| 11 August 2010
Happy Wednesday Cougar Fans!
24 days until Stillwater, are you as excited as I am?
3 days of practice are now in the books, and there is a lot to get to in the Cougar world.
Read on for more, with this Odds and Ends post.....
Lots of news out there, most of which appears to be extremely encouraging with the football team.
--- The young wide receivers appear to be making an impact. For example, veteran Jared Karstetter had this to say over at Cougfan:
“Marquess, Kristoff and Bobby and all the new guys have really impressed... because they all just want to learn.”
According to the article, on one particularly noteworthy play involving a newcomer, Jeff Tuel rolled out of the pocket and connected with a beautiful pass to Isiah Barton, the JC transfer, for a long gain.
And in another Cougfan article (requiring a premium subscription), it was noted that Marquess Wilson nearly jumped out of Rogers Field making the highlight catch of camp thus far.
Hopefully the young receivers will make Coach Wulff and Coach Levenseller's decision on whom to redshirt extremely difficult!
My early-camp gut tells me Blair Bomber and Bobby Ratliff will redshirt for sure. Meanwhile, Kristoff Williams, Marquess Wilson, and Isiah Barton will all challenge for immediate playing time (note - the other anticipated WR signee in 2010 was Pittsburg, CA standout Robert Jiles, who appears to be going the JUCO route after failing to qualify).
---Speaking of young talent, the Day 3 recap from Cougfan yesterday (premium) hits on some good things from the youth, especially young running back Rickey Galvin. Grippi covered this as well in his post from yesterday's practice, where the pads went on and some hitting was to be heard and seen for the first time this fall. On Galvin:
Ricky Galvin took a draw into the secondary, where the 5-foot-8, 162-pound freshman exploded into 200-pound senior safety Chima Nwachukwu and knocked him to the ground.
My early-camp gut tells me Blair Bomber and Bobby Ratliff will redshirt for sure. Meanwhile, Kristoff Williams, Marquess Wilson, and Isiah Barton will all challenge for immediate playing time (note - the other anticipated WR signee in 2010 was Pittsburg, CA standout Robert Jiles, who appears to be going the JUCO route after failing to qualify).
---Speaking of young talent, the Day 3 recap from Cougfan yesterday (premium) hits on some good things from the youth, especially young running back Rickey Galvin. Grippi covered this as well in his post from yesterday's practice, where the pads went on and some hitting was to be heard and seen for the first time this fall. On Galvin:
Ricky Galvin took a draw into the secondary, where the 5-foot-8, 162-pound freshman exploded into 200-pound senior safety Chima Nwachukwu and knocked him to the ground.
--- Speaking of Grippi - he jumped on the KJR airwaves with Ian Furness yesterday and talked Cougs. Give it a listen here, IF YOU DARE!!
---And now, on to your Day 3 practice video. Check out the shots of the practice field at the beginning, including the painted endzones and Coug logo on the turf. Sweet!
--- Here is a great read from Yahoo on WSU alums Husain & Hamza Abdullah, who are now with the Minnesota Vikings and Arizona Cardinals respectively. As many might know from their playing days on the Palouse, the brothers are Muslim which means right in the heat of summer/training Camp, they are observing Ramadan. We won't go into all the details, but one of the things involving Ramadan has Husain going on a fast, which means no food or water during the day, as the holy month runs until September 9th. Husain will be up in the middle of the night to have a protein shake, as well as up before dawn for a big breakfast and plans for a large dinner after sunset, but that's it. Good luck men, make us proud! You can follow Hamza on Twitter here and of course, follow WSU Football Blog here.
--- Knock on wood, but thus far the Cougs appear to be pretty good in the injury front. A few pulled muscles here, a few sore backs there, but thus far we're looking much better in the past. However, it unfortunately looks as though LB Louis Bland will have a redshirt applied this season, as he is still recovering from microfracture knee surgery. Louis was regarded as a real team leader in Wulff's first-ever recruiting class, and played well his frosh year as an undersized, converted safety to outside linebacker. Depth at linebacker looks good so far, but Louis will be missed.
---Here is a non-premium story from Cougfan regarding Special Teams play under new ST Coach Dave Ungerer. It looks as though Nico Grasu and Andrew Furney will have an excellent position battle at placekicker, as both have all been pretty accurate thus far in the kicking game.
Ungerer had this to say:
“We are in the beginning stages of it all,” Ungerer says of their battle. “We have a couple of weeks to evaluate it still. Of course with Nico, having been here, he has the experience of kicking in game situations and dealing with game pressure. Our goal with Furney is to continue to press him and see how the young kid will step up under pressure. He looks to have a big strong leg and he gets the ball up really quick. It should be a real interesting battle between the two."
“We are in the beginning stages of it all,” Ungerer says of their battle. “We have a couple of weeks to evaluate it still. Of course with Nico, having been here, he has the experience of kicking in game situations and dealing with game pressure. Our goal with Furney is to continue to press him and see how the young kid will step up under pressure. He looks to have a big strong leg and he gets the ball up really quick. It should be a real interesting battle between the two."
--- Back over at Cougfan, Jennifer Chancellor wrote a great article about former WSU Pitcher Tracey Harris' commitment to the Athletic Foundation. Harris, who threw two no-hitters as a Coug, and had a small cup of coffee professionally, is one of the top real estate agents the past 5 years with Prudential Northwest. His pledge is to donate 30% of his commissions, from any house he sells to a fellow Cougar, to the Athletic Foundation.
"It's a big chunk of change, but Washington State did a ton for me in my life. Bobo (Brayton) made me a baseball player, and there was the school, too. I grew up in Pullman.”
If I do my math correctly, if he sells $1,000,000 in homes to Cougars, roughly $9,000 will be donated to the Cougs. Every bit helps, but wow, talk about Cougar spirit!
Don't be surprised to see a lot more deals like this worked under the watchful eye of Bill Moos!
Don't be surprised to see a lot more deals like this worked under the watchful eye of Bill Moos!
That is all for today, Go Cougs!
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