Summer is Over for Cougs

For most of you anyway, summer is still in full fury.  We’re only what, a week into August?  Still a long way to go, right?  Well, that is, except for our Cougs.  Yep, SUMMER’S OVER!  That’s right, Sunday Sunday SUNDAY(!), fall camp is here!  Hooray football.

A few things to touch on this Friday, so let’s get to it.

• Coach Wulff will have a press conference later this afternoon.  No, we won’t be there (what, did you actually expect us to be there?), but sir Vincent Grippi will have the details later on his blog.  Can we just say that it’s great to have Grippi back from hiatus?  Here’s hoping to a happy, healthy football season for all….including Vince.  Meanwhile, Coach Wulff did have an online chat at the official site, which you can catch here.  A few nuggets here and there, but I really liked this Q&A:Ryan (Kaunakakai, HI): Last year was seriously the first season I’ve been almost completely uninterested in Cougar football. Give me a reason to be excited this year.
  

  Paul Wulff: Ryan, I understand your disappointment. But, understanding the process is critical to continue to follow your team, or any team, that is in its rebuilding stages. No program has been or will be built for long-term success in only two or three seasons. A lot like Dick Bennett’s first three years, Donnie Marbut’s first three years, Mike Price’s next three years after the ’98 Rose Bowl, and June Daugherty’s first three years. To win in this conference you have to have mature players with multiple years of experience and a mature program overall with consistency. Until you have that, you cannot compete for a conference title or a bowl game. Right now will be the first time you’ll be able to see the future look bright and young players making the types of plays needed to win in this conference. Keep the faith.

• Grippi brought this up the other day, but it looks like some of the early betting lines have the Cougs as a 14-point dog at Oklahoma State.  No surprise there, but, as Grippi pointed out, it looks as though the line opened at 16.5 and is already down to 14.  That means money is coming in on the WSU side of things, and therefore the line goes down (but you probably know that already!).  But speaking of betting lines, VegasInsider.com has come out with the 2010 Over/Under win totals for 2010.  MOST of the Pac-10 teams are listed, except for one team (can you guess who’s not listed?  Hint – area code 509).  Here’s the Pac-10 Over/Under’s:UCLA:  6
  ASU: 6
  UW: 6.5
  Stanford: 7
  Oregon State: 7
  Arizona: 7.5
  Cal: 7.5
  Oregon: 9
  USC: 10

  Gut reactions:
  1)  Take the under on ASU and six.  That seems too high for a team with so many question marks.
  2)  Take the over on Oregon State. Even with the brutal early schedule, it isn’t hard to picture at least eight wins.  And shouldn’t we know by now to never underestimate Mike Riley and Oregon State?? 
  3) Finally, USC and 10??  That has under written all over it.

  So, obviously WSU isn’t even on their board.  Where would YOU set the number?  I think an interesting over/under would be at least 2.5, or maybe even 3.  What do you think? (note – maybe there is an over/under on WSU, but I just can’t find it?  If you can locate it, post a link in comments and we’ll add it).

  Moving on….

  The coaches poll is out, and the Pac-10 has just two teams ranked – Oregon at 11, Oregon State at 22.  No, USC isn’t ranked, but it’s because of that whole messy probation thing (they aren’t eligible).  As Ted Miller pointed out, most of the Pac-10 teams did receive votes, except for UCLA and WSU.  What’s odd is that ASU got more votes than Cal?  Not to totally rip the Sun Devils, but who exactly is voting for ASU right now, especially ahead of Cal??

• The four Orlando-area kids who are verbally committed to WSU are looking good in the preseason rankings, shown here in the Orlando Sentinel’s top 60 for Central Florida.  Here’s how the commits rank so far:
  

  29.

  Isiah Myers

  Olympia

  WR

  6-0

  190

  Firm committment to Washington State

  34.

  Darryl Monroe

  Dr. Phillips

  LB

  6-0

  215

  Summer transfer from Olympia committed to Washington State

  38(tie)

  Henry Eaddy

  Olympia

  ATH

  5-7

  165

  Firm commitment to Washington State

  43.

  Spencer Waseem

  Apopka

  DB

  5-10

  170

  Firmly committed to Washington State

  And, if you are wondering, WSU is still in on strong safety Corian Hamilton.  Hamilton ranks #15 on the list, and per the article, has “13+ offers including Washington State, Texas Tech, UCF”.

• And speaking of Florida…..an outstanding read on CJ Mizell, incoming WSU frosh linebacker from Tallahassee, FLA.  Mizell is the highest rated recruit in Wulff’s tenure at WSU, a top-5 linebacker in the country from 2009 who originally signed with Florida State.
• Finally, a good read at Yahoo Sports, on the Pac-10 quarterback situation for 2010.  Not a lot about Jeff Tuel, other than a quick blurb that he has all the “tools to be a solid college QB”.

That’s it for a Friday.  Check Grippi’s blog later for the post-Wulff presser reaction.  Enjoy your day, and as always, GO COUGS!