Briefing Report
Published 9:00 pm Sunday, September 10, 2006
Fresno State coach Pat Hill talked with the Seattle media today, followed by Washington’s weekly media lunch. And frankly, there was pretty much no news to come out of it.
Hill talked about the difficulty his program has in getting any BCS teams to come to Fresno to play, which is a danger of being too good when you’re a mid-major. But he said he will continue his philosophy of playing any program any time, anywhere, which he’s clearly proven that he will do. Fresno played Oregon last week and plays at LSU later this season. He said he doesn’t believe the fifth BCS bowl game will help non-BCS conference teams all that much.
Tyrone Willingham didn’t report any real news, other than to reiterate that Isaiah Stanback would be the starter this week and, seemingly, for the future. I know a lot of fans believe he should be replaced by Carl Bonnell, and I see the point, though I don’t agree with it. I think Stanback is the most dangerous player on the team and you want the ball in his hands as much as possible. I’m not saying you ride him out all season if he struggles like he did last week, but one bad performance this season doesn’t warrent replacement. Remember, he had one of his best days against San Jose State two weeks ago. Stanback made a lot of mistakes and bad reads against Oklahoma, but he didn’t get much help from his line, which didn’t pick up the blitz well at all, and his receivers continue to struggle to get open. Carl Bonnell played well but realistically, he did not face the same defense Stanback did. The Sooners did not blitz Bonnell and some of Oklahoma’s defensive players admitted they backed off a bit late in the game. I don’t have a problem giving Stanback another shot at showing he can be as dangerous as he appears he should be.
As for Stanback, he said he isn’t over the fumble in the Oklahoma game, but he was in better spirits than he was after the game. He said he was disappointed he didn’t get to finish the game and make up for his mistake but was glad to see Bonnell play well.
No new injuries to report. Willingham said he hopes to have Jordan Murchison back this week but I’d be pretty surprised if that’s the case. He hasn’t been practicing. Can you afford to have two gimpy cornerbacks (along with Dashon Goldson) out there? Well, maybe there’s no choice. Willingham also moved Jordan White-Frisbee back to the offensive line to try to ease the stress on his balky foot.
Willingham spent a lot of time talking about how physical Fresno State’s offense is, and that the Bulldogs like to pound the ball forward. That may play well for the Huskies, who don’t have a ton of speed at linebacker but do play the straight-ahead run well.
Louis Rankin, Scott White and Sean Douglas were named the team’s players of the week. Don’t be surprised if Douglas is named the Pac-10’s Special Teams Player of the Week, which should be announced tomorrow.
