WSU Football | Coach Paul Wulff Welcomes a Good Bye Week

Washington State Cougar football has the week off. The timing for Coach Paul Wulff and his team couldn’t have been better. Extra days to heal are just what the WSU medical staff would order for a team wracked with a wide range of injuries.

With six games completed and six games to go, pausing to evaluate Cougar football also seems timely.

Coach Wulff and the Cougs have just one win to show for their efforts up to this point in the season. It doesn’t seem likely there will be a turnaround in the team record in 2009, but WSU still has six opportunities to capture wins.

Nothing profound or insightful about that.

I followed the usual routine yesterday in preparing to write an article for my column, trying to ignore the bye week. That included listening to former WSU head Coach Jim Walden on the Ian Furness show, 950 KJR-AM - Seattle, which piqued my curiosity.

Coach Walden was pointing out the lack of experience across the Cougar offensive line as a contributing factor to the offensive struggles. He made sense. But does his point stand up to checking the facts?

Taking a look at other Pac-10 teams worthy of comparison revealed facts that surprise some of the critics as to where Coach Wulff is taking Cougar football.

First, let’s look at the offensive line USC coach Pete Carroll will have lining up this Saturday against Notre Dame. He’ll have three seniors, one junior, and a sophomore protecting the pass for freshman quarterback Matt Barkley. The depth chart for running back at “Tailback U” is still stocked with three juniors following the tragic injury that ended the season for senior starter Stephon Johnson.

There is a direct correlation to experience and production. The Trojans lead the conference in total offense. It’s likely that all three senior offensive linemen will go no later than the first three rounds of the NFL draft.

Next, let’s look at the natural comparison with the UW team that failed to win a game last season and is finding ways to win for their first-year coach Steve Sarkisian. Sure, Sark has one of the best players in the nation under center in the person of junior Jake Locker. It’s likely that Locker will turn pro after this season and be the first quarterback selected in the NFL draft.

But Locker would be struggling without decent play from his offensive line. The depth chart for UW this week lists one senior, two juniors and two sophomores on the OL.

Finally, take a look at the most comparable offense in the Pac-10 to Washington State in terms of stats. WSU is last in total offense in the conference. The team ranked above them is UCLA. Like Coach Wulff, coach Rick Neuheisel has shuffled quarterbacks around because of injuries. This week, he’ll be starting Kevin Prince for the third time. Prince will be lining up behind an offensive line that starts one junior, three sophomores and a freshman.

When it comes to offensive play in the Pac-10, experience matters.

Last Saturday, Arizona State devoured Cougar quarterbacks for 12 sacks and countless hurries. The significant factor contributing to the Sun Devils making it look so easy was two-fold.

ASU starts three seniors, one junior, two sophomores, and a freshman on their defensive front seven. WSU played two quarterbacks behind a young, patchwork offensive line that has a total of seven career starts. Yes, Marshall Lobbestael is a sophomore and Jeff Tuel is a freshman.

The offensive line starting for Coach Wulff last week included one senior, two juniors and two freshmen. One of those freshmen, Alex Reitnouer, was slated to redshirt this season to grow into college football. The lone senior of the unit, Kenny Alfred, left the game in the second half with a serious laceration on his knee. From that point, sophomore Chris Prummer took over duties at center.

The experience factor is improving for Coach Wulff’s team. Players are getting lessons on the gridiron here and now. As the season progresses, it follows that the team will continue to improve.

And the season will continue progressing next week when WSU travels to Berkeley to take on a Cal Bears team that is just itching for a win.

Then again, so are the Cougs.

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