Oh my God we did it!

I can't even fathom how happy the entirety of the Cougar nation is today. I know that for me there aren't enough words in the English language to properly describe just how happy I am after witnessing what I did today. To say that today was a turning point, that it was huge, or that it was the greatest thing we could have hoped for today would still not do it justice. Dear lord, we actually did it. If there is one thing I am most happy about today, it isn't even that I was right about the Cougs finally winning one, but that today I saw a crowd and a football program make a huge leap into the future. I'll be back with more tomorrow when I can actually get some thoughts together beyond being absurdly happy.

The Cougs Lost and they Won! Holy Crap, its Apple Cup Week!!!!

Okay, here's the score people. The Cougars found a way to lose again on the grid-iron, and the Basketball team surprised the hell out of at least a few of us. This is a weird time to be a Coug, at least for people such as myself. I love all things Coug, but quite frankly if you asked me how happy I was about the Women's Soccer team making the NCAA Tournament, I'd have had to tell you in the most ambivalent tone ever, that it was nice. That's about it. In many ways that is how I feel about the basketball season starting. Sure it's nice to get a Cougar victory, but it just isn't the same as getting to watch the boys in Martin go after a bowl game. As we move further into the basketball season I'm sure it will be more and more satisfying for me, just as it has been the last few years, but right now I'm just not that jacked up for anything other than football, so you'll hopefully excuse my lack of coverage of one of the most one sided victories our basketball team has ever dominated in. If you haven't heard, the Cougs on Saturday opened their regular season at home on Friel Court and dominated Mississippi Valley State University to the tune of 76-25.

All of that having been said, I won't be ignoring the Basketball team, I'm just not quite ready for football to be over yet, even though I may be the only Cougar on the planet willing to say that in public. So yeah, it is officially Apple Cup week, and as we have gotten closer and closer to the biggest pillow fight of the year it seems as though many things are conspiring to make this game at least SEEM interesting. Right now the forecast for the weather is getting increasingly more hostile. This could potentially mean snow, and for a guy like me that means that my dream of a full on SNOW GAME might finally come true. I'm running out of time as a student to get one in, and if fortune feels the need to smile upon me this once, then there is no way in hell I'm going to miss it. Couple a snow game with the possibility of Jake Locker coming back to play this week, and I think there are some things which could potentially help keep Locker winless in the AC while also allowing us to give a proper send-off to the best darn Huskies coach there has ever been. I love Tyrone Willingham, and I'm going to hate seeing him coach his last game in Washington, before getting to bow out after playing Cal the next week.

So what can us Cougs take from the game against ASU this last week? The biggest thing I take from it is the defensive performance. They held an opponent to under 400 yards of total offense, held the running game below 150 yards, and most of all kept it plenty interesting until Lopina was knocked out just before the half with yet another injury. In fact, had J.T. Levenseller actually been able to come in and rely on his offensive line, and get a decent rythym going, it stands to reason that the Cougs actually had a shot in this game. Instead he came in raw and looked like an untried freshman and unfortunately tossed a pick and fumbled, both of which some way or another led to points. Still, the defense played their guts out, and if they do to UW what they did to ASU this weekend, then the Cougs will have a hell of a chance to win the game and get their one and only Pac-10 win this year.

Now, around campus I have heard quite a few "experts" on college football proclaim that if uw quarterback Jake Locker plays, then the Cougs will stand no chance. My friends, if you believe this then feel free to don your purple on Saturday because you clearly believe in the guy just as much as the husky faithful. How anyone can believe that a guy who has missed the last 8 weeks is going to come in and just be dominant, or even effective is beyond me. He broke his thumb and had to have surgery for crying out loud, how in 8 weeks is he supposed to fully recover, rehab, and be ready to throw, much less take a hit in a game that for all intensive purposes means nothing to UW's wasted season. If our Cougars are having problems, it is because of a staff and system turnover which has gone less than smoothly. Right now UW is at the tail end of another year with Willingham, another year of dashed hopes, and another off-season sure to be riddled with chaos as the school tries to find yet another coach to hopefully pick up the mantle of the Dawg father Don James. Right now, even with his propensity for making inexplicable decisions, the last thing on Ty Willingham's mind should be endangering Locker's and the program's futures by putting him on the field when he simply isn't ready. Especially when the season is a wash and their first thought, should be towards building for next year. If Locker starts this game it will be to get him a little playing time, work through the motions, and that's it. These kids, this team, have almost nothing to play for. Their coach's fate has already been decided and handed down, they have not won anything, and have been blown out almost as frequently as our Cougs have. However, rivalry is a funny thing and it can make even the worst of teams look like champions, even if only for a day.

The Huskies are not a team that should be taken lightly, whether it is Fouch, Locker, or Ty Willingham himself under center. This team, like the Cougs, has taken its fair share of lumps this year, but unlike this team, they are going to be starting all over again next year at square one. For Paul Wulff this has been the evaluation year, the rebuilding year, the "oh my god this program is in shambles" year. The Huskies will be going through at least some of that next year, and so this year it stands to reason that they are going to try to play spoiler for as many teams as they can. Right now there are only two teams to spoil anything for, and that means that the Cougs and the Golden Bears need to watch the hell out. The Huskies as a team may not have much pride, but when seniors are playing in their last couple of games, and the title of worst team in the Pac-10 is on the line, they aren't going to go down without a fight. Couple fighting for some self respect with the notion of beating a hated rival, and officially making them the worst Pac-10 team EVER, out there and it is easy to imagine that this game is going to be intense and hard fought, and both teams are probably going to look much better than they have up to this point this season.

Coach Paul Wulff is not going to let the Cougars take this game lightly. Especially after the last couple of games when it has looked like the Cougs are about to turn a competitive corner. This is a team on the brink of competing with the big boys, maybe not as closely as they would like to, but certainly moreso than they have at any other time this year. This is not the same team that lost to Baylor. The defense against ASU showed they can contain a running game, and match up with a weak offensive front. Good news folks, UW has one of the weakest offensive fronts in the Pac 10, and their running game without Locker has been less than potent. If Locker does play I think this D can handle him. The fact is he'll be cold, both physically and mentally. He hasn't had to stand tall on the field in 8 weeks, and as such he's bound to get a little wound up, especially if the defense hassles him early. If Ronnie Fouch plays, then the Cougs will have plenty of film to study, and because of the weak front of the Huskies they should be able to make life tough on him as well. Couple a somewhat reinvigorated pass rush with the emergence of Romeo Pellum in the secondary the last couple of weeks, and it adds up to the Cougs being able to chip away at their negative turnover margin. All in all I think the recipe for success defensively this week is simple. Coach Wulff is going to tell these guys to keep doing what they've been doing and to keep improving on it with more hard work and effort. If they do that, then we Cougar fans will get to enjoy the benefits of the Paul Wulff method, in direct contrast to the Ty Willingham method on the field this Saturday.

Offensively the Cougs have more problems than they can shake a stick at. Fortunately the Husky defense is as underperforming as the Cougars offense has been all season long. In short, something's gotta give. After Kevin Lopina left the game with a concussion Saturday, we all got our first real taste of some of what J.T. Levenseller has to offer. There are some serious things in his favor. He is mobile, and behind the offensive front of the Cougs he'll need to be able to move around just to make some otherwise routine plays. He has armstrength that easily bests that of Kevin Lopina, meaning that the deep ball is more viable than it has been since Rogers went down. And finally, he is unpredictable, and the Huskies really can't scheme for him as there's almost no game footage of the guy. That unpredictability could certainly prove to be a liability as it means that his largely untested decision making may come to the fore if the Huskies can bring pressure. Of course, this is all assuming J.T. even gets the start. If Kevin Lopina is cleared to play and starts the game, then the Cougars have got to find a way to get their recievers open, or it's going to be Turnover Fest '08, again. His arm strength is lacking, more than likely because of injury, and his decision making has been questionable at best. The loss of Chantz Staden in the backfield is only going to hurt the Cougs this week as it takes away one of the more solid runners who could have actually helped take pressure off of Lopina or Levenseller. If it comes down to a gametime decision, I say go with Levy, he provides a spark this offense doesn't otherwise have, and after growing up a Husky hater, it'd be hard to believe that he wouldn't take the field without the express intention of kicking some Husky tail.

Finally, I know that I have already somewhat addressed the weather issue, but there are some other things at play here, that I believe will only help the Cougs to pull this one out. First and foremost if the weather is snowy, or even super cold and rainy, it only helps the Cougs. Sure the Huskies play in Seattle and rain is nothing new, but how many times have any of their guys had to play in the 20s or 30s when the rain is borderline snow, and numbs every bit of them it can after it starts soaking in? The answer is not many, if any. That isn't to say that the Cougs do it every week, but they can practice in it, and if it looks like the weather will be hairy, then Coach Wulff will move them out of the bubble and get them some time in the cold so that they are more prepared than the visitors. Ty Willingham has been fired, and his team has done nothing to indicate that they can or even want to rally around him and try to send him out with a bang. Ty has had some trouble in Apple Cups previously and I don't think this one will be any different. However, on the other side of the field, Coach Wulff has had his team playing hungry and ready to win the last couple of weeks, and if they smell some Husky blood, and see some heads hung low, then you had better believe they are going to "hunt and kill" just like Coach Wulff told them they would. If anything, for the Cougars this game is going to serve as the jumping off point for next season. There's a ton of injuries and adversity to overcome, but the rewards for doing so are great. The Cougars can get a Pac-10 win, put the Huskies in the cellar, and then really warm up when they travel to Hawaii the next weekend. In the end there is quite a bit of incentive for both teams to win, but the Cougars will have the coaching, the will, and the sheer determination to pull this one out. I don't know about many of you, but if I don't post again this week I'll be looking for you at the Apple Cup. Nothing could help this team more than a full Martin Stadium, ready to get loud and rowdy. By the way if you wanna say hi, or maybe criticize my blog, I'll be the guy outside the student gate at about 4:30 in the morning. See you there. GO COUGS!!!

By the way, Congratulations are due the basketball team, that really was a drubbing they handed out. Nice to see some continuity, and nice to see some talented new blood in the program. In the immortal words of one mister Homer Simpson. Woo Hoo!

Progress Everywhere this week...

Well folks it's official, Barack Obama is going to be the 44th President of the United States. Oh, and the Cougs actually still have some sort of offense to speak of. Really honestly this has been a surreal week, as the nation has seemingly overcome a massive racial barrier in electing Obama, and the Cougs actually finally competed for 4 FULL QUARTERS. I can't believe it. This is indeed a great week for the Cougar nation as it would seem that heading into the Apple Cup things have finally started to actually click for the boys in Crimson. Maybe it was voting, maybe it was coaching, maybe it was being sick of getting laughed at by any and everyone who bothered to read ESPN.com's Bottom 10. I don't really know, and I don't really care. All I know is that good times are slowly but surely finding their way back to Pullman. They have a fortnight to arrive in time for the Apple Cup, and I'm pretty sure that theses guys are gonna send the Martin Stadium crowd out on a nice loud high note.

This week was indeed a breath of fresh air, and as such I want to first highlight what it was that made it so damned good to be a Coug this last Saturday. For one, when I got up to go to work Saturday, I was able to turn on my TV to ESPN and see Ol' Crimson flying proudly for something close to the 70th straight time. Our flag tradition warms my undeniably sappy Crimson innards, and it just feels good to wake up that way, especially when your going to work on gameday. Two, the Cougars actually put up some points, and BATTLED with another D1 team for the better part of a half. Were it not for some costly mistakes there at the end of the second quarter the Cougs could have reasonably only been down by only one or two scores. It may or may not have gotten away from them in the second half, but these guys are finally starting to show the resilience that Wulff has been preaching to them since coming back down to Pullman. Three, the Huskies stayed winless further increasing the possibility that we can in fact put them to bed as a completely winless team this year. I'm not sure if any team has done that in Pac-10 history, but even with all the terrible records the Cougs are setting this year, everyone remembers wins and losses more than points and yardage allowed. If the Cougs can put the Huskies down, then yeah we're still better than them, even if it is a pillow fight.

That all having been said, I realize that there are about 10,000 different ways to get a recap of the game online, so I won't go into a full on play by play here. However, there are some interesting developments, both good and bad worthy of looking at, that may just come into play over the next three weeks as the Cougs wrap up the Football Season. First and foremost, DEFENSE, DEFENSE, DEFENSE. Can it be turned around enough to contain ASU and Rudy Carpenter, or at a minimum Fouch or Locker in a couple weeks? Honestly, I think it can. Coach Wulff has a lot to build on from this week, on the field and in meetings. The fact is that the guys played their guts out Saturday and actually saw some positive returns from it. For Lopina to throw a pick in the first 5 minutes of the game, and the defense to actually respond, (thankyou Pellum) and then watch the Offense convert the turn over into points!?! That had to be a revelation, something the likes of which this team hasn't seen in at least a few years. That's not to say this team hasn't had spots the last couple years where they looked good, but I can't remember any time where there was such an immediate and urgent response to a mistake. That folks, is what I like to consider the Wulff influence. Resilience and focus under pressure so that a mistake doesn't become a catastrophe. Simply Awesome.

Aside from maintaining the focus, and the willingness to fight after a mistake what does this team need to do to put it all together and get a W? First they need to look at what they did early against Arizona, there is a lot of progress to be mined there and they'd be stupid not to try and replicate that early success in a more prolific and sustained manner over the next few weeks. Firstly, and Wulff has said this many times, they need to limit mistakes, both offensively and defensively. For the offense that means Lopina keeping his cool, and the line busting their butts like they did against the Arizona pass rush. Will Lopina get tagged a time or two, probably. However a time or two in an entire game is a lot better than it has been and could lead to some good things. Lopina personally needs to start making better reads. On his 48 yard completion to Ben Woodard you could see that he hadn't exclusively locked on to Brandon Gibson, or Jeshua Anderson, and as such was able to make a damn good read. If he can start making more reads like that, and less like he did when he tried forcing it to Gibson at the end of the second quarter then the Cougs can obviously get some points on the board. As far as the recievers are concerned, there needs to be some more fight. By all rights Levenseller should have had his first TD pass with about 4:35 left in the game, but Anderson assumed he'd catch it and let a DB just step up and take it. I don't care who you are, that ball needs to be caught or at least batted down to sustain the drive. Anderson and Gibson both had a couple chances like that and both just sort of gave up on it. They need to fight for it and haul it in, or at least make sure the other guy can't take it from the Cougs. Hopefully they see it in film and correct it on the field.

Defensively speaking there's a lot more work to be done, just to get this unit to being mediocre. First and foremost on every opponents mind is going to be the run. The simple truth is that this year the Cougars don't have the linemen to clog the middle and it is costing the linebackers and secondary dearly. This week they tried a 3-4 formation, which to some extent I have to say might be the most promising thing we fans have seen this year. Did it stop the Arizona running game? Hell no. But did it slow it down and even give Arizona something to think about? Yeah it did. Obviously if the Cougs stick with it ASU and UW will be more than happy to game plan for it. However, neither of those teams has a particularly sturdy O-line and I gotta say it looked to me like our linemen were actually keeping their pad level down this week and getting a good solid push. If they can keep practicing good fundamentals, and get some help from the linebackers then this D might just make some noise these last few games. That having been said, there is still something left to be desired in the tackling department. Guys like Louis Bland and Myron Beck have impressed the hell out of me with their leadership as underclassmen and their willingness to play straight up smash mouth football. This last week Bland showed just how inexperienced he really is, and took some bad angles and got burned trying to make some sketchy tackles. That is something that can be corrected and as the Cougs gear up for Apple Cup I have a hard time believing that Paul Wulff won't have the boys fired up and playing fundamentally sound football. Assuming that there is something to the 3-4 D and they can keep hammering good solid fundamentals this D will stop someone, and they might just stop a couple someones.

Finally, the special teams were once again solid. When the rugby style punt ended up being fumbled towards the end it was nice to see Cougars back there and fighting for the ball, eventually getting possession. That kicking style along with the vastly improved coverage of the unit could lead to a couple more turnovers as the next couple games play out. Keep your eyes out for Karstetter on special teams too, he may not have done much at wideout this year but he always seems to be in on the hit when the ball carrier goes down. So there you have it, my somewhat general, and perhaps overly enthusiastic look at what transpired Saturday. Things are changing, getting better, especially in Cougar Country. I'll be back later this week with something either previewing or reviewing the ASU game. If you've read much or really any of this blog, then you already know I think we can win. Maybe this will finally be the week I get it right. Til later, GO COUGS!

Stanford Beat Us, and Yes Wulff can Coach

Well, another week another loss and surprisingly, another shutout. This game wasn't the same kind of drubbing the Cougs have been taking lately, if anything it was a marginal improvement. I won't go into the numbers, between ESPN, the Seattle Times, and the Spokesman Review, or really any sports website, you can find those for yourself. Instead I'm going to address an issue which it seems has come to the fore on the Cougfan.com forums and to some degree the blogs like Cougcenter and WSUfootball blog. This issue is one that we Cougar fans are familiar with after the last four years under Doba, and that is the current head coach's ability to coach at the Pac-10 level.

Coach Doba was never fully called into question as a head coach in that regard. After winning the 2003 Holiday Bowl, in what is easily the most significant win the school has ever had, no one questioned whether or not he could coach at the Pac-10 level. He was a longtime assistant under Price and as such seemed to have all the tools needed to be a good head coach at the D-1 level. Coach Wulff's perceived lack of ability to do the same has recently come under fire from any number of armchair quarterbacks and couch bound Athletic Directors. Unfortunately these folks largely have no perspective on just what is going on with this team and what it is going to take to change the culture of the team both behind the scenes and on the field.

As a current student at WSU I am not privy to any great pool of information that "legitimate" journalists couldn't get without coming on down to Pullman and asking a few questions. Oftentimes they are ahead of me in obtaining any information I can try to get posted up on this blog about the team or an upcoming game. That said, the one thing they don't have access to is classroom scuttlebutt. That is to say that were Vince Grippi to come down to Pullman he'd probably have a more difficult time talking to players in a classroom than I would. That said, I would like to recount for you, my fellow Cougar fans, a recent and quite sad encounter I had with a player in one of my classes. This isn't to point fingers at players specifically, as he will remain nameless, but instead put your finger on the pulse of the program. Hopefully this will give everyone a little more insight into the nature of the problems this team is having and in turn help you understand just what it is Coach Wulff is having to deal with in getting this program turned around.

About a week and a half ago, amidst the bye-week I was sitting in one of my History classes directly behind one of the Cougars second string defensive players. Being the fan that I am I listened to him as he talked about what was going on in the practice bubble that week. Based on what he said Coach Wulff, as well as the coaches that weren't out on recruiting trips, was preaching the basics and good solid fundamentals of the game. To me, this sounded great, as it made it sound as though Coach Wulff and the team were able to effectively get to work and get back to basics with no hassle from the media or anyone else. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter, this player started to let his opinions on Coach Wulff be known. Keeping in mind that this is an upper division history class, and his listing on the depth chart, this guy is a recruit of Doba's and has been here for a couple of years. What I heard from there on and actually took issue with was a string of problems, not with the coaching staff and their work ethic, but this player's willingness to buy into the new way of life that Coach Wulff expects his team to adopt.

This player sat bitching and moaning about how hard the coaching staff expects this team to study and work at getting better at football and in the classroom. My guess is that this guy doesn't eat too many meals at the training table as that seemed to be one of his big problems with the tyranny of Coach Wulff and staff. In his mind, it seemed inconcievable that the coaching staff would keep track of who was taking advantage of the training table and who wasn't, and he just couldn't understand the big deal. This speaks to one of the main issues of Coach Wulff's much publicized comments about the state of the team. They don't seem to think that their weight training or eating right go hand in hand and don't care that it can help them get bigger and stronger. His further complaints were about the weight training program and the time they are expected to put in in the weight room. As far as he was concerned it was too much to ask that players stay on top of their training, and that their efforts, or lack thereof were being recorded. Perhaps most incredibly this player could not believe that he wasn't a starter. It was about then that I felt the need to jump in, having gotten progressively more irate has he continued spouting off.

I asked him what he had done to earn a starting spot on the team. As far as he was concerned he was ready to go because he had put in his time in the weight room and tried to fall in line with the training table and that should have been enough. Once again I asked this guy what he had done, explaining to him that it seemed as though he had done the bare minimum he could and that maybe that was why he wasn't getting a second look. Personally, I thought it was common sense, if you want to get noticed, you work hard and go above and beyond what is merely expected of you. This player didn't exactly agree with me, and that's putting it lightly. After a few choice words he explained that he looks at his playbook a couple hours every week and he works out and he goes to practice, and he makes it to almost all of his classes every week. To some that may seem like a lot, but if anything all he described doing was the bare absolute minimum needed to compete for a position, much less a starting spot. This is the problem with the Cougars as they are today. After years of getting by under Doba these guys don't know what it is going to take to compete and what it is they have to do to WIN.

The conversation between the player and his buddy, and to a lesser extent, myself ended soon thereafter, but the one thing I took away from it was his attitude towards the Cougars and being a Cougar. He said if he didn't make it as a starter this year he would transfer and play for someone willing to give him a starting job. If that doesn't tell you what is wrong with this team I don't know what does. This player has seen on field time this year and instead of fighting and digging deep to bring out the best of himself on the field he has just assumed that the bare minimum was and should be enough. I can not fathom how it is that a couple of hours a week is supposed to be enough to understand a playbook. Football speak is a whole language that takes time to comprehend, much less understand and execute. If anything I would think he should be putting in the same amount of time reading it, as I have to when I'm studying for German. That would conservatively put him at least 8-10 hours a week of study just to have plays down fairly solidly in his head. If you want to know why the defense seems constantly out of position its because of guys like this not wanting to do all it takes to understand and know where they are supposed to be and what they are supposed to be doing on the field.

As for his issues with having to wake up early to weight lift and train, and having to go to all of his classes on time, I have a few choice words I can think of. Honestly, if it is just so hard to get up and go do what you should be doing to EARN that 29,000 dollar scholarship, maybe it just isn't worth it. Sadly, just by virtue of the teams size, there have to be at least a few more guys who think like he does. Going to class is a requirement for success, just like going to practice is a requirement for doing well on the football field. If you don't perform well in class, why should you get to play football? It is a privilege not a right. Unfortunately, this is the culture Coach Wulff is having to overcome. It will probably be a little while before this team is able to get rid of the guys that want to get by with just the bare minimum.

All I can say is that I hope this off season is productive for the Cougars, even if that means that it has to be reductive as well. What I mean is that when this semester, or possibly academic year is over, I hope the guys like him will transfer and quit wasting valuable scholarships that guys like me would give everything for. If he does transfer and take others with him, then I'll be extremely happy. It will free up more scholarships for walk ons like Myron Beck. They may not be the biggest baddest guys on the field, but they are obviously putting in the time and effort to be worth a scholarship, and the continued opportunity to play Pac-10 football. So, for all of you out there that question Coach Wulff's ability to coach at the Pac-10 level, just look to guys like Beck and Louis Bland. They are proof that with Coach Wulff both recruits and walk-ons alike can get better each and every week if they are willing to buy into what Coach Wulff is selling. Also look at the Cougars incoming recruiting class and be hopeful, because those kids along with all of the redshirts this year will be the backbone of this team for years to come. They obviously like what Coach Wulff is selling, and are willing to buy in.

In another class I have a couple of guys who are redshirting this year who are on a whole other wavelength than the negacoug I dealt with the other day. They are obviously a little disheartened by what they have seen so far, but are chomping at the bit to get out on the field next year and show Coach Wulff and us fans just what they can do. They acknowledge that the losses this year suck, but also say that Coach Wulff has been awesome in getting them to come here and selling them on the idea that they can contribute and lead this team to some big wins over the next few years. They are working tirelessly to make sure that when spring ball rolls around this year that there are some early surprises to stoke the fires of hope for next fall. Personally I think Coach Wulff and his boys have it right, and my friend in history has it all wrong. The Cougars are coming back, and they are doing it the right way, with guys who want to be Cougars. As for the Courtney Brown wannabe in history? I hope he has a nice career at North Texas, I hear they need all the help they can get.