The Great Unknown

Happy Tuesday Cougar Fans!

So Saturday’s Apple Cup loss was the last game for our Cougs in the 2010 season.  By my count, only 266 days remain until the 2011 season opener against Idaho State.  But who’s counting?

Now that Bill has answered the million dollar question regarding the future of Paul Wulff, a handful of questions remain to be answered before we whoop some Bengal ass next season!  Before we get going, there are a few housekeeping items I would like to go over. 

First of all, Friday night at the basketball game, I spotted Bill Moos sitting about six rows up from the lower bowl.  The man sitting next to him looked extremely familiar, but I wasn’t close enough to confirm my suspicion.  Later on, I received a text confirming said suspicion that Bill Moos’ guest for the evening was Paul Allen. 

On another note, I received the letter sent out to all Martin Stadium Phase III donors while I was gone.  Moos has made his recommendation to the Board of Regents, and a football only facility will be constructed in the West End zone, while Phase III will go one, but it will be featured on the south side of the stadium, and also feature a renovation to the press box.

Click here to look at some of the questions that are unanswered, and some others that I believe may come up.

How will key players recover from injuries?

David Gonzalez, Louis Bland, Aaron Dunn, Dan Spitz, Ricky Galvin, Kristoff Williams and Damante Horton all were counted on as key contributors in 2010.  It has been well documented the last few seasons we have lost an astronomical number of starts due to injury, I guess this year’s number only seems low in comparison.  I believe under normal circumstances, the aforementioned list of seven would be considered a large amount, but we have to consider this progress.  I am excited to see Louis Bland back in the fold and teamed up with CJ Mizell and Alex Hoffman-Ellis at Linebacker.  I saw an interesting stat that this season, that our Tight Ends had four times as many tackles as they did receptions!  Adding Aaron Dunn into the mix with Andrei Lintz and Skylar Stormo should give Jeff Tuel more weapons.  But is Rickey Galvin going to be the player the coaching staff was gushing about for all of Fall Camp?  What about Dan Spitz, who was first suspended for nine games and then lost to injury for the rest of the year?  And will he be on the OLine or DLine?  I thought I read he already moved to the OLine, but it seems a little unclear right now.

Will this coaching staff be unable to recruit for the class of 2012 and beyond not being promised anything beyond 2011? 

This staff has worked their tails off since day one, to bringing in consistent BCS talent to fill the void left by Bill Doba.  These last few weeks, recruits have been iffy to commit to WSU not knowing the future of this staff.  That grumbling about Wulff’s future may not stop in recruiting circles until after the 2011 season.  If the policy of Bill Moos isn’t to comment on a coaching staff during the season, than I would imagine recruiting takes a dip next year without any assurances beyond the current season?

Will Paul Wulff make any changes to his current staff before 2011? 

Bill Moos has put Paul Wulff fully in charge of his coaching staff.  I really like this concept.  It basically tells Wulff that Moos is fully confident in him to make the right decision, and that if it turns out to be the wrong decision, Wulff has nobody to blame but himself.  Last year, we added a proven OLine Coach in Steve Morton.  Even though we surrendered 50+ sacks again, Morton is a definite upgrade over that last guy.  When Steve Broussard left Pullman to join Dennis Erickson in Tempe, Wulff went out and nabbed a coach who had a phenomenal Special Teams coaching record across the country, Dave Ungerer.  That move immediately paid dividends for our Special Teams units, one of the better kickoff coverage units in the Pac-10. 

Somebody on Twitter the other day said they hope Wazzu cans Chris Ball.  To that, I have to say, “what are you smoking?”  Ball is an assistant who has earned high marks on both coasts and in the SEC.  Do you really think it is his fault we are so bad defensively or do you think it is more about the talent on our team?  Earlier in the season, I was blasting Todd Sturdy, but now I think I would like to see what he can do next season returning eight starters on offense.  Is 2011 the season where we finally get to see the vaunted No Huddle Offense as it is intended?

Are Barrington and Atofau done?

In a well documented case back in October, Andre Barrington and Jamal Atofau were arrested as part of a marijuana grow operation.  Wulff immediately suspended both from all football-related activities, pending their legal outcome.  Atofau was seeing a lot of time on Special Teams and even some work at Linebacker, while Barrington sat out in 2010 because he was Academically Ineligible.  Nothing has been noted about these two for quite some time, and I would have to imagine their day in court will be coming soon.  The question that remains is does this team want or need these two back?  Their is plenty of talent and depth at Linebacker, as well as Safety (where both of these guys played in high school), and to be quite honest, I had them written off.  Which doesn’t mean their talents wouldn’t be welcomed back if they were to be cleared on the charges. Worst case, there is a school about 190 minutes to the West that would love to have them.

Will some of our class of 2009 recruits pan out to be the studs they were pegged as out of high school?

Coming out of Boise as a 2009 commit, Darren Markle was highly sought after and rated one of the top 25 Linebackers in the country.  He became a youtube phenom with his weightlifting prowess, winning a competition as one of the strongest teenagers around.  While this season was only his RS Freshmen year, I now have a hard time imagining him surpassing CJ Mizell, Sekope Kaufusi, Louis Bland, and Alex Hoffman-Ellis next season in addition to all of the linebacker talent coming in the next class.  Markle recorded six tackles in limited time this year, but you have to wonder about his future? 

And paging Gino Simone.  In addition to Markle and Rankin in the 2009 class, Gino Simone was one of the other “can’t miss” guys.  Two years in and he has less than 50 catches and 600 yards, total, and just 13 catches in 2010.  I know he was a bit nicked up this year, a concussion and other injuries slowing him down.  But can he eclipse the other guys in front of him on the roster?

Which of this season’s Redshirts will have the biggest impact next year?
 
Blair Bomber?  Bobby Ratliff?  Kristoff Williams?  Alex Reitnouer?  John Fullington?  Ricky Galvin?  Brandon Golden?  Matt Simmons?  Of all those names, I am going to put my money on the return of Louis Bland.  The kid has been a leader and playmaker on defense since day one, and his speed and sure tackling have been sorely missed this year (he was also a champion wrestler in high school!).

Who replaces Reid Forrest? 

 
That’s all I have for you today Cougars.  Of course other questions remain, like: Will the OLine improve?  Will we be more fundamentally sound in our tackling ability?  I have no clue how to answer those kinds of questions, only a fool would claim to know!

Have a great day, Go Cougs!