Happy Monday Cougar Fans!

Recently I was stumbling through the Free Message Board over at Cougfan, since I'm a paying member of their site, normally I avoid the ignorance that is the free board and stick to the Luxury Suites, and came across an interesting topic that I wanted to bring up for discussion over here.

Read on to join the discussion!

Ladies and gentlemen.... in tonight's brief post I would like to present to you Clarence D. Martin. The 11th governor of the state of Washington, Martin was best known for sporting a horrific Hitler mustache and helping fund the project to build the Grand Coulee Dam during The Great Depression. In 1972, his son Dan Martin donated $250,000 to Martin Stadium's renovation project. In return, WSU named their prized new stadium on the Palouse after Martin's grandfather Clarence.

There's only one problem (other than the fact that our stadium is named after a guy who looked like the fuhrer). Clarence graduated from the f*cking University of Washington. He grew up in Cheney, but he had no affliation with WSU. Simply put, he doesn't deserve to have the stadium named after him.

With Martin Stadium in the midst of another massive renovation nearly 40 years later, it is time for a fan-based movement to push for a stadium name change. Let's be real, Paul Allen isn't stepping in anytime soon to give any more money to the school that helped mold him into a multi-billionaire. It's going to take a little good ole' fashioned fan discontent to push Athletic Director Bill Moos to orchestrate the change.

So without further ado, I encourage all WSU fans to email, text, call, fax, or write the WSU Athletic Department to change the name of a stadium that has donned the wrong label since 1972. Instead of supporting a man who sported a mustache that universally represents evil, let us unite as Cougar Nation and get ole Clarence the hell out of Whitman County.

Let the suggestions for a new stadium name roll in!

Since the offseason has a tendency to only bring bad news (Louis Bland's knee...ugh) and I don't want my optimism for next year to peak too soon, I'm going to take some time to look back on the happier days of Cougar football. I'm working on compiling my All-Tim Team, a collection of great athletes who left an impression on me either by simply being great on the field or by making their mark on me personally for whatever reason. In many cases, it was both. You'll notice that my list won't often stretch deep into the annals of Cougar history. As I've mentioned before, I never lived in the great state of Washington until setting foot in Pullman. The Cougar coverage from the Armed Forces Network in Germany and in the DC area was extremely limited. Perhaps it'll generate some cross-generational discussion. I'll be listing multiple players at each position as we all know that a team is nothing without depth. Also, making decisions is really difficult. Without further ado, it's time to unveil the All-Tim Team offense...

Cougfan is reporting that MLB Louis Bland will once again be lost for the season to knee surgery. So, what does this mean? Bland was a phenom as a freshman in 2008 on a team that had few things to be excited about. Since then he has been dogged by knee problems and meanwhile Coach Wullf and staff have pumped some serious new talent into the linebacking unit. As the article speculates, this will make Bland a prime candidate for a medical red-shirt meaning we could still see him on the field in 2012 and 2013, but you have to wonder, are the injuries and increased competition all too much to expect him to overcome at this point? We shall see. This leaves Mike Ledgerwood, Darren Markle and the ever-intriguing CJ Mizell as our remaining depth at MLB, so the cupboard isn't bare. The Cougs will also welcome star recruit Chester Sua to the fold this Fall and Wulff has speculated he could see the field right away. I think it is important to note that just a year or two ago this type of loss was devastating to the Cougs chances, but now... we are well positioned to absorb it. For those of you who remain hopeful for a big turn-around this year, its just another sign that this team is indeed being transformed into a contender.

Happy Friday Cougs, and as always, here's hoping you are well as you wind down the week.  And with that, we roll into opponent #4 on the Cougs' 2011 schedule, the Colorado Buffs!  And hey, if you've been following along with these fish wraps....and judging by the traffic lately, you haven't.....but this is the fourth glance at WSU's upcoming schedule on a team-by-team basis.  You can check out Idaho State, UNLV and San Diego State if you feel so inclined (/end shameless self-promotion...).  Anyway, WSU will be coming off a bye before arriving in Boulder on 10/1 to take on one of the newest members of the Pac-12.  It will be a strange new world with CU and Utah now in the conference, but in a good way.  WSU has played CU in recent years, both in Boulder and in Seattle, so it's not like this will be a completely foreign experience.  Still, seeing that Pac-12 logo is just....different.

And on top of that, things have really changed in Boulder!  Not only a new conference, but a new head coach as well as the Dan Hawkins reign of terror finally came to an end after last year.  And in kind of an interesting twist, CU will be the third opponent out of WSU's first four of '11 that will be breaking in a brand new head coach (only UNLV, with second-year man Bobby Hauck, is returning their head coach from 2010).  But is change a good thing here?  How does CU look rolling out of spring ball?  Here we go.....