PULLMAN – Ask Washington State offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Mike Levenseller about his pass-catchers, and in a sentence he can nail down not just them but the Cougars as a whole.
“You start looking down that list, there’s not a whole lot of guys who have played a lot,” he said of a group that has three combined career starts. “I feel we’ve got a group of guys that are potentially very good.”
While many head-scratching conundrums face this WSU team going into 2004, the wideouts could be one of the biggest. Take a look at the top six on the depth chart, and Levenseller’s words start to make sense:
* Three – Jason Hill, Chris Jordan and Trandon Harvey – are coming off of troublesome injuries.
* Two – freshman Michael Bumpus and junior college transfer Greg Prator – are brand new to the program.
* And one – junior Marty Martin – has five career catches.
Perhaps as a result, Levenseller has been vocal during camp, exhorting his players to find their comfort zones as quickly as possible. One of his primary targets has been Hill, a talented wideout who had problems with his left shoulder in 2003 and a wrist sprain this fall. If he’s healthy, the sophomore could be a mainstay in the starting lineup.
“I put him in in the second quarter of the Holiday Bowl just so he could get a feel for it,” Levenseller said, “just knowing that his moment would come this year, and we’d be relying heavily on him.”
With so many receivers out with injury in the spring, the few healthy players left ended up expending more energy than usually necessary. So the arrival of Bumpus and Prator this fall has provided much-needed relief. In fact, their first impressions have been positive enough to earn probable playing time early in the season.
“They came here because they knew that either they were going to get a chance to contribute or they were expected to,” Martin said. “Bumpus, he’s a young guy, he’s got great talent. It’s all raw talent, plus coaching, that’s just going to polish him up. He’s going to be a great receiver.
“Prator, he’s a big dude. He has great leaping ability and he’s physical too.”
While Levenseller is glad to have the two newcomers, he also has expressed some concern about the number of receivers he has vying for just three starting spots.
In addition to the top six, junior Tramaine Murray, Thomas Ostrander and Jevon Miller all could factor into the equation before the year is finished.
“One of the best things you can have in a receiving corps is a lot of depth,” Levenseller said. “And one of the worst things you can have in a receiving corps is a lot of depth. Because that means that nobody has separated themselves from the others.”
Though the receivers still have some issues to resolve, Cougar quarterback Josh Swogger should be able to count on tight end Troy Bienemann and his backup Cody Boyd at tight end. Bienemann started as a freshman and has been a dependable safety valve for two seasons already.
But his experience stands alone amongst the Cougar receivers, a point of adversity that Martin said he and his teammates can beat over the 11-game regular season.
“We’re able to respond to that,” Martin said. “Yeah, we’re young, yeah, we might not have as much experience, but you can’t judge that against how much heart this corps has and the willingness to learn and do good things.”
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