Well, tonight, our Cougs put on a spirited performance in losing to the Condoms 27-6.

In spite of the fact that this USC team needs A LOT of work, I found this game to be the most entertaining and most encouraging game I've seen since the 2007 Apple Cup.

The Highlights:

Jeff Tuel:  Very green, lots of room to grow, long way to go, but the kid has TALENT.  And I don't know about you all, but watching talent is SO MUCH DARN FUN.  Can't wait to see us play the rest of the way now.

Linebackers:  Some blown coverages and tackles here and there.  But overall, the group played agressive and at times looked fast.

Mitz: I know Tardy is a leader and I know that Mitz fumbled one hand off.  But Mitz is something.  Power + Tuel = The future.

The Scoring Streak Continues:   Where are we at now, 6 games?????

The Team: Once again, down 20-0 after USC's onside kick, the team could have folded.  Yet, a great drive by Tuel and a couple of nice defensive plays, and we kept the game relatively close.  And say what you want about playing against the second teamers, but the final drive was pretty nice.

So, the bottom line is that this team is improving, and at least for us die hards, darn fun to watch.

If we can add more roll-outs to keep Tuel a little more safe, who knows, we might surprise a team the rest of the way.

Congrats to our boys on a pretty nice performance.

Hello Followers.

Well, as we saw last week, every dog has its day.

And, as we learned this week, so does every Duck.

The good news after watching Oregon CRUSH the Bears this afternoon is that tonight might actually be enjoyable to watch--at least in relation to what's gonna happen to us next week.

With that in mind, here are the three things I'm looking for early on tonight.

1) The Play of our Defensive Tackles.  We all know that tonight is going to be a game that only diehards on both sides can watch.  So, for us, the issue is how much improvement we've shown against elite competition.  I'm looking to see how much ground our Hogs give up at the point of attack.  And, I encourage you all to do the same--it may make the game easier to watch!

2) The Number of Seconds it Takes for Us to Get on the Screen.  In games and seasons past, you could count til 3 or 4 before we'd even show up on the screen after USC caught the ball.  Tonight, I'm looking to see if we can stay on camera for most the first quarter--if not the first half.

3) Wide Receiver Separation.  We know that we're not going to be able to run the ball tonight--at least not initially.  We also know that we will probably have a hard time throwing it too.  What will be interesting is whether or not our WRs can get off the line.  IF they do, and if Marshall can't find them, then we'll know its gonna be Tuel time. And THAT should be fun.

So, enjoy the game folks.  Remember, as I said it the "Hope and Nope" preview, the goal here is 21 points--even if they get 80.

Lets hope we play without penalties, turnovers, and with lots of heart. 

I'll take any outcome with those ingredients at play....

Go Cougs. 

Hello Followers.  Well, last week was an absolute disgrace for the Bhagwan Coug-A-Sutra.   After having a two season win streak predicting the Cougs fortunes, I now stand 1-2, having lost three out of the past four.  Moreover, in addition to flailing for the second straight week on the Cougs, I was also Stooped by Stoops, Riled by Riley, and the list goes on and on (L-O-S-E-R).


But, before I completely dust off the “Sutra Sucks” Banner in my garage, I’ve decided to “go out, stick to the game plan, execute, and let the chips fall where they may..”  So, here we go....

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Good morning Coug Nation.  Hope this hump-day finds you well.  A good radio show from Coach Wulff, with special guest star Jim Sterk who happened by to talk Phase III at the end of the show.  We'll stick to the top ten things to take from the show.  Let's get to it.

1) Right away, Bud asked coach Wulff about going on the road this week.  Wulff felt that it was a good time to do it, and it should be a valuable learning experience for all his young players.  Wulff said that coming off the SMU game, they had a really great practice today and people are positive that it is moving in the right direction.  Wulff said the SMU game gave them some "validation that all the hard work is paying off" and that sort of thing.  He said "it wasn't pretty early, but we hung in there and found a way to win."  The defense "did some really big things, the special teams were pretty good, and the offense got it done in crunch time."  Of course, he also added that "we aren't where we need to be on offense or defense", but it was great to find a way to pull out a ballgame and get a win."  On looking at USC right now, Wulff said they are still in the mode of "worrying about us" and "we need to continue to make strides" this week.  But he also believes that "we can play better than we did on Saturday, the whole team believes that right now." 

2) Now to the bad bad news today, which involves James Montgomery.  Obviously if you are reading this you probably already know the gruesome details, but, James Montgomery is out for the year for sure, and maybe longer than that.  The injury happened during the game on Saturday, to his calf (not the same leg where he was fighting off a knee injury).  But it didn't seem major at the time, just some soreness.  He was at the hospital at 10 PM Saturday to have his knee looked at, the one that was troubling him.  And then his calf started to bother him more and more, so much so that later that night he started experiencing some tingling to go with the pain.  He finally want to the ER Sunday at 4 AM, and a couple of hours later, they were in surgery.  It was just that fast.  There was pressure building in his calf, and there was nowhere for the blood to go, so, according to Wulff,  "the pressure just kept building.  In some instances with this kind of injury, people have had their leg amputated before, so the doctors think they caught it early enough."  Now the really bad news - when they did the emergency surgery, they had to remove some muscle tissue in his calf.  Per Wulff, "right now he's out for the season obviously, and we don't know about the future.  This is a big question mark for the rest of his career.  Right now the focus is on getting him to walk normal first, then go from there."  You could really hear the heaviness in Wulff's voice, but this is a tough loss for the team. Wulff said "James is a great representative of our school, and we will miss him.  We hope he has a great return to football next year, but right now, who knows."

Hit the "read more" for, you know, more....

Good morning Coug Nation.  Hope all is well in your world.  Lots to get to, so away we go.

First, should be an interesting presser today at 2:30.  What will they say?  We aren't 100% sure, but we have an idea.  First, Phase III details of a public fundraising campaign will be announced, that much we do know.  I don't think that's any secret, given all the online rumors and such that have been percolating the last month.  There was even a commercial WSU has been running at football games alluding to this as well.  And, there will likely be something with an online flair to it.  But unfortunately no, we aren't involved with any of this announcement.  We haven't heard from WSU since early August regarding the next phase and if/when we could help.  It's been the cone of silence ever since, but not for a lack of effort on our part, believe me.  Our own Sutra has reached out repeatedly in recent weeks, but to no avail.  So that is what we know. 

If we completely speculate here, they will roll out an online website or web page of some kind where you can donate directly to Phase III.  And, financially they still have some ground to cover.  We aren't sure of the exact numbers, but we have heard anywhere from $5 million to even more than that ($9 million?).  At least that was some of the talk as of a couple of weeks ago.  There are a set number of luxury seating that they have to pre-sell, and a certain dollar amount they have to raise overall, but if all goes well, they will break ground in March next spring with the idea that it should be completed prior to the 2011 season. 

Whether or not we have any involvement here, it doesn't matter to us (really).  We just want to help, any way we can.  It's time to dig deep, whether it's chump change or a sizable chunk of your nest egg, whatever you can do.  It's time to answer the call for help. 

Meanwhile, the WSU depth chart is out for this week.  Not some huge surprises, but it looks like Gino Simone might be back, as he has the "OR" next to his name as a starter (I'm sure we'll hear more about his health situation today).  The offensive line shuffle continues, with big Tyson Pencer getting his first start of the year at left tackle.   Defensively, frosh Dan Spitz is now a starter at left defensive end, ahead of Casey Hamlett and the still-injured Kevin Kooyman.  Combined with Travis Long, that's two frosh starting on the defensive line.  Not an ideal situation by any stretch, but, hey, if they are the best players at their position, then they should play.  At least we know from what we've seen out of coach Wulff is that for the most part, the best players are going to play.  Players can't help but respect that approach, knowing that they are going to get a fair shake out of this staff. 

Finally, we have officially reached the "quarter pole" of the 2009 season.  Three games in, nine games to go.  Has the season played out close to what you thought?  Has it been worse than what you imagined it would be when you started thinking about Cougar football?  Here's some three-games-in thoughts, at least from me (and we encourage your thoughts as well!):

Working hard to get my fill,
Everybody wants a thrill
Payin anything to roll the dice,
Just one more time
Some will win, some will lose
Some were born to sing the blues
Oh, the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on

(chorus)

Dont stop believin
Hold on to the feelin
Streetlight people whoa oh WHOOOOOAAAA.....

Well, I admit it.  I stopped believin' yesterday, a few times actually.  When it was 24-7 and the team showed little chance of slowing them down, I stopped believin'.  And even when we made it interesting, only to see SMU drive down for a field goal in the 4th to make it 27-13, again, I stopped believin'.  Good thing those on the field never gave up. 

But, I KNOW I'm not alone here!  Come on.  Fans left the building when it looked hopeless at Martin, only to come back when the game went to OT.  It's OK to admit it.  I sure do.

But whatever the case, I think that's what yesterday is all about.  We can chew on the numbers and point out how this one felt "flukish" with a capital F or whatever else.  We can wring our hands over the yardage discrepancy (504-276).  We can say that we might have been bailed out on that fourth down on the final drive of the game, when pass interference was called on a somewhat-questionable situation.  But with this team, with this season, why even do that?  Why should this team even be judged on the stats?  We know the deck is stacked, talent-wise, and most weeks are going to be a struggle on both sides of the ball.  We know we're young and beat up already, in a lot of key areas, and a QB situation that is still far from settled.  We know the upper classmen weren't exactly super-hot-n-sexy to the rest of the PAC-10, hence the five BCS offers to the 38 players Wulff inherited that are still on the roster.  WE KNOW ALL THAT.  The thing to take from yesterday is, more than any other stat or fact to over-analyze like you are pretending to be an unpaid analyst for ESPN.com?  They didn't quit. Even when Jim Walden was screaming on the radio in the first half that you could switch SMU jerseys for Hawaii jerseys and wouldn't notice any difference between the teams, they didn't quit.  When Walden was screaming that Marshall Lobbestael looked "lost" or was "melting down" in the third quarter and saying that it was time for Jeff Tuel, they didn't quit.  They could have, and last year they would have, but they didn't. 

Someone in comments suggested that it's going to be a bumpy ride the rest of the season, that even with the win we still have serious deficiencies.  I don't think that's news to anyone who is following this team closely, is it?  Of course we know it's going to be a struggle every week.  But even when they are outclassed on the field in terms of talent and speed, at least we've gotten over a hump after yesterday.  Sure, it's a mole hill compared to Mt. Everest, I mean beating the Ponies isn't the same as shocking USC.....but it IS still a hump they have gotten over.  They didn't give up, they never stopped believin', and they found a way to win.  It speaks very well for the future of this program, and maybe as soon as next year, when you see them selling out for themselves, each other and for their coaches.

That's all for now.  ENJOY THIS WIN, ENJOY YOUR SUNDAY, and GO COUGS!