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Paul Wulff Radio Show Recap - Week VI of XII

Written by Sean Hawkins | 07 October 2009



Greetings Coug Nation.  Wednesday already, as we barrel down the stretch towards ASU, and ultimately, the midpoint of the '09 season.  I'm sure we'll have plenty to chew on after this weekend's game, and we can try and digest the first half of the year.  But enough of that talk.  Another radio show in the books with Bud Nameck and Paul Wulff, so, we'll get right at it.  As usual, the top ten things to take from the show.  Here we go:

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What's Up With Kevin Norrell?

Written by Sean Hawkins | 06 October 2009



So a lot was made late last week about the possible reinstatement of LeGarrette Blount.  Apparently Blount has gone out of his way with his parents and even involved a lawyer appealing the situation, trying to get back as an eligible member of the Oregon football program.  And, for whatever it's worth, it appears that it might actually work for Blount, as Chip Kelly has now been quoted as saying it's a "human being" story now.  Blount has some things he has to do to get back on the team, however, some believe he may return in early November. 

Now hang on a minute.  Blount punches out some loud-mouth Boise State player who popped off to him after the game, and then goes absolutely ballistic in the melee that ensued, all on national TV?  It was sports-talk-radio fodder pretty much across the country for a few days, and Oregon suspends him for the year....and now he may come back?  Mmm-kay.  Whatever, I mean it's Oregon's program, and they are closer to the situation than anyone else.  They are aware of the circumstances, they are the ones dealing with Blount.  And they are the ones who will deal with any consequences/fallout.  I guess the bottom line is that hey, if Blount has done the crime, but is also doing the time accordingly, well, then maybe he should get the sentence reduced for good behavior?  It happens all the time in the real world, where prison sentences are sometimes cut in half due to good behavior.  If Blount is playing by the rules set out by Oregon, and clearly he shows remourse for what happened, maybe they can work it all out.

But all this reinstatement talk got some Coug fans wondering what's up with Kevin Norrell?  We all remember we lost Kevin for the season when he made a terrible mistake after the season-opener, where he did some things he shouldn't have done in the wee hours of the night.  Here at this blog, we have lamented his loss on the field, and how things were really lining up for him to have a big impact on the wide receiver situation for this year.  He had a great fall camp, and now when you look at Jeshua Anderson's decision to quit football, you start to understand what his loss has meant to that group of wideouts.  Norrell was going to start coming into the year, and having him out there along with Jared Karstetter, Daniel Blackledge, Gino Simone and Jeffrey Solomon would have made for a nice, young, athletic core of WR's that sets up nicely for today AND tomorrow. 

I don't think we can sit here and flat-out defend his actions.  A DUI isn't anything to sneeze at.  And we won't do that here.  But he's young, an 18-year old sophomore right now.  He made a mistake, and now he's paying the price, suspended by the team for the season.  Per coach Wulff, at the time of the suspension, they declared Norrell's situation "would be re-evaluated at the end of the semester", which of course, is after the conclusion of the 2009 football season. 

As to Kevin Norrell and what is going on right now, well, believe it or not we heard from Kevin Norrell senior.  Mr Norrell was kind enough to contact us and give us an update on what Kevin is up to right now.  Yes, that's a picture of Kevin above, in the WSU t-shirt.  Can you figure out who the Pro Bowl WR's are hanging out with him?  Think Cincinnati Bengals-Seattle Seahawks and you'll know who they are (psst- Ocho Cinco and TJ Housh).  The other guy in the picture is a JC middle linebacker from California named Adrian Ferns, who according to Kevin's father, is currently being recruited by PAC-10 schools.  Anyway, not only did we hear from Kevin's father, but we also heard from Kevin himself on where he is in this whole process.  Read on for more.....

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Blog Poll Monday, Plus Other Stuff

Written by Sean Hawkins | 05 October 2009



Good morning Cougs, happy Monday to you all.  And a great image from the M's game yesterday!  What a nice turnaround season for the M's, 85 wins from a team everyone thought would stink, or at least be beyond lucky to win anything more than 70-75 games.  If this is the end for Junior, it was cool to see it end this way.  He was reportedly a big reason for the turnaround, at least not at the plate but behind the scenes in keeping guys loose in a clubhouse that was a mess last year.  Larry Stone wrote about the turnaround today, and he nails it.  And Junior seemed to be enjoying himself, back in front of an adoring fan base.  Per Jerry Brewer yesterday, Junior actually wept when it was all over.  Sure sounds like a guy who is ready to call it quits?  Although Brett Favre has balled like what, four times at the end of the season when he was going to walk away.....yet here he is starting tonight vs. Green Bay.

Still, it was fun watching baseball again this year.  There were some pleasant surprises, such as Felix finally becoming that GIVE ME THE BALL ace that every contender needs.  We'll see if he's still a Mariner next spring, but to see him put together a Cy Young-like season at the tender age of 23 was wonderful.  And Franklin Gutierrez was such a great find!  All that amazing defense, but the kid put together a decent season at the plate.  He needs to cut down on the K's, and he doesn't get on base a whole lot, but still, .283 with 18 HR's and a gold glove centerfielder who gets to everything, all at the age of 26?  Those guys aren't so easy to find.  It was fun watching Ichiro this year, who had a fantastic season while showing some personality for the first time, like, ever.  .352 this year, second-best in his career, and the fourth time he's hit at least .350.  Just amazing.  Anyway, thanks Junior!  It would be cool if he came back next year on the cheap, as a pinch-hitter or VERY part-time DH.  The guy can still hit the longball on occasion, as he did still hit 19 of 'em in 387 AB's, but it's clear the end is near/here.

Moving on, the Cougs.  Oh yeah.  Lots of links from late yesterday/early today, and you can find them all in the news feed to the right.  There are a few stories after Wulff spoke with the media yesterday, and they are all pretty much the same thing.  Oregon was fast, started fast, played fast, stayed fast.  We weren't fast, we started slow, we played slow and stayed slow.  That's the general theme.  You know WSU has been outscored 77-0 in the first quarter this season?  WOW.  But we've harped on the slow starts already, so why repeat it now?  And we've harped on the lack of speed since the season started, about how the offense lacks play-making speed while the defense, overall, is just not fast.  But let's not go down that road again today.



The injury news is mixed, with Bernard Wolfgramm suffering a hip injury that has him unlikely to play Saturday.  You factor in the loss already of Josh Luapo up front, and it's getting thin in the defensive interior.  Even Xavier Hicks suffered a back injury, and per Howie Stalwick, his status is uncertain for this week.  But on the good side.....per Grippi, at least it sounds as though Jeff Tuel and Jared Karstetter had the hip-pointer deal going on, but both should be OK to practice tomorrow and are probable to play on Saturday.  Phew.  And Zack Williams and Brian Danaher could be back this week at offensive guard?  They could use some experience this week against a fast, aggressive ASU defensive line.

Finally, the blog poll for this week.  Read on, if you are interested....

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Sunday Over-Reaction: Now What Edition

Written by Sean Hawkins | 04 October 2009



Good morning Coug Nation.  As I write this, it's a bright, sunny, crisp October morning here in my neck of the woods.  Here's hoping you are getting the same thing today, wherever you are.

I am still trying to digest that game last night.  The emotion is always "raw" the closer you are to it, and when we get blown out and embarrassed, basically mocked by the Oregon homerish broadcasters in the process, it's easy to get angry.  The best thing for me today was to get out and go for a nice long jog with my one-year old golden retriever by my side.  It's a mind-clearing exercise that gets the juices flowing, sure, in a fantastic way to start any day, but especially on a day like this.  No time to wallow in the mire, so you just push forward.  But getting out there and doing it, it also lets you run through things in your head in ways that you only can do when you engage in that long, thought-provoking jog, with the iTunes going and you get lost in your thoughts.

And I thought about a lot of things, Coug-related.  I guess I went through the usual blame game first.  You know how it goes after a blowout like this:
1) Mike Price never should have left.
2) Bill Doba was over his head, couldn't recruit and lost complete focus at the end as the program spiraled out of control.
3) Paul Wulff didn't know what he was getting into or, worse, did know what he was getting into and has no idea how to get out of it, other than wait for the players to get better.

4) We should have hired Kevin Sumlin or brought back Mike Price after all.
5) We sure missed an opportunity to take big steps forward while UW sucked.  That window has been slammed shut now, hasn't it?
6) Why did we wait so long to get the Martin Stadium renovation off the ground when Oregon and OSU were busy building up their facilities?  Why didn't we strike when the team was good and the economy was healthy?

But at the end of the run, I came the realization that, well, you know what?  None of the above matters.  We've been over all of it, for the last year-plus.  We've examined every nook and cranny, turned over every rock, explored every little thing that went wrong with this program.  The list is long, the reasons are many.  But it really doesn't matter now.  I'm tired of the blame game, and I'm tired of the excuses.  All that does matter is where we are today, and where we are headed.

Read on...

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Read It Again, Sam

Written by Coug-A-Sutra | 04 October 2009

Hello Followers.  Well, after reading your "day after comments", I thought it prudent to replay my post from this past Friday.

Enjoy it for the second time, won't you???!!!

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Hello Followers.  Hope you’ve had a great week.

As for me, well, I’m still wallowing in the glow of last week’s enticing loss to the USC Trojans.  Simply put, it has been a long time since I’ve seen as much positive energy about the Football program as we have seen for the past week.  And for good reason.

For the first time, Paul Wulff and his staff have been able to show that they have a firm and positive grip on the direction of the program.

Among the positive highlights we have seen:

1) A defense that is tied for first in the conference with 11 take-aways.

2) A defense that includes a budding star at defensive end, the most promising middle linebacker we’ve had since Will Derting (Hoffman), an inspired, veteran corner-safety (Chima) that is fostering the development of the unit (as well as the redshirts who are supposed to be GREAT), and a solid group of DTs that is doing enough to enable consistent pressure on the ball.

3) Good play from underclassmen at the skill positions.

4) We have the makings of a winning quarterback for the first time since 2003.

As a result of these positive developments, we have moved in a few very, very short weeks to a team that looked certain to finish with an 0-fer, to a team that has an outside shot of reaching the desired 3 or 4 win plateau we imagined at the beginning of the year.

But for us to do that, a couple of important things need to happen:

1) We need to get healthy on the O-Line and Stay Healthy on Defense.

2) We need to start scoring some points.

3) We need to start scoring some points.

4) We need to start scoring some points.

5) We need to start scoring some points.

This last point can’t be emphasized enough.  Because, let’s face it Cougar Nation: Over the past 6 games, our offense has scored 16 versus UW, 14 versus Hawaii, 13 versus Stanford, 20 versus Hawaii, 17 versus SMU, and 6 against USC.

Let me say it again:  ONLY ONE TIME IN THE LAST SIX GAMES has our offense scored twenty points! And in NONE of those games have we scored 3 offensive touchdowns (or more).

Obviously, for us to win, that has to change.  And so for the rest of the month—and perhaps the year—the ONLY benchmark we need to look at is our tally on the scoreboard:  As soon as we put 28 offensive points on the board, we’ll be ready to win a Pac-10 game.

But like they say, where growth and development is concerned, the progression of a young Football team usually goes something like this:  ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO STEPS BACK.

And followers, last week was the one giant step forward.   But, this week is going to be two-steps back.

The reason:  As we saw in the Hawaii game, on defense, we have decent, hard-hitting pursuit when running North-South.  Where we remain beyond vulnerable is from sideline to sideline.

Unfortunately for us, Oregon is not only fast north-south, but the read option is just deadly in making us react quickly horizontally as well as vertically.  Consequently, don’t look to see us reverse our trend of slow starts.  In fact, I think we can expect to see this one get out of hand real quick.

Toward the same end, we have all seen that Jeff Tuel has the potential  to be really, really good.  But one thing us old fogies know by now is that there are very, very few cases where young quarterbacks play well in places like Autzen Stadium—especially when they make their debut (and yes, this week IS the real debut—starting is different).  So, when you factor in that our injuries on the O-Line are going to result in schemes that mimic Vanilla’s Vanilla, then it’s really easy to see why we’re in deep, deep trouble this weekend.

So, lest you all think that a UW-USCesque letdown is waiting to greet Oregon, think again.  A defense that held CAL and its Heisman trophy candidate to 3 points isn’t going to allow much against a Freshman QB and a tortured O-Line. This one IS going to be ugly folks.

But, please, take the loss for what it is, AND STAY POSITIVE.  If we can stay healthy, next week is a game we have a chance to steal.

Ducks 52  Cougars 7 (The scoring streak extends to 7!!!!!!!)

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So, the only thing I missed was the extra point.

But take comfort, folks, after 3 Pac-10 games, we've played the top 3 teams in the conference. 

THINGS WILL GET BETTER.  So, try to stay positive.

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