Washington State: Feeling the Pain

There are a lot of changes in Pullman going into the 2008 football season.  You already know the biggest change.  New head man, Coach Paul Wulff, has taken over the reins and is ready to ride his troops to a successful season.

There are so many cliches around college football, it would be irresponsible to not throw a few around.  Try this one.

No pain, no gain.

We'll have to wait until the end of August in Seattle to see if the Washington State Cougars are making gains.

Some experts are skeptical.  Okay, most experts agree that if this coming season for WSU football is measured solely by wins and losses, there aren't going to be any gains made this year.

Going into the Cougar Gridiron Classic pitting WSU against the Oklahoma State Cowboys, conventional wisdom puts the Cougs in as a massive underdog.

Granted, OSU is picked to finish fourth out of six teams in their division of the Big 12.  WSU is picked to finish 10th in the Pac-10. 

Good thing the Pac-10 conference isn't as confused at the Big Ten or the Cougs would be pegged to finish 11th in the Pac-10.  Big Ten.  Eleven Teams.  Moving on.

As for pain, Cougar players are feeling it.  Pain.  Big-time pain.  Cougar players are falling to pain and injury like the stock market in July.

Coach Wulff has brought a new work ethic to practice.  To put it another way, he's working the players' butts off like nothing seen in the Palouse for decades.  You'd have to go back to, say, when Paul Wulff played his college football as WSU.

The goal of Coach Wulff is to have his players compete for four quarters.  That goal can only be met if players are in "football shape."

At this point, let's hope Coach Wulff has 22 guys left to suit up! 

Listing players and their injuries would create a list so long, you'd take one look at this article on click on to something else.

Despite the pain, much of the news out of fall practice is positive.  Players are lovin' the no-huddle offense.  That's "no-huddle," not spread.

On defense, there are so many new faces in new places, that in and of itself has created some positive excitement for the players.

The Cougs still don't have anyone to kick extra points and field goals, but then again, do you really need a kicker during fall practice?

Coach Wulff went light on the workload yesterday, but you can expect he'll crank things back up again today.

This is going to be some season of Cougar football, gang.