Welcome to another radio show recap, post-bye-week edition.  Lots to get to, so here we go:

1)  Bud Nameck asked about the bye week.  Coach Wulff said that "everyone feels better" and it was a good "mental and physical" break that they needed.  Wulff said that it was a good time off "for the players to relax, reflect and regroup, and to think about what they can do the rest of the season to become better football players." 

2) Right away, injuries.  Right now, looks like DT Bernard Wolfgramm will be back.  Also on defense, Alex Hoffman-Ellis at linebacker is over his staph infection and "should be back" according to coach Wulff.  Offensively, Zack Williams will be back and will start at left guard, which is great news.  Center Kenny Alfred has recovered from the deep gash on his knee, just having his stitches removed yesterday, and will be "100% by Saturday."  Meanwhile BJ Guerra and Steven Ayers are both described as "limited, but possible" this week.  But those two guys, Guerra and Ayers, are definitely not 100%.   We will see what happens there, but it could still be a lot of youth up front his week?

Read on....


3) Bud asked about recruiting during the bye week.  Wulff said it gave them a great chance as a staff to get out and see some players that have already committed to them, as well as some they haven't even seen before.  All seven coaches were out late last week and working hard to maximize their allowable visits/trips.  The NCAA rule currently is that right now, they have a TOTAL of 42 days that a coach can be out recruiting during the regular season.  But if one coach goes out for one day, that goes against the 42 allowed.  After last week, they are really low on their number of allowed trips.  In fact, they will have a couple of coaches out this coming Friday in the Bay Area, and then as coach Wulff says, "that's it for us until December" when the NCAA rule changes for trips. 

Wulff says recruiting is going better than ever, and that right now, "things are rolling."  The bye week was very successful for them.  A caller asked about the recruiting message of playing early, and how the young frosh playing now is working with current recruiting?  Wulff said "no doubt it helps" and that it shows that "young players can get a chance to play in the Pac-10 early in their college career and gain some valuable experience." 

Meanwhile Wulff did say that a lot of the young frosh playing right now isn't exactly by choice.  It's "just how young we are.  We aren't exactly bypassing a bunch of juniors and seniors right now in order to play the young kids."  Wulff said the usual issue of lack of depth in the upper-classmen is a problem, so they really don't have a choice but to play some of the young guys.  Wulff did say that the juniors and seniors they have now are playing as hard as they can, but they "don't have any strength in numbers right now."  But the "bright light is that these young players keep growing.  We want it to happen fast, but unfortunately it won't.  But it WILL OCCUR, and it is coming." 

4) A caller asked about the CO-D-coordinators, and why are we the only Pac-10 team to have it this way?  Wulff said the following: 

"Number one, Jody Sears had been at EWU for five years, and two of those years, we had the number one defense in the conference.  Overall we won three conference titles in those five years.  Jody has been calling defenses as a coordinator on gamedays for the last six years, and he deserves this opportunity at WSU.  Number two, Chris Ball has a long history of coaching, at WSU a couple of times as well as other places, and he is very good at what he does."  Wulff then said that "both of those guys work together really well, they put the game plan together, and it just works.  But people are making a bigger deal out of it than it really is.  It works here with this coaching staff because of the lack of ego's.  Nobody cares who gets the credit or who has the title, we all just want to win.  This is a very selfless staff." 

5) A caller asked about the o-line, and the overwhelming feeling it was watching them vs. ASU.  Wulff said without a doubt, "we had some young guys with wide eyes" vs. ASU, and some of them "were a little shell-shocked by what ASU threw at them."  ASU rolls with a lot of big, strong upper-classmen up front, and it really showed during that game.  But on the flip side, Wulff said while it is really tough, these young guys are "learning a lot, and we are learning a lot about them as well.  In the end these experiences will pay off, and we all believe that the o-line will be a strength of our football team down the road." 

6) Bud asked a question about how much they use the bye week to prep for the upcoming opponent during practices vs. just doing your normal things?  Wulff said that you "have to be careful as a coaching staff.  If you spend TOO much time on the upcoming opponent, you run the risk of losing your team a little bit.  If you have too much prep time, you often times come out a little flat and not as crisp as you want to be.  You can't do too much."  He also said that last week, "we didn't spend a whole lot of time on Cal, to be honest.  Just a little bit on a couple of days of practice, but mainly we worked on cleaning up some things on our end, working on fundamentals, that sort of thing."  But again, you just have to be careful you don't try to do too much.

Bud also asked about how the heck do you simulate the kind of speed and ability you are going to see vs. Cal with your scout team?  Wulff said that's really not possible, and if "we had speed like that, it wouldn't be on the scout team!"  :)  But a lot of times, what Wulff and the rest will do is actually have the #1 offense go up against the #1 defense, and have that #1 offense run some of, say, Cal's plays, just to give them a little faster look compared to what the scout team can provide.  But it's really very difficult to simulate. 

7) More on Cal - Bud mentioned that even though Cal struggled with six total points vs. Oregon and USC, did you know that they STILL lead the Pac-10 in scoring offense?  Bud asked Wulff about what Cal did so well vs. UCLA, scoring 45 points and racking up all those yards.  Wulff said that "Cal came off the bye week and they just looked so much better at QB.  They looked a little more basic on film on offense, and they went back to running it a little more with their two great backs (Shane Vareen and of course, Jahvid Best)."  But they got some really big plays by the running backs, with Best and his 93-yard TD run.  Wulff did say that "we are excited to play Cal after what happened last year, and the defense just played so poorly.  They are excited to get back out there and face them again, and we really want to play well defensively this week." 

Bud brought up Cal's defense, and that it seemed like UCLA was able to do some things with their 25 points and 448 yards of offense last week?  Wulff said "UCLA hit on a big TD run, plus had some big pass plays and converted some key third downs.  UCLA had a good day, and a very good game plan."  But, still, "Cal's defense is as talented as ANYONE we will see this year, and that includes USC. They have great speed and they are very physical.  They have three seniors in the secondary and their d-line and linebackers are very stout.  It will be a big challenge for our offense." 

And talking about Cal's defense, of course Bob Gregory was brought up.  Wulff said Gregory has done "a great job down there and they have really developed a system.  They recruit well and bring in lots of talent with every class.  They have built up some impressive depth and now they can cycle it through.  So now you see the 4th and 5th year players who are both physically mature, but also mentally have been in the same system for four or five years.  They are ready physically and mentally to play well in the system."

8)  Bud asked about Jeff Tuel and his playing in the Bay Area, kinda/sorta close to Fresno?  Maybe not any closer than the LA schools, but anyway, sure, "Jeff Tuel is very excited and feels really good physically right now" according to Wulff.  But Wulff also said that "we have others from that area who are excited for this game, and we are also recruiting a LOT of Northern California players, and that is an area we will continue to recruit in the future."   I believe this more or less goes with what our own Coug-a-Sutra has been reporting, that he has heard Wulff and company have made their presence known all over that northern Cali area?  

9)  Bud asked "wouldn't it be great if you guys could get an EARLY LEAD??" Yeah, we've heard that all season around here.  Anyway, Wulff replied "yeah, it would!"  Wulff said "to just have that feeling of getting on top of someone early, I don't think we can say enough about how far that could go for a young team's confidence.  But we just haven't been able to do that."  Bud asked if it's a reflection of the offense just coming out, trying too hard to make something happen early?  Wulff said "no doubt, they have been pressing too much early on.  We are too tight on offense.  We have to learn to relax a little bit, but have to be intense and focus.  But we need to develop some confidence, and early success would go a long way." 

10)  Finally, congrats to Reid Forrest, Kenny Alfred, Chima Nwachukwu and Travis Long. They all were named on the Phil Steele mid-season All-Pac-10 teams.  Forrest as first-team punter, Alfred as second-team center, and Chima and Long were third-team as safety and defensive end respectively.  And, one last thing - the 99-yard TD pass from Jeff Tuel to Johnny Forzani?  Not only is it the longest play in WSU history, but, the Pac-10 has now confirmed that it is the longest pass play in Pac-10 history in a conference game!  The Pac-10 did say that Arizona once had a 99-yard pass play, but that was in an out-of-conference game.  To which Wulff replied "that's good, that's good." 

That's about it.  An upbeat show and Wulff sounded like they will be ready to go this Saturday.  Enjoy your morning, and of course, GO COUGS!