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Written by Sean Hawkins
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Wednesday, 16 September 2009 00:01 |
Probably one of the most anticipated radio shows in a while, and after today's news, for good reason. So we'll get to the recap in a moment.
But first, let me say this. Regardless of where you come down on the Paul Wulff debate that has been raging the last few days, here and elsewhere, when you hear him speak as we did tonight, you realize how much he loves WSU and wants this thing to work. This isn't like the Ty Willie situation over in Montlake, where the guy was a miserable pain in the arse to be around at the end, closed off and condescending, never endearing himself to Husky-ville. Wulff IS a Coug, he loves Pullman and he wants to build a winner. I know it's a PAC-10 job, and with it will come heavy criticisms when things don't go as planned, but let's not lose sight of who Paul Wulff actually is and what he's trying to accomplish. Mmmm-kay?
OK, that's out of the way. Now, the show. First, it was a more intense version of Paul Wulff tonight. There wasn't a lot of negative or anger to him, but he seemed a lot more direct with his answers to the various questions outta Bud and the callers. You could tell that something is a little different with him right now. Whether it's pressure to perform, pressure being applied from those above him, whatever, he did sound a little different tonight.
With that, we look at ten things to take from the show. On to the recap...
1) To lead off the show, Bud asked Wulff about the schedule and SMU. Many people may not know, but this is a home-and-home, and we travel to SMU next year. But did you also know that we open up AT Oklahoma State!?!? So the first two games of 2010, right now, are @Oklahoma State and @SMU, both in the heat of the southwest in late summer. Greatttttt.....Now, who knows if it will actually happen this way. Would it be out of the question to see one of those games moved, somehow, someway, and replaced with something else? We'll see. But that could be a tough draw to begin what will hopefully be a much brighter season next year.
2) Of course, the QB news of the day. Wulff confirmed what the rest of the free world already knew, and that is Marshall Lobbestael will start this Saturday, and they have decided to take the redshirt off Jeff Tuel and he will play "at some point." First, Marshall Lobbestael.
Wulff said that "it's time to give Marshall the chance to play right away in a game, instead of just coming in later in obvious passing situations. We want to take some pressure off him by having him play early, set up the offense by running the ball early, and give him some opportunities to use the play-action." As we all know, a QB with a running game is usually better than a QB without a running game. And Marshall Lobbestael, right now in his development of just what, three starts under his belt, plus some spotty action here and there? Regardless of the fact that he's a sophomore, he's not ready to carry a team with his arm alone! He needs to have at least a semblance of a running game behind him, help balance some things out. So Marshall is going to get that chance on Saturday.
On Tuel: "We are taking the redshirt off Jeff Tuel. Now if he struggles mightily in practice this week, we may decide not to play him, but we highly doubt that will happen. But Tuel needs to grow. We believe he is capable to play now, and we believe he is going to be an awfully good football player for us."
Wulff also touched on the fact that we've now seen 10 starts from Kevin Lopina, and while he didn't come out and say it? We pretty much know what we've got there. Wulff said "we need to move forward and grow the QB position, for this year but to be stronger for next year as well." Fair enough.
I know there is some concern for Tuel's well-being, and rightly so. True frosh QB's aren't often thrown to the wolves with a high rate of success, Matt Barkley at USC an obvious exception this year. But when Bud asked him about the decision to burn a redshirt and if that is solely the coaches decision, Wulff said it "absolutely is the coaches, player and the family if they want to decide that. We involve everyone, and if they all agree to it, we move forward." So this isn't just a Wulff-only decision (although there probably aren't a ton of college kids who don't want to play right away??).
3) The recruiting class from last year was brought up again, and Wulff touched on how they believe it "is a great young class that we have in place, and right now we are only playing two true frosh in Gino Simone and Travis Long." They have actually held Darren Markle out of action up until now, so the redshirt is still intact there. Wulff said that they are tempted to play some of these kids, and they believe very much that this class is going to really pay off in the future, but they are going to hold off as much as they can in letting the true frosh play.
It's been talked about before, but there reportedly are some good young players that are here, just not yet out on the field. Nolan Washington, Anthony Carpenter and Jamal Atofau I'm sure are three guys the coaches look at and think that they could help immediately in the secondary. Washington and Carpenter were both guys who have really good speed, supposedly in the 4.4 range per some recruiting stuff on them. Even Casey Locker as a safety prospect has 4.4 speed, and that sounds pretty damn good from where I sit right now! But burning a ton of redshirts and playing the youth immediately, that's no way to build a program for the long haul (unfortunately). We saw too many young guys play last year when they weren't physically ready, and that wasn't much fun for anyone.
4) Bud asked about the blow that Gino Simone absorbed (have you seen it? Here's a link to the video. Go to the 8:42 mark of the video and you'll see the hit). Wulff said "Gino POPPED HIS CHERRY on that one" (eewww!) and got the huge hit in a game. But Wulff said that Simone wasn't knocked out, but had some headaches and has been checked out. He should be OK, but will be out for this week. They hope to have him back on Tuesday for next week. In that same theme, they discussed head injuries and how different it is today compared to the past. Wulff said in his day, you might sit out a day or so, then back at it and play through the headaches. Today they take every precaution possible, as all it takes is one mistake and "it could be something we regret for the rest of our lives." Wulff also brought up about the new lead-with-your-head rule. The refs are more aware of the rule this year and they will call it more this year. It's still a judgement call however, and sometimes they will get it right, sometimes they won't.
5) Injuries: Andy Mattingly suffered a quad injury, as well as a concussion. LeAndre Daniels is also out with the broken leg, and this seems like a big loss to Wulff. He said Daniels "has good speed for our secondary, and he's a physical player." Unfortunately, the medical redshirt is likely out of the question since he's already had one redshirt year. Wulff went into that rule a little bit, but, don't hold out much hope for a medical redshirt for Daniels.
Of course, Kevin Kooyman was already out with the knee injury and he will remain out, so right there with Kooyman and Mattingly that is two of your senior defensive leaders not able to go. On offense, we know about Gino Simone, but also Zach Williams will be out with the dreaded high ankle sprain. No word on when he'll return. One of the bigger names mentioned was James Montgomery. He had 55 cc's of fluid drained from his knee yesterday as it swelled up on him a bit (that's NOT good!). He said that Montgomery could return to practice tomorrow, but that's a situation to keep an eye on?
Wulff also touched on who will play this week due to these injuries, and he mentioned Brian Danaher. But he also said that it's time to see some other younger players as well, including Tyson Pencer, the big 6-6, 300-lb tackle. Wulff believes that Pencer is big and athletic enough to do a good job at tackle. Wulff also mentioned Alex Reitnouer as a guy who should help them protect the QB and he will get a chance to play. Wulff made it sound like they are really going to give some younger players a chance, sooner rather than later!
6) A caller asked about the kickoffs and special teams in general, and why we aren't seeing more kickoffs into the endzone? Wulff said that is something they are working on and they think they will see an improvement on that this week. He said they did try to do a few "sky" kicks last week, trying to get the coverage down there with more air under the ball, but it didn't really work out. Also brought up were the kick-return teams and the decisions to run the ball out a few times already when it looks like they should have just taken a knee. Wulff said that has happened in the first two games, and that is "not something they wanted to have happen" and "it's a player trying to make a play". He said with someone like James Montgomery, maybe it's a good idea if he runs one out that is a little deeper than normal given his explosiveness, but that's about it.
Reid Forrest was brought up, and Bud pointed out how good he has been, the #1 punter in the PAC-10 and #5 in the country, averaging over 47 yards per kick (wow!). Wulff said believe it or not, Reid is "one of the leaders of the team right now, highly respected by the players." Wulff said Reid is easily one of the best punters in the country. Hard to argue with the numbers there. Finally, Wulff mentioned that the coverage is getting better by getting Johnny Forzani involved as a "gunner" on special teams. He has done a good job there and may have found his role with the team for now.
7) A caller asked about Hawaii being "bigger, stronger and faster" and being "too much to handle" for WSU. The caller then said it's great that we have the verbal commitments right now, but two of the latest names only had schools like Nevada and San Diego State as schools that had offered them. The caller asked if they should be going after other players that have been offered by PAC-10 schools, and how do we ever hope to compete by recruiting players like that? Wulff bristled a little bit at this, but took a deep breath and started in. First, of the two recent commits who he couldn't name, Wulff said that they ARE being recruited hard by other PAC-10 schools, and that information will probably come out. But he said that they both want to be Cougars. Then he said it "still gets back to trusting of our staff and our ability to evaluate talent, finding the right kinds of kids we want to be part of our program." He said they will "continue to look for diamond-in-the-rough types" in their strategy, and he brought up two very good examples - Marcus Trufant and Erik Coleman.
Wulff said that both Trufant and Coleman were ONLY offered by BIG SKY schools. Neither of them even had an offer from a WAC school like Idaho. But what do you know, they both had excellent careers at WSU and both have been in the NFL. So it still boils down to your evaluation as a staff, knowing what to look for, and don't pay as much attention to the recruiting rankings (to which Bobo Brayton, in attendance for the show, yelled out "It's ALL COACHING!" :)
8) A caller brought up the positives from the Hawaii game, and that they outscored them 20-0 for a stretch from the early 2nd quarter into the 4th quarter. Wulff said "we are still growing as a young team, and right now we need to continue to build off the "small wins", which may not mean wins on the scoreboard". Wulff brought up how the defense did actually stop Hawaii three times in the redzone with some turnovers, and that's something positive they can take from that game. He also said the biggest thing is just the change from last year that people may not see. For example, he said last year with the "deflating" nature of the first half, quite honestly the "team would have come out and laid down in the 2nd half". But instead, as a staff "we challenged them at halftime, told them to stop pressing and just go out and play." And they felt good about the second half. In the end they had over 400 yards of offense, but had so many missed chances for that number to maybe be closer to 600 in the end. Wulff also brought up the turnovers, how impossible it is when you give it away seven times, but then said an 18-point loss "was actually pretty good considering all the turnovers and breakdowns and missed opportunities." OK then. But in the end, Wulff said "we have GOT to move on from this game, and we will."
Wulff then went on about how "we have changed A LOT since last year." He was very direct and clear about that, and this didn't feel like a bunch of BS-coach speak, know what I mean? He said the "attitude, the work ethic, the focus, the desire to learn, keep fighting, continue to grow and mature and get stronger and stronger" are differences to this year's team. He even said that they had a very spirited practice today, with a very good attitude. But they are young, and need to grow. He also said "but it's going to still be bumpy." He brought up a conversation he had with Dick Bennett, which we've heard about before I believe? But Bennett told him when he got the job to "just stay the course, install what it is you are going to do, and take some bullets. And you will take some bullets for about three years or however long it takes, but just stay the course." Wulff then said, unsolicited, that "I enjoy this job. I am going to keep driving ahead, and I can assure you that good things are happening. We are better today than we were a year ago, and next year, we'll be better than we are today."
9) The run-n-shoot was brought up, and how they are seeing it for the second week in a row. Like last week, Wulff said "they are going to get their yards and points" on offense, but the defense will play better. They believe they "have settled some things down" on defense and it will show this week. They will also continue to show a 3-man front and blitz a linebacker, but also mix things up defensively. Bo Levi Mitchell, SMU QB, was brought up, and Wulff said he's "a very good QB with a good arm and a quick release. He gets rid of the ball quickly and doesn't take many sacks" in their offense.
They have some outstanding WR's too in Emmanuel Sanders and Aldrick Robinson, two players Phil Steele says gives SMU "the best receiving combo in C-USA". Sanders has 28 career TD catches, in fact he's the active NCAA leader in TD catches right now. He will be "a big challenge to try and contain on Saturday" for the defense. SMU's defense was brought up, and Bud pointed out that they already have NINE - NINE! - interceptions on the year, tops in the country. But they also have given up a fair chunk of yardage, indicative of their big-play mentality on defense perhaps? Wulff said they are aggressive and will give lots of different looks to try and confuse the QB, and so far it's working out for SMU.
10) Finally, a caller almost started yelling at Wulff and had to be cut off, but he asked some good questions first. The guy asked "why didn't we stick with the run vs. Stanford into the second half? Why do you get away from the strength of the team, which is a ball-control offense and keep the ball out of the hands of the opposing offense?" The guy's voice was rising at this point, and Bud interrupted and said "let's let coach Wulff answer the questions!" Wulff said hey man, GO EFF YOURSELF! OK, he didn't say that (but what was he thinking!?!?) Wulff said "we want to run the ball! It allows us to manage the game, and we need to run the ball to be successful and move the chains. But right now, our problem is that we aren't throwing it well." We have had some long drives (18 play drive vs. Stanford, 15 play drive vs. Hawaii) but we are "missing explosive passing plays right now" and that is "one of the reasons we are making the change at QB", to get more explosion out of the position.
So there you go, the week III radio show. Pretty good overall. And nope, no tone of poor us or quitting or anything close to it. They sound like they are learning new lessons every week, and ready to move forward to try and get better. This week is another chance to take a step forward as a football team.
Enjoy your day, and GO COUGS!
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Go Wulff and Go Cougs!