Kevin Kooyman Back in '10

Hey, what, some GOOD news coming from WSU-ville these days?  It's true.  Per Paul Wulff yesterday, senior defensive end Kevin Kooyman is coming back next season!  As you know, Kooyman suffered a knee injury after the first game of the year and hasn't played since.  This is, uh, yeah, WELCOME news for next year's team.  Boy do they need some strength and experience along the defensive line.  It's been the same beating of the drum, week after week, with young kids up front getting overwhelmed at the point of attack.  Here's hoping Kooyman continues to rehab successfully and comes back 100% for next year.  Interesting that Wulff said that Kooyman will not need surgery after all.  You wonder if hey, he's already not playing this year, wouldn't a quick procedure on his knee maybe speed things up and make sure he's good to go in 2010? 

Grippi's latest has some other updates as well, including a possible return for Chima Nwachukwu and Jay Matthews in the secondary.  Good news there.  Chima's not the most physical player in the country, but he is one of the best tacklers on the team, second only to Xavier Hicks with 56.  On this young, thin defense, they need his leadership and ability back there in the last line of defense.  On offense, Tyson Pencer is probably out with the ankle sprain, so Steven Ayers will step in at left tackle. 

Meanwhile, Jeff Tuel's status is uncertain with the kneecap subluxation injury.  They haven't ruled him out, but it doesn't sound great either.  We'll have to wait and see how he responds on Tuesday to get a real idea of what's up.  Even if he does survive the week of practice, just how much he'll have to give on Saturday could be a little dicey.  UCLA's got some big uglies on defense, and with our patchwork O-line?  Just please, WSU coaches, it almost goes without saying, but BE CAREFUL with the kid QB!  While game experience is crucial to improvement as an NCAA quarterback, there has to be a line somewhere as to what you are willing to risk with a young talent like Tuel.  We all want to win, but don't want to ruin the youngster in the process, you know?

Also of note - Grippi reports Wulff gave the kids the day off on Sunday.  We touched on this on Saturday after the game, but the team just looked ragged out there.  The defense especially, when they couldn't get Arizona off the field and the offense sputtering for most of the day, well, they had a fatigued, end-of-a-long-roadtrip look to them.  I'm sure if you watched it you could agree on that. 

Finally, this week's blog poll.  Enjoy:

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida
2	Texas
3	Alabama	1
4	Cincinnati	1
5	TCU	3
6	Boise State
7	Georgia Tech	2
8	Iowa	1
9	LSU	1
10	Pittsburgh	3
11	Oregon	8
12	Southern Cal
13	Ohio State	3
14	Miami (Florida)	3
15	Houston
16	Utah	2
17	Arizona	1
18	Penn State	7
19	Oklahoma State	4
20	Wisconsin	1
21	Virginia Tech	1
22	Oregon State
23	South Florida	1
24	West Virginia
25	Brigham Young
Last week's ballot