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Written by LucasCoug
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Friday, 05 March 2010 08:00 |
Time for another pre-spring glance at the Cougs. This time around we will take a look at the offensive line. There is nothing glamorous about the position, is there? You don't get your name in the paper and my guess is the majority of fans do not even know your name. But in my mind, it is the most important position in the game. Where would the 2009 New York Jets have finished if it wasn't for the hogmollies up front? My guess is they would have finished 5 - 11, and wouldn't have even sniffed a chance to knock off the Bengals and Bolts in the playoffs! Would Shaun Alexander have been as terrific as he was without Big Walt, Steve Hutchinson and Robbie Tobeck blocking for him? Absolutely not!
That being said, 2010 will be a new year for the Cougs up front. Gone are the head-scratching ways of former position Coach Harold Etheridge. Being that he is a former All-Pac-10 linemen himself, Coach Wulff knew the value of what a good offensive line can do for the rest of the offense. So, he made a splash this off-season when he replaced Etheridge with his old position coach, and Coug alum, Steve Morton. Morton is no lightweight either, coaching up five Pac-10 Morris Trophy winners, as well as several all-conference selections and multiple NFL draft choices. Morton's body of work is extremely impressive.
Conversely, the last two years in Pullman?? The Coug o-Line yielded something like 100 sacks; actually it was 53 sacks in 2009, dead-last in the conference and 22 away from ninth-place Cal, with 31 sacks (wow that's AWFUL!). Mel Hein and Turk Edwards had to be rolling over in their graves after performances like that...
 
Read on to take a peek at what the current o-line depth has in store, as well as a quick glance at the tight-end spot as we head into spring ball....
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Written by Coug-A-Sutra
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Friday, 05 March 2010 00:01 |
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Well, tonight our boys lost another tough one. Once again, we clawed our way back from a significant double digit first half deficit, brought the game within one on two or three different occasions, but came up short, falling to the Beavs 59-55.
Despite countless turnovers and a few CRUCIAL offensive boards that we gave up down the stretch, the BIG KEY from tonight's game is that Klay kinda-sorta-kinda regained his scoring touch.
Indeed, tonight, our main gun tallied 18 points--16 of which came in the second half. What's more, our boys outscored the Beavs 40-26 in the second half. (reminder: we'd scored right around 50 IN OUR LAST THREE GAMES!).
The reason for all this optimism following a defeat to an 8th place team? Well, its quite simple: OUR COUGARS PORTEND TO BE THE MOST DANGEROUS 10 SEED TO EVER ENTER THE PAC-10 TOURNAMENT!!!!
Mind you, in NO WAY am I saying that we will win the darn thing next week, but here's the simple truth: Right now our road to the NCAA's looks like it will be Oregon, CAL, UCLA, and the winner of the other side of the bracket.
Now, compare that to what Oregon State or Standord will face (UW, ASU, CAL). Simply put, even with one fewer game, the other side represents a much more difficult bracket to the conference title.
Moreoever, as we've seen several times, regular season champions sputter regularly in conference tournaments--particularly when they play lower seeded foes in their first game. And, last I checked, we don't match up that badly with CAL.
So, I say, give our boys a good rest on Saturday, Mr. Bone. Lets see a healthy dose of playing time from Mr. Motum, Mr Watson, Mr. Thames, and Abe. Lets see if we get their shots going in the regular season's final tilt. Moreover, since we're probably going to see Oregon again next Wednesday night, there's no need to show them ANYTHING this time around.
Lets have some fun on Saturday and then lace em up for one week of Hell Raising in LA-LA land.
Lets go Cougs! |
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Written by Sean Hawkins
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Thursday, 04 March 2010 09:52 |
So, it's March, and it's early for all things college football. SUPER early. But is it too early to look at some upcoming opponents? Maybe not, per Cougfan's latest, which examines the Okie State Cowboys and who they are bringing back next season. Or, maybe it's better said that the article highlights who Okie State ISN'T bringing back? From the article: --Oklahoma State will be replacing their star quarterback, Zac Robinson.
--They'll also be replacing four of five senior starters on the offensive line.
--Their starting running back, who gained nearly 1,200 yards last year, was a senior.
--Two of the four starting defensive linemen need to be replaced, three if you count a senior defensive end who started six games according to the official OSU site.
--In the defensive backfield, three of the four starters were seniors in 2009.
--All three OSU starting linebackers last year? They were seniors.
-- On special teams, Oklahoma State will return their punter, placekicker and long snapper. Both the return men, however, were seniors.
All told in 2010, of the starting eleven on both sides of the ball, Okie State according to various media reports will be returning just four starters on offense, three starters on defense.
Wow. I know, I know. It's early. And we'll probably see Okie State as a 21-point favorite when the first betting lines hit for next year. We'll take a harder look at Okie State later this spring, after they conclude their spring practice sessions. And by the looks of it, it's going to be an awfully important spring in Stillwater, for there should be a lot of jockeying for all the open positions! Meanwhile, Nick Daschel of Buster Sports has been ranking some positions around the Pac-10 as we head towards spring ball. Running backs here, QB's here, linebackers here. Daschel breaks things down from "Wealthy", "Healthy", and "Needs a Six Month Spring". And from a WSU perspective, no, he's not real high on any of these positions: QBs: Washington State sophomore Jeff Tuel took some licks as a true freshman in 2009. There’s talent there, but whether it emerges has a lot to do with the questionable cast surrounding Tuel on offense.
RBs: What does it say about the state of Washington State football that it loses the first running back in school history to lead the team in rushing four consecutive years (Dwight Tardy), and no one is complaining? James Montgomery could be the answer if he’s able to bounce back from a scary injury of a year ago. It’s not a pretty sight in the backfield in Pullman, however.
LBs: Washington State is always going to be in this category until the Cougars start to show they can stop a decent offense. Alex Hoffman-Ellis looks like a player.
So there you go. Now I'm not going to say Daschel is misguided here, I'm really not. But this is probably just the first real string of media previews that you are going to see that will certainly have WSU at the bottom of the conference, in pretty much everything. It is just the way it is, and until they can actually turn things around on the field, it won't change.
And he's pretty much right, isn't he? On Tuel, so much is going to depend on what goes on around him for him to take a step forward. And James Montgomery is pretty good, but again, he's coming off the tough leg injury and we have no idea if he'll be the same player next fall, and like Tuel, again, so much depends on what is happening in front of him to have a chance. And the linebackers should be much improved, and we'll get to them later, but when you were one of the worst defenses in the country in '09, there isn't much room for optimism.
But this isn't to say that 2010 is a disaster before it even starts! There is so much talk of improvement behind the scenes, and who knows, maybe we see the big step Paul Wulff has been talking about, and we see it sooner rather than later. There are some good young players in the program, players who took their lumps the last year or two, but they are going to get better. It's just easy right now to get negative simply based on what has happened, instead of thinking of the promise of tomorrow.
All for now. Go COUGS!
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Written by Sean Hawkins
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Tuesday, 02 March 2010 09:04 |
What up Cougs? With the calendar flipping over to March, MLB spring training is in full force, and the WSU baseball team is off to a fantastic 6-0 start......but hey, did you realize we're less than a month away from the beginning of spring football? Amazing. And with the hoops team strugga-LING down the stretch, all I can say is HOORAY football! That said, let's take a pre-spring practice look at the good hands people, aka the wideouts, in the third of a series prior to spring ball (check out the QBs here, and the running backs here). How do things look as we head towards the start of practices later this month? Read on......
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Written by Longball
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Sunday, 28 February 2010 16:34 |
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Amieable wins again, Booooo!
It was another wildly entertaining Senior Night on the Palouse, but this time round, the Cougs could not pull out the victory for the near sell-out crowd. From my usual perch way up in the cheap seats, it was an electric big-game atmosphere. But in the end the raucous crowd was left to file out of Beasley with our collective tails between our legs after enduring the requisite Venoy Overton jersey popping parade of classlessness, the purple faithful woofing their approval from the rafters and the fulfillment of Quincy Pondexter's guarantee of victory.
Read on for more...
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