8:58 PM Wed, Sep 09, 2009 | Permalink
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It's Wednesday...that means another Washington State football practice report.
The Cougars were hard at work in Pullman today, getting ready for Hawaii on Saturday. It's the annual Cougar Gridiron Classic at Qwest Field in Seattle.
Wazzu is looking pretty healthy (that's a positive). Safety Eric Block and linebacker Louis Bland were both suited up, but didn't really take part in many drills. Block is still woozy (concussion) after his monster hit against Stanford (you know the one I'm talking about if you watched the game). Bland's injury is unknown, but his left calf was heavily wrapped. I also saw running back James Montgomery after practice. He had some ice in his pants and mentioned that he tweaked his groin, but he said he is fine. The only player out of the ordinary (the quarterbacks) wearing a "no contact" jersey was safety Jay Matthews.
Kevin Lopina still looks like the better quarterback...that's why he is starting again on Saturday. Marshall Lobbestael just doesn't look confident to me. He seems to hang his head a lot during practice. I caught him yelling at himself after making a couple of mistakes today. Lobbestael just doesn't seem to have it all together mentally (but he still throws a good ball).
Speaking of quarterbacks...I like freshman Jeff Tuel more and more every time I see him. He stayed after practice for 15 minutes throwing passes to David Gilbertson (a walk-on quarterback). Joe Nickell of the sports information department told me that Tuel is one of the hardest workers on the team. He said that Tuel has stayed for 30-plus minutes after practice working on his game. I saw him connect with Gino Simone on a pass play during practice and couldn't help but get excited for the future of WSU football.
With that said...Simone didn't have his best day today. I didn't know he was capable of it, but he dropped a couple of passes. Up until today, I thought his hands were made of glue. He usually catches everything that comes at him. The coaches even took notice and got on his case a little bit.
Chima Nwachukwu continues to work out at cornerback. That means redshirt freshman LeAndre Daniels will likely remain the starter at safety. I said some good things about Daniels last week, but he was a little disappointing against Stanford (I have to keep in mind that it was his first college game). Just like several Cougars, he needs to learn how to wrap up when he tackles (he bounced off of Stanford's Toby Gerhert a couple of times). I'm also really hoping that cornerback Brandon Jones switches a gear. He got burned a few times last week, but looked just fine at practice today. Hawaii still has a decent passing game, so Jones will need to be better).
I'll have a full preview of the Hawaii game ready for you on Friday morning, but I'm going to talk about the game little bit right now. Expect the Cougars to run the ball this weekend. Hawaii doesn't have one returning starter (that's not typo...they have 11 new starters on defense) and WSU is well aware of that. Running back Legwone Mitz told me they are going to "pound the rock" against the Warriors.
That's all I have time for right now. I posted uncut interviews with Kevin Lopina, Xavier Hicks, and Legwone Mitz to the WSU page on KREM.com. They can give you an inside glimpse into what the team is thinking heading into Saturday's game. I also talked to Paul Wulff, but I had an issue with my camera. If you don't care about video quality, I can still post it. Let me know if you want to see it.
Go Cougs!!!
Can't wait to see the Cougs "pound the rock" against the Warriors. I am totally stoked for the future highlight plays between Tuel and Simone. Great blog Tim, looking forward to Friday's game preview.... Hey, this comment tool always freezes up during submission, oh well...Go Cougs!
Couldn't possibly agree more about the QB situation. I think it was a big mistake on Wulff's part to platoon them right out of the gate this year. Lopina was consistently moving the ball last Saturday, and seems like he's our guy. Give him the ball for the entire game and let's see what he can put together. Win against Hawaii puts us at .500....GO COUGS!!!