1) Right away, they talked about the Oregon game. Wulff said they just “didn’t play well”, but that they “played a really good team” in Oregon. They have great team speed, and that is an area we are lacking right now, and no more apparent was that lack of speed than what was on display vs. Oregon. But Wulff said he was “disappointed that we didn’t fight back” from the early adversity, for the first time in 2009. And speaking of Oregon, Wulff said that while they have played the three best teams in the conference right now in Oregon, USC and Stanford, he said “hands down Oregon was the fastest team we’ve seen, faster than USC and Stanford, no question.”
2) Injury update – and there are many to go over. First, the young hope in the program, Jeff Tuel. Wulff said “Tuel practiced today, and got better as practice went on and they were able to get his hip/lower back area loosened up.” Wulff said it’s a bruise, basically, in that hip/lower back area. Wulff said that “we will see how he responds tomorrow and Thursday in practice, but right now, we ENVISION he will play this Saturday. Now to what degree he plays? Maybe he won’t play as much as we would like, or maybe he won’t start but will play. But we’ll have to wait and see how it goes Wednesday and Thursday.” Jared Karstetter was held out of practice today, with a hip pointer, but might be able to go tomorrow. Gino Simone was back out there, but it was glossed over a bit that he missed all of last week’s practices due to the flu. However, Wulff was proud that Simone “battled through it” to get on the field vs. Oregon, even though he didn’t play for the majority of the game. He just wasn’t well. Daniel Blackledge was sick as well, but is doing better now.
Some other key injuries include Brian Danaher, who should be back this week at guard (and will hopefully help out). Wulff did say that Joe Eppele and Alex Reitnour, for their first starts at guard, they did OK in that environment. Sure, they made some mistakes, but according to Wulff, it “could have been a lot worse” and they “did some good things in there”. Dwight Tardy suffered a stinger vs. Oregon, but was back out there in practice today and should be able to go on Saturday. There was news on James Montgomery, and that is he had some staples removed from his leg recently, and will be on crutches for a couple more weeks, and then he can start some rehabilitation. We’ll have to wait and see what happens there, but it didn’t sound like anything has changed in terms of if he can come back or not next year.
The bad news is that middle linebacker Alex Hoffman-Ellis is “extremely doubtful” for this week due to a staph infection in his arm, believe it or not . Hoffman-Ellis has been in the hospital since Sunday with the infection in his arm, and has undergone a couple of surgeries, including one today (Tuesday). Also, Eric Block is back to battling the stomach ailment that has haunted him since he came to Pullman. They are back looking into some combinations of medication to help him deal with it, but, it sounds like Block will be out again. Wulff said he’s been “very disappoitned FOR Block, as he’s such a great kid and you hate to see this happen to him” but they are trying to figure out a way to deal with what’s going on there. Likewise, we’ve heard great things about Block from a lot of people as well, family and friends alike, and yes, we hope he gets back out there as well!
3) That injury talk kind of led right into the wide receiver position and the difficulties Jeff Tuel had vs. Oregon. Wulff talked about not having Simone “real sharp” due to his illness, and with some inexperience at WR, they didn’t give Tuel a very good chance to succeed. Wulff talked about one play in particular, where they had Tuel go back to pass. Tuel made the right read and set up for the throw, but, unfortunately the WR did not, and therefore the play broke down. That was one of many problems they had on offense, and it was a difficult environment to succeed in given all the youth and inexperience at so many key spots.
Wulff also talked in general about the game plan of when Jeff Tuel is in vs. when he is not in the game. Bud mentioned that some of the game plan last week was to feature a lot of roll-outs by Tuel, as they wanted to try and move him around and let him make some plays with his feet as well as his arm. But when he came out of the game with the injury after only the third series of the game, they had to change things up with Marshall Lobbestael at QB, and that didn’t go real well. It was just a tough game all the way around for the offense.
4) Next, they talked about ASU. Immediately Wulff said ASU has a “great rushing defense, and a physical defensive line, probably the most physical defensive line we will have faced this year.” Wulff said their linebackers are very stout as well, and overall, they have a “physical defensive front”. And at middle linebacker, yikes. True frosh Vontaze Burfict, the consensus number one linebacker in the country as a high school senior last year, is already making a serious impact for ASU. Burfict originally committed to USC, but at the last second, switched to ASU on signing day. He’s an absolute BEAST as 6-3, 245.
Wow. And oh yeah, he doesn’t look like Tarzan and hit like Jane either. Check it out:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwJCYhOdazE&w=425&h=344]Looks like a young Mark Fields to me! Wulff said that Burfict and Travis Long are making the most impact of any true frosh this year in the PAC-10, and for good reason. Burfict is second on ASU with 22 tackles, tied for second with 3 tackles for loss, and is even second with 3 pass break-ups. The kid is pretty much everywhere.
But speaking of Travis Long? Wulff did say that he’s been just pleased as can be with young Travis, and the impact he has made so far has been a big one, to say the least. Long is right there with Burfict in terms of pure numbers (21 tackles, 3 for loss, 2 sacks, a couple of hurries and a forced fumble). But Wulff said “the challenge I’ve laid out for Travis is can he maintain this for the rest of the season, or will he just kind of fade out?” Wulff did say how happy he was with his effort vs. USC, and that “he got their fifth-year offensive tackle a few times, and that was from a true frosh!”
Wulff also briefly talked about Dennis Erickson, the respect he has for Dennis and what he’s accomplished as a coach, stuff like that. Wulff said “a lot of what I do today, I take from playing under Dennis for a couple of years.” I think we heard a lot of this during last year’s radio show prior to ASU. But as much as he respects Erickson, he said “but this Saturday is a great opportunity to try and go out and beat him!”
5) A caller asked about special teams, and that while some PAC-10 teams have dedicated special teams coaches like UCLA, USC and Oregon State, WSU does not. Why is that? Wulff said that they may look at that in the future, but for now, he believes Steve Broussard is doing a good job as the special teams coordinator. Wulff did say that Nico Grasu is facing a “focus issue right now” in terms of just keeping his head down and nailing kicks, but they think they can work through that. They are also tinkering with the returners, as with Kevin Norrell out, they are trying different guys at punt return, including a chance we’ll see Gino Simone back there.
Wulff took the opportunity here to point out the overall lack of team speed in reference to special teams. Wulff said that “on one play vs. Oregon, we had a holding penalty on a long kickoff return early in the game. Well, the reason we held on that play is because the opposing player was so much faster, the blocker couldn’t get into position fast enough and he basically had to hold!” But most of all, the lack of speed and inexperience can really show itself on special teams.
6) A caller asked about the mental state of the team, coming off a 2008-like blowout for the first time in 2009. Wulff said they are all extremely “disappointed” in what happened, but he thinks in a good way. Players and coaches alike, they know they can and will do better than they did on Saturday night. Wulff said he told them team they “are selling themselves short with a performance like that. We are better than we showed on Saturday.” But he did say the attitude is still very good right now, among young players and veterans alike. Finally, the caller said “Coach, the next time we are up 45-0 on somebody, please don’t throw the challenge flag like Kelly did at Oregon!” IN case you didn’t know or stopped watching the game, the Cougs’ only TD came on a tight call at the goal-line late in the second half. Oregon was already up 45-0, and Chip Kelly decided to challenge the call. Sure, it’s well within his right to do such a thing, but up 45-0 late in the game, I mean does it really matter? Anyway, Wulff paused, thought for a moment, and said “….Some bad things have happened in the last year and a half, since we’ve been here. We won’t forget these things. WE WILL GET OUR DAY, and we won’t forgot about things like that!”
7) A caller asked about the tempo from Oregon on offense, how they were in such a great rhythm, and how in the heck do you stop that? Wulff said the only way you can stop it? “Getting stops!” When Oregon is at their best is when they are getting six, seven, eight yards a pop, and they just get in that quick rhythm. Unless you can make some plays defensively, they just keep it going. But he also said that to stop Oregon, you MUST be physical and get off blocks, and most of all, “you have to be able to win the one-on-one battles every play”. For example, Oregon loves to spread you out and get you in one-on-one defensive situations. You must be able to make tackles out in space, all by yourself. That is exactly what they are trying to accomplish. But the only way to stop them is to make plays, because you can’t expect a lot of gang-tackle situations with their scheme. It’s what makes them so dangerous (and, quite honestly, such a bad match-up for a young, less-than-fast defense like ours this year).
8) Bud brought up Carl Winston, the young frosh running back who made his debut and played well. Wulff said “you could see the explosiveness from Winston, and he hit some holes really well. He has a very bright future.” Wulff then said that in order for an offense to be successful, you need one of two things – 1) a special QB, and/or 2) a special running back. Ideally you want to have both, but, you better have one or the other! Wulff said that they believe they are “moving in that direction” with their young QB situation, and the young players at running back like Winston. Wulff also said that in the past, WSU’s best teams have always involved some special play at QB (and when you think about it, you had Kegel/Gesser/Leaf/Bledsoe/Rosenbach/Rypien/Jack Thompson, and yeah, for the most part those were all pretty special QB’s). And most of all, their “focus right now is to develop those positions.”
9) A caller asked about Oregon’s offense, and that Wulff commented after the game that we want to play like that. But Wulff also said that there are differences, but they would generally like to play like that. What did he mean, exactly? Wulff said that he likes the speed and tempo of what Oregon does, but they have a different offensive philosophy in that they are “considered a screen attack” and prefer to run wide and spread you out that way. Wulff said in contrast, we would prefer to be “more of a run oriented, downhill, power-running team combined with a more vertical, down-the-field passing attack”, and not so much going wide as much as Oregon approaches things. But Wulff does like Oregon’s no-huddle, and to use that to try and change the pace on the opposing defense, while keeping them on their heels.
10) Finally, speaking of the no-huddle, Wulff was asked why is there so much standing around at the line of scrimmage with players waiting to get the play in instead of pushing the tempo like an Oregon? Wulff said that ultimately that is the goal, to push the tempo and play fast. But for now, there has been so much change in terms of personnel and injuries, combined with a lack of consistency, that it just hasn’t worked out so far. He said “we are not in synch yet with all the interchangeable parts” but “while the fast pace is part of our offense, we just aren’t there yet.” Wulff also said that they are signaling in plays from the sideline, and that actually helps in noisy crowd situations. “As long as you can see, you can get the play call in, regardless of noise.” Wulff did say at that EWU, it took them about a year, and then they were up and running with the no-huddle. But here, it’s just been a “longer process with too many moving parts”. But he said that in the end, we will grow on offense this year, and reminded that “virtually everyone will be back on offense next year”, so we will continue to grow and get better.
That’s about it. Pretty fast hour if you want to know the truth, and a lot of good information to take from this week’s show. I have no idea if there will be a show next week during the bye week or what, but we’ll find out.
Enjoy your morning, and GO COUGS!
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