Cougs Slog Through Dog Days of Spring

It is pretty much bound to happen, for any football program out there, on almost any level.  You know, the whole "Dog Days" idea, where the team as a whole comes out and practices with the collective energy of a slug?  From a couple of reports from yesterday's practice, that sounds like the case in Pullman. 

Grippi's post has a lot of "meh/blah/whatever" in it regarding Tuesday:

• If I had to use one word to describe practice, it would be blah. Sure there was some exciting plays – four examples: Darren Markle picked off a Marshall Lobbestael pass in the flat and returned it for a touchdown; Lobbestael teamed with Gino Simone for a long touchdown pass; Higgins wrested the ball from Logwone Mitz and returned it for a touchdown, where co-defensive coordinator Chris Ball delivered a big celebratory hit; and Jeff Tuel found Jared Karstetter for a long touchdown pass – but for most of the day the drills and team sessions were somewhat lifeless.

Ok, well, it was just one of those days.  It happens, whether it's spring ball or August camp.  They are smack-dab in the middle of the practice cycle (now eight practices down, another seven to go) and the focus and energy level sags a bit.  It is what it is. 


They'll rebound, and after some of the quotes of disappointment from Paul Wulff, you can bet the energy level will be something else entirely as they start to close in on the end of the practice session.

However, the other piece of bad news regarding Tuesday?  Injuries.  As Wulff put it in Grippi's post, they had SIX players "nicked up" during Tuesday's practice.

The six guys, in order of injury, were: tight end Zach Tatman, with a sprained MCL (he came out to practice late in a brace and crutches, out for the rest of spring) in his left knee; defensive tackle Brandon Rankin, who bruised his left knee (he went into the training room, was taped and returned, though he was limited the rest of the time); running back Leon Brooks, who turned his left ankle (he was retaped and practiced the rest of the day); linebacker Alex Hoffman-Ellis, who sprained his right ankle and had to be driven off the field; tight end Andrei Lintz, who tweaked his left hamstring and was sporting an ice bag at the end; and offensive lineman Sebastian Valenzuela, who left practice near the end with an undisclosed injury.

But that doesn't even cover the injury to Andrew Roxas.  Thanks to "Extermin8tr" from the heads-up from his Saturday scrimmage recap, Roxas went down with an ankle injury and was later seen on crutches.  It turns out that he has suffered the dreaded high-ankle sprain, and is done for spring ball.  And backup safety Jay Matthews re-injured his shoulder and could be done for now as well. 

Ah, the fine line of spring ball.  You want to see them accomplish so much during these 15 practices, and with such a young team where so many redshirts are sprinkled throughout the two-deeps, you know they need the hands-on practice time with the coaches.  But the downside, of course, are that they are actually out there hitting each other in this collision sport we love so much, and well, body parts can break down!  Duh, you know all that already.  But it's the risk they take with full contact in practices, and that whole strategy has been in place forever.  It's not going to change anytime soon.

Meanwhile, the Evergreen had their recap, and it's pretty similar to Grippi's on the overall theme of "meh" regarding Tuesday.  Darren Markle did make a nice play though:

The play of the day came when redshirt freshman linebacker Darren Markle intercepted a Marshall Lobbestael pass and returned it for a touchdown. “It was a play-action pass,” Markle said. “Marshall rolled out. I just kind of baited that little flat round, and when he threw the ball, I just jumped it and picked it.”

That's it for now.  Enjoy your Humpday, and GO COUGS!