WSU Football | Cougs Carrying Chips on Their Shoulders

Coach Paul Wulff was as calm and poised as ever this afternoon while fielding questions from members of the media. The second-year head man at Washington State tends to reserve his passion for the game of football for his players and coaches.

Most of the press conference went as you would expect. Coach Wulff was asked to talk about his offense, defense, and the opponent this coming Saturday afternoon in Pullman, the Arizona State Sun Devils.

The tone of his responses carried significant conviction near the end of the press conference.

We'll get to that after passing along some of the other highlights first.

The weekly battle cry of the offensive from the WSU practice field and sidelines has been "all hands on deck" for much of fall camp, and the entire season up to now. Coach Wulff has done more shuffling with the OL the last few weeks than Gregory Hines did on the dance floor over an entire career.

Things may have stabilized for a week.

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"...At this point it will stay the same from Oregon with (Alex) Reitnouer at left guard and (Tyson) Pencer at left tackle, then (Joe) Eppele and (Micah) Hannum on the right side with Alfred at center. At that point it will stay the same as of today and it wouldn’t surprise me if it stays that way into the game. We’re just going to wait and see about (Brian) Danaher and how he comes back and at what level. The same thing for (Zack) Williams and his high ankle sprain.”—WSU Coach Paul Wulff

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Danaher is coming off a concussion, so his health will be closely monitored. Williams' return will be tempered with the caution a high ankle sprain calls for. Unless he's almost completely recovered from the sprain, Coach Wulff won't risk bringing him back too soon and re-injuring the same ankle.

When true freshman Jeff Tuel was knocked out of the game last week, Marshall Lobbestael came in and was able to finish it out. But if both No. 1 and No. 2 quarterbacks go down, who would get the call? One option that won't be available for the ASU game is senior Kevin Lopina. Wulff stated that he won't be ready to go.

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“At this point (sophomore) Dan Wagner is number three. (True freshman) David Gilbertson will travel. He’s doing some really nice things and we’re impressed with his progress. But if possible, he’s getting a redshirt.”

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Coach Wulff took the opportunity to share some observations the new players made in their first serious playing time for WSU.

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“Alex Reitnouer played pretty good. He made some mistakes. We were down there on the goal line and we ran a dive play. A guy came free and made the tackle on Logwone Mitz. He just missed that. It was a freshman mistake. He had a few other things that didn’t go right for him, but the things that he did do right were some extremely athletic plays. Some pass protection (he showed) signs of being very athletic with his feet and hands and actually protected in some respects extremely well. There were some impressive things that were done by him that we haven’t had. It’s just some pure athleticism. But you’re right. When you face some 300 pound guys for him to get real physical on them isn’t an easy thing for him to do right now because of his size and strength. There’s some pluses with him … He’s a smart kid. He’s very tough. He plays very hard. We’ve got a lot of nice things to work with.”

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“(Carl) Winston had a fumble and then he had a protection breakdown. He went the wrong way and then he came back and got a piece of his guy but (the quarterback) got sacked. Those were two obvious mistakes he made but when he did run the ball he found some nice creases in there. He’s got a burst and I think you saw that. I think he did some really nice things for the first time ever touching the ball and playing. He had a nice kickoff return where he made a few guys miss and weave through it. He’s got good vision. He’s got good quickness. He’s a tough kid…As he gains experience and keeps hitting the weight room, I think he’s got a bright, bright future.”

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“Jared (Byers), I know he surprised a lot of people. He surprised us. He had a really good fall camp as a first year freshman at linebacker. We moved him over this week because we just weren’t getting consistent play at the fullback position. He came in there and just picked things up really quick. We really like Jared. I think he’s a tough kid with good feet. He likes contact. I think he’s got a heckuva future for us at fullback position on our offense. I think he’ll do a great job moving forward. He’s got enough ability and toughness to give us a good presence on special teams as well. He’ll just get better and better.”

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The session with Coach Wulff began, and ended, talking about Arizona State, and what WSU can expect to see on the field this Saturday. Like Washington State, the Sun Devils have struggled to get their offense running on all cylinders.

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“They’re throwing the ball maybe a little bit more than they have in the past. I think they’ve been struggling a little bit in their offensive line and getting some consistency. They’re in year three there. They’re still trying to build their offensive line up. I know that’s been an issue for them since the day they got there. So they probably haven’t run the ball as much as they would like because it’s a work in progress…so they’re throwing it a decent amount… It wouldn’t shock me at all to see them try to run the ball a lot more this week than they have in the past.”

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Despite a fair performance by senior quarterback Danny Sullivan in the Sun Devils' loss to Oregon State last weekend in Tempe, fans at the game turned on the leader of the ASU offense. Some home field advantage when your own fans are booing you and calling for a freshman to take your place.

Coach Wulff didn't share the view of the fans in the stands.

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“He’s a player that’s experienced and he’s been around. He’s a really big tall guy that can see over the rush. They keep him in the shotgun and give him a lot of opportunities to throw. He’s got a couple of really skilled wide receivers. He’s a solid player and he’s a veteran player.”

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However, Coach Wulff understands some of the frustration in Tempe over the play at quarterback. He's had his own challenges determining who is going to step up and take over the WSU offense. ASU Coach Dennis Erickson has been around long enough to cope with the issue of establishing a legitimate starting quarterback. There have been numerous occasions over the course of his career where he felt like Bullwinkle trying to pull a rabbit out of his hat.

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“Like anybody...they’re really looking for that guy to pull the trigger. Right now in the Pac-10, across the board, there’s only a couple of guys that are taking charge of their football team and are very, very valuable to their wins and losses. They’re (ASU) probably feeling a lot like some of the other schools where they’ve got to find a guy who can take charge. I think that’s what they’re feeling. That's why you (may) consider it a controversy or someone that isn’t settled in the position or however you want to describe it."—Coach Wulff

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When the conversation with Coach Wulff turned back to the Cougar defense, he spoke freely about his unit that is working hard to make the right adjustments from one week to the next.

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“We have some strengths on defense right now and we have some weaknesses on our defense. Right now our overall team speed on defense isn’t what we need. So when we get in a position where that could be exposed a little bit, it shows up. We’ve gotten bigger and stronger on our defensive line and our linebacking corps from a year ago. We held Stanford probably as good as anybody in a lot of ways in the run game. And we played USC extremely tough. Those two teams in particular are a little more conventional...we do match up better. Right now with those types of teams that are balanced and try to run the ball equally and play action, we defend those guys better. When we get spread out right now because of our speed, that is an area where we do get exploited at times. But I will say this, with some of the young (players) being redshirted and some of the injuries, like to LeAndre Daniels and Tyree Toomer who can’t play...as we move forward our defensive back in from linebacker to secondary will dramatically, and I mean dramatically, improve the team speed...There’s been a high effort in getting some speed into this program (through) recruiting and I think if you’ve been paying attention to recruiting you will see that we’re bringing in speed as much as we can possibly get and as quickly as we can get. That’s what we’re trying to do. When the Cougs have been good on defense and most defenses, you’ve seen great speed...That’s what we’re trying to get here as fast as we possibly can.”

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In other words, that's the reality of the situation as the Washington State football program continues to move forward.

Before things wrapped up, there was a great question asked of Coach Wulff, which had to be on the minds of many who watched the Oregon game last Saturday night.

Didn't Coach Wulff think it was strange to challenge a touchdown call when the Ducks were leading 45-0?

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“I would tend to agree with that, too. There are some things that are going to happen. Let me just say this. In my first season and particularly in (the Oregon) game there’s been some things that happened. We’re down right now. We know that. But there are some chips that are being thrown on our players and coaches shoulders right now that we’re going to carry with us for awhile. We’ve got a lot of motivation and we’re getting pieces of motivation from time to time and we’ll have plenty of motivation moving forward. Believe me."

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The only question better than the previous one was the follow-up: Will the Cougar players and coaches remember these things?

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"Yes."

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The conviction in the voice of Coach Wulff was devoid of anger. Coach Wulff was simply affirming "Yes," on behalf of the football program.

That's the way it is.

Originally published in Lew Wright's column on Examiner.com