vs.
UCLA Does history make any difference?
The Cougars and Bruins are both using past years performance to
motivate themselves this week - The Cougars hanging their hat on
the fact that WSU has won the last four games, UCLA taking that
as motivation to make sure it doesn't happen again. Ranked
number 12 in the country and coming off of a 47-40 win against
previously unbeaten California they feel much better about
themselves than they did after their lackluster game against
Washington two weeks ago. In my pre-season analysis I was
hoping that we could sneak up on UCLA and beat them 17-14 with a
strong defensive effort. After the past couple of defensive
performances that won't happen. Our defense hasn't proven
itself capable of stopping even the bad teams in the Pac-10, and
Will Derting won't be back for a month. After last week I
fear a win by UCLA with a margin of 40 or more, especially since
linebacker is one of UCLA's strong areas and Alex is sure to
heave at least one lame duck pass their way. So I will
split the difference and predict a UCLA win 31-21. Please
prove me wrong! Watch UCLA stack the D line and game plan
100% to stop Jerome Harrison and dare Alex Brink to beat them.
Alex and the receiving core will need to have an exceptional
day, and the defense will need to find itself for us to win.
When was the last
time a Cougar used a racial slur around you?
The last racial slur I heard was when the movie "White men can't
jump" was released in theaters. I've always taken the
position that it's not racist if its true, but that particular
myth doesn't sit well with the current three time world title
holder Stefan Holm of Sweden (who is really, really, white).
The Current (pre-drug testing) World Record holder is Cuban
(Neither Black nor White, just ask Fidel Castro).
In an LA
paper UCLA player Jarrod Page claimed that WSU fans are racists,
because he said he heard racial slurs thrown at him
when he was in Pullman in 2003. Coach Doba went out on a
limb last night and came out against racial slurs. All WSU fans know what the
response would be if you heard a racial slur like the "N" word
at a game: universal shock and condemnation, right? And
that would be if it were in the stands between white people.
That has not happened within my earshot in the 25 years I've
attended Cougar football games. To have something like that
shouted to the opposing players is something I believe could
happen, because anything COULD happen when people have been
drinking. Even if it did, to take a brush and paint all
Cougars with it because you heard one comment by a drunk guy
(who may have been black, for all we know: "Hey Joe! Man,
I was so drunk yesterday do you know what I did?") is judging a
whole group of people unfairly based upon your own prejudice
against that group of....hey.... wait a second...
Coach Dorrell of UCLA said "...it happens everywhere".
Really? Take a camera with you and document it, because I
would love to see it. Strangely, with all of the video
cameras around sports the number of incidents reported is miniscule.
Making a racial slur against blacks is the one thing for which
"freedom of speech" is curtailed and your union won't protect
you. One racist comment and you lose your job, your
reputation, and any future in public life even if you didn't DO
anything. If people know you think it, that's
enough.
If you are a WSU fan this weekend listen up and check to see
if you hear a racial slur, thrown at others or told between two
people. I doubt seriously you will. Why? Most of us really don't give a damn
one way or the other and would rather not be bothered. We
want to go to the game, relax, and cheer for our team (even the
black players, no kidding). As with Grambling a few weeks
ago, for most of us the only time race is discussed in our
society is when black people bring it up.
By the way Jarrod, if a Cougar fan says you suck, it's not
because you're black, it's because you play for UCLA.
More over reaction
by WSU security
Based upon one off hand comment by UCLA player
Jarrad Page claiming fans yelled racial slurs at him after the
2003 game in Pullman, WSU security is locking off even more of
the area around Bohler gym from Cougar Alumni and students
until after the opposing players have made it to the locker
room. How long is it until they lock the gates of the
stadium and announce "Please wait in your seats quietly while
opposing team showers, dresses, gets on their bus and heads for
the airport."? The last time an opposing player was hurt
in any way by cougar fans was when? Are they really afraid
some unknown drunk idiot is going to attack the whole UCLA
football team? Or are they over reacting to save face.
All they have done is give credence to the thought that opposing
teams, and in particular black players, have something to fear
from the Cougar fans after the game. We all know better.
I did f
