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?
Interesting story coming out of Wisconsin last night. A player named Eric Oertel from a school called Racine Lutheran High School has given WSU a verbal commitment. Oertel is a 6-2, 195 lb running back/athlete who happens to be the leading rusher in the state of Wisconsin, already over 1900 yards and 20 TD's this year. As the article says, he also plays linebacker, with 48 solo tackles, 32 assists and 11 tackles for loss. As to where he'll play when he comes to Pullman?
"A lot of people ask me that," he said. "I really don't have a preference. Of course I like the glory of running the ball, but at the same time, I love just hitting people."
Nice. Maybe he'll be in that Ron Childs type mold, where he was recruited as a speedy athlete who ended up as a hard-hitting, physical linebacker? If he does end up on defense, it just shows the idea of the Erickson/Price philosophy, taking those fast athletes and turning them loose on defense. He's received some good accolades as well, player of the week and all that. And as his coach says:
"He lowers his shoulder and punishes people whenever he has the ball in his hands," Smith said. "And he's a fantastic defensive player, too, where he never leaves the field. There was one play where he went from one sideline to another and stopped a screen pass."
As ferocious as Oertel is on the field, he's just the opposite off the field.
"You want your son to grow up to be like him," Smith said.
It looks like he had Iowa State and Wisconsin on his list among BCS schools, but it doesn't appear that he had a full-ride offer from them, at least based on this profile from Rivals.
Here's a quick highlight of Oertel from 2008:
Not sure if he's exactly a burner, at least from that tape? And it's hard to tell based on the level of competition he's playing against, such as are there any other BCS-type athletes he's running away from? Anyway, it's a cool story, that the coaches cast their net to the midwest and pulled him in. The question is, in glancing at this year's commits, did they really need another running back/linebacker? Wulff mentioned before on the radio show that they were going to try and fill up the remaining class with some linemen, but after the WR commit over the weekend and now Oertel as well, you have 16 verbals but just one true lineman. The slots are filling up, that's for sure, so you hope there is a "run" on some hogs the rest of the way?
Happy Monday Cougs! Start of another week, and hey, we have a game this week. Fantastic. We'll have plenty of time to chew on Cal this week. But for now, I'm sure we're all waiting for some of the injury news to trickle out, positive or otherwise. I bet we get a clear picture of who's back and who's not by tomorrow or so? We'll see. They sure need some hogs back up front, and so fingers and toes seriously crossed on Zack Williams, Steven Ayers, BJ Guerra and Tyson Pencer! They sure need 'em right now.
Have ya seen the line? Cal by THIRTY FIVE. I guess that's what, less than half of the 66-3 embarrassment last year? I know it seems high, at least for this year it does. But I think it's a strong reaction to Cal's return last week, hanging 45 points on UCLA after scoring a total of six the prior two games. Then you combine that with what we last did on the road (eeeesh, Oregon), and you can see it. And we're beat up as well. So there. But remember the key thing on Vegas lines. It isn't necessarily what they think will happen. It's to generate money to come down on both sides of the line. But yeah, these Vegas guys? They tend to get these things right more often than not! So it's pretty clear we're awfully large in the underdog department this week.
Ted Miller mentioned this yesterday, about all the strong performances of the young QB's in the PAC-10. Nick Foles at Arizona and Andrew Luck at Stanford both led their teams to over 500 yards of total offense. That's fine and dandy on it's own, but then you consider that was against PAC-10 defenses? Both Arizona and Stanford have strong defensive lines, littered with upper-classmen, yet still these kid QB's combined for over 1,100 yards of total offense? Amazing. I mean it's not like they went out and tore down Portland State or something of that ilk.
All that said, with Matt Barkley shredding Notre Dame for 380 yards, and Kevin Prince throwing for 311 vs. Cal, you have to be impressed by the rise of the young PAC-10 QB's right now. But there's a name missing from that group of shining stars from Saturday, and it's Jeff Tuel.
I know it's early, in fact it's probably too early to truly compare him to the rest of those youngins. But, so far, where does our great young hope fit in with these guys? I mean really, we've seen Tuel go for about half a game vs. USC, three possessions vs. Oregon, and then what, 3/4ths of the game vs. ASU? IT IS STILL EARLY to see how he stacks up. Besides, he's not even playing with a full deck in front of him, as the offensive line can best be described as "patchwork" right about now. That's why it's so important to get the hogs healthy ASAP. Without a healthy offensive line, how in the world are we going to get anything positive out of Tuel, other than watching him run for his life the next six weeks?? I am sure I am with the vast majority of YOU, as we all want Tuel to be in this fine young group of QB's. But it's simply too early to tell.
Happy Sunday morning Cougs! Here's hoping you have all enjoyed the bye week. I know I sure did, taking some down time and not thinking a ton about the Cougs. From the tone of the blog from this week, you can probably see that. But it's always good to step back, take a breath and look around and see what else is out there, isn't it? Just got back from a jog with the dog, taking advantage of the 40-minute break between rain showers to get that wild animal some exercise. A 1-year old golden retriever who doesn't get out for a few days, then you take him for a run? More like he took ME for the run. Jeesh. But he's a good "pace car" and keeps me going up the hills, whether I want to or not!
Anyway, as with the morning jog, a lot of thoughts go racing through the mind. Here's just a few:
1) How about that UW-ASU game? Entertaining to say the least. But wow, I mean HOW IN THE WORLD did Chris McGaha get so flippin' wide open?
I know the quotes from Sarkisian after the game said that the safety bit on the out route and/or they were doubling the outside receiver, but holy moly was that a breakdown or what!? You know what I thought the first second that happened? We've NEVER seen that before....
Too easy, right? Remember Alex Brink's Final Chapter, where Brandon Gibson got behind the UW defense, all alone....after the UW secondary "bit" on the out route, letting Gibby run free? Here'a a quick Youtube reminder, if you want to go back to that crazy night in 2007.
Amazing. It was even the same FSN broadcast crew of Barry Tompkins and Petros Papadakis(spelling??).
That said, the end of game management by UW leaves a lot to be desired. Sark and Holt are the kings of high energy and are fantastic recruiters, but this is still Sark's first year as a head coach. They are going to make mistakes during games, no matter how prepared they think they might be going in. It's part of the growing process. But why they elected to throw it on 3rd down with less than a minute left deep in their own territory, stopping the clock on the incompletion? That was really weird. And of course, the breakdown in coverage at the absolute worst possible time. Somone mentioned in comments last night about the message boards at Dawgman.com, but nah, I don't even want to go there. What's the point? We don't have anything to add to the conversation, and they sure don't want to hear it. So just let 'em stew as they start to get worried about how in the world they are going to hang with the Ducks next Saturday.
Now I don't want to go all schadenfreude on UW right now, as I'm sure they are down in the dumps or whatever. And by the way, schadenfreude: Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others......uh huh.....but isn't this just a "return of balance to the force" or however you want to call it? After last week's shoe-turf TD where they had one miracle go their way, doesn't this just correct things in the football universe a week later? But things just seem, I don't know, right again.
2) What about the USC - ND game? TWO final plays, and the Irish couldn't pull it off. I think we thought that was going to happen with Clausen, that you just can't keep going to the well for the miracle finish. Eventually the luck runs out. But they sure hung in there and fought, didn't they?
I thought that sucker was over when it was 34-14 in the fourth quarter, but Clausen kept bringing 'em down the field, and USC also seemed to kinda/sorta stop playing on offense? Still though, what an entertaining game. And Matt Barkley, WOW. 380 yards passing in only his fifth start as a true frosh? What a special, special QB he is turning into.
Grippi had a good comment today, about how "football isn't as fun anymore" with all the ref involvment in the games, the replay reverals and all that. But did anyone see the flag-happy PAC-10 ref penalize USC DE Everson Griffen for flexing his arms after a QB sack?
Of all the football I watched yesterday, it was one of the least-offensive celebratory things I saw, but yet the official had to run around and throw the flag. I saw several things a lot worse in that USC - ND game alone that weren't called, including at least a 30-second celebration after a Golden Tate TD late in the game, with all sorts of antics and gestures. But that personal foul penalty on Griffin, that turned out to be a big penalty as instead of 3rd and long, it gave Notre Dame an automatic first down, and they would eventually score a TD on that drive. And again, it was a PAC-10 crew doing the USC - Notre Dame game yesterday. Ugh.
I guess refs are supposed to be like writers? You know, how they ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE THE STORY!!? Oh well.
3) Is Cal back? We'll find out next week, but wow, almost 500 total yards and 45 points at UCLA, one of the best defenses in the conference? Yikes. Kevin Riley didn't screw it up, throwing for 205 yards, 3 TD's and zero picks. That's the Berkeley Bears we thought we would see this year, the one where their fans are super-cocky about. Still, I like the WSU defense in the match-up, simply because of the way they will sit back in zone coverage and make the QB beat them with accuracy. We saw that against ASU, and we'll likely see the same thing next week, rushing three and dropping seven or eight into coverage, trying to keep the game in front of them.
4) So how about those Mildcats? Down 15, they would pull it out in a wild 43-38 win vs. Stanford. And what a wild one, over 1,100 total yards combined by both offenses! Andrew Luck was amazing, 21-for-35 for 423 yards and 3 TD's, but they just couldn't stop Arizona. That AZ QB, Nick Foles, was even better, going an unreal 40-for-51 for 415 yards and 3 TD's. FORTY COMPLETIONS!?! That's XBox 360 type numbers, not real life. But Foles completed 39 passes vs. UW the week before, and now has completed 72% of his passes for 1152 yards and 9 TD's with just 2 INT's, all in THREE starts!?? Looks like AZ has a rising star in the sophomore Foles.
5) Finally, congrats to Robb Akey. 6-1 after their win over Hawaii, and certainly appearing like they are headed for postseason play. Nice to see the bowling ball, DeMaundray Woolridge, take FOUR, count 'em, FOUR runs to the house for TD's!? Now, before we all go nuts over Akey, let's at least consider the situation. This is Akey's THIRD season in Moscow, so please remember that. He won a combined three games his first two years, and they were regarded as one of the worst teams around in his first few years. But now in year three, with Akey's system firmly in place, all the bad apples have been weeded out, etc, hey, he's building up something nice over there. But let's not call Akey some kind of God or anything, at least not yet. He wasn't anything special his first two years, dealing with a ton of crap left over by none other than Nick Holt and then Dennis Erickson's 10-month bailout. Did he suddenly figure out how to be a head coach? Maybe, sure, it's very likely he's grown a ton in the last few years. But isn't it also more helpful/likely that the players he started playing a couple of years ago, like QB Nathan Enderle, are now upper-classmen? You hate to make direct comparison's to our situation, but it does seem at least a little similar in that the coach was brought in to clean up a mess, and after a couple of years of pain and suffering, they are starting to get some reward for the struggles?
That's it for now. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and as always, GO COUGS!
...There's ALWAYS a flag to spot! Big thanks to Will Walker for the screen cap. I don't know if you've checked out the show this AM or not, but an AMAZING job on getting the double-crimson flags prominently flying in the breeze. Right behind Fowler and Herbstreit's mugs as well! Nice work by the crimson soldiers on the ground out there!
So, the bye week. What will YOU watch/do today? I'm intrigued by the Red River game, simply for the rivalry and tradition of it all. Oklahoma could really screw up Texas and their bid for the BCS title game.
The BCS standings will be revealed tomorrow, and there is some speculation out there that if Florida and 'Bama win out, they not only would play each other in the SEC Title game, but would be assured to meet in the BCS title game as well!?! That's kind of a downer if you ask me. I would much prefer to see two teams from different conferences play for the whole thing, wouldn't you? I mean OK, if Florida and Alabama are the two best teams in the country and everyone says so, then yeah, I guess they should play for the whole thing. But if they are playing for the SEC title, isn't that enough? Anyway, you glance at Florida and 'Bama's schedules? The whole idea doesn't seem so far-fetched. 'Bama only has two road games left, and they get South Carolina at home tonight, and LSU in Tuscaloosa two weeks after that. Florida has to go to Miss State and South Carolina, but still, not anything they can't take care of (most likely?). So it may not matter what happens to Texas today.
And of course, PAC-10 wise I am going to be checking out USC-Notre Dame. That comeback act has been impressive by Clausen and company this season, but USC is playing like the "real thing" all of a sudden. They are such a different animal with Matt Barkley at QB. But we'll see! That, my friends, is why they play this here game.
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