Cougs get bye week to regroup
Published 11:12 pm Monday, October 20, 2008
PULLMAN — This bye week for Washington State’s football team is sorely needed by the Cougars and their fans.
The shocking lack of competitiveness of the WSU football team, which is knocking on the door of being the worst in program history, has sent Cougar Nation into a deep funk.
Few could have predicted that a team that was 5-7 last season, and broke into the Top 25 just two seasons ago, could look so helpless on the field.
The Cougars’ 69-0 loss to No. 6 Southern Cal on Saturday before 25,000 fans was just the latest humiliation in a season that also saw them give up 66 points to Cal, 63 to Oregon and 66 to Oregon State. In five Pac-10 games, they are being outscored by an average of 58-6.
That had new coach Paul Wulff looking forward to a weekend without a game.
“I’d take two just to get healthy,” said Wulff, who has tried mightily to maintain a positive outlook.
To be sure, the Cougars have suffered a dreadful string of major injuries, including having two of their top three quarterbacks knocked out for the season and having to start a QB just recovering from a broken bone in his back against USC.
But it is also true that this Cougar team seems significantly smaller and weaker than its Pac-10 rivals, and lacks experience and depth. Blame for those failures falls on the regime of predecessor Bill Doba, who was forced out after last season in large part because recruiting had fallen to alarming levels.
That left Wulff with little to work with, and injuries wiping out much of what he had.
The result is that out of 119 major college teams, the Cougars rank 118th in scoring (13.9 points per game overall) and points allowed (48.1 ppg)
Wide receiver Brandon Gibson, WSU’s main offensive weapon, was held to one reception for no yards Saturday as the Cougars went almost exclusively to running plays to try to keep quarterback Kevin Lopina upright.
“We were fighting, digging and scratching, but we had nothing to fight, dig and scratch with,” Gibson said after the game.
“We’d like to put the ball in the air more,” Gibson said. But “the quarterbacks are injured and we don’t have that many.”
After Lopina, the Cougars have just walk-on Dan Wagner and freshman J.T. Levenseller, who they are trying desperately to redshirt for next season. Top running backs Dwight Tardy and Chris Ivory should finally return to action this week.
Wulff has taken the unusual step of closing practice on Tuesday and Wednesday, to take some attention off the team.
He also is looking for a way to change attitudes, including finding players who will motivate their teammates.
“For a while as coaches we tried to do that, and it’s time now as a coach to find players to do that,” Wulff said Sunday. “All great teams have great, strong leadership.”
He’s getting help from some players.
“We’re just going to have to find out who’s here to compete and play,” Lopina said Saturday. “If you don’t want to play, then turn in your gear.”
“A lot of guys are getting used to losing,” defensive end Andy Mattingly said.
“Too many guys are waiting for someone else to start making plays,” he said. “Something has to change.”
But a quick turnaround is difficult.
Unlike the pro game, where teams can buy talent at any time, the Cougars have no option except recruiting from high schools and junior colleges, and that takes much more time to produce results.
Wulff was hired in December, giving him little time to recruit his first class, which won’t begin playing until next season at the earliest.
Having played most of the top teams in the Pac-10, the remaining five games offer a chance for relief. After the bye, the Cougars play at Stanford (4-4, 3-2 Pac-10), host Arizona (5-2, 3-1), play at Arizona State (2-4, 1-2), host Washington (0-6, 0-4) and finish at Hawaii (3-4).
“We have five games to go and an opportunity to compete with all those teams on our schedule,” Wulff said. “We have to look at it as a new season.”
