123 – 28: What Does It Mean?

Good morning, Cougs! 59-7 huh? Well then. Raise your hands if you predicted that after two games the Cougs would have outscored their opponents 123-28 and would be leading the nation in scoring. Now put your hand down because you’re lying. I think we can all agree that 2-0 was an extremely likely possibility, if not a foregone conclusion, but to dominate like this? With The Lobster leading the way (and unleashing a crazy amount of lobster humor)? Wow. The question on everyone’s minds now is, “What does it mean?” Is Washington State on its way to great things this season or is this fast start simply a product of playing two of the worst teams in the FCS and FBS, respectively? The last few years make me really focus a lot of attention on the latter, unfortunately. I’m fairly concerned that things will come crashing back to earth when the level of competition is higher, but I’m definitely going to enjoy the ride. There is no way to know just how good this team is until we start to play some legitimate teams. What we can try to figure out is whether or not these early results mean the Washington State football program has turned the corner. Read on for the answer…

The obvious answer to the question of whether or not the “dark days” are over would seemingly be a resounding yes, but I want to examine the issue a little more closely than that. I tried to identify at a high level the issues that caused the program to be so very bad and see where we stand on improving them.

Lack of talent/athleticism

If you watched the 2008 and 2009 teams, it was abundantly clear that there simply weren’t enough players on the roster who had the ability to compete in the Pac 10 on a week in, week out basis. Recruiting experts would tell you that Coach Wulff’s staff has done little to address that by way of bringing in the caliber of athlete to close the gap between us and the rest of the conference. Those recruiting experts would be wrong. The thing that struck me the most watching fromt he stands at the Idaho State game was that we now have a ton of guys that at least look like football players. Given my propensity for superficiality, this was extremely important. In all seriousness, from where we were (which was the team that took the field at the 2009 Apple Cup resembling an elite high school team), to have a roster full of guys who are at the very least big and athletic is critical. Is it championship caliber talent? Probably not yet, but lets rattle off some names: Galvin, Mason, Wilson, Karstetter, Barton, Williams, Pole, Laurenzi, Rankin, Long, Mizell, Kaufusi, Hoffman-Ellis, Simmons, Bucannon. A lack of talent in the program is no longer the problem it once was. Not even close. 

On top of the fact that these kids came in with some degree of talent, perhaps more importantly is the progress that has been made in the weight room. For two and a half years, the Cougs were completely overmatched from a size standpoint and the problem manifested itself in the form of injuries. It’s helped that the starters haven’t had to play a full, competitive game yet, but these guys used to drop like flies just trying to survive camp. It appears that we are better built to handle the rigors of a long, physical season.

Coaching

I don’t consider myself to be an X’s and O’s guy, but the consensus for Phase One of the Paul Wulff era was that our coaching staff didn’t have the chops to win games in the Pac 10 (or 12; it’s hard to figure out which label to use when talking about the past and present). On top of not having the right kids out there playing, most felt that the schemes and techniques being taught were compounding the problem to create the perfect storm of butt whippings we had to witness. There are two areas where I see improvements have been made: personnel and scheme. By all accounts, Paul Wulff is an exceedingly loyal man and for that he should be commended. Unfortunately, he does not work in an exceedingly loyal business. Knowing that loyalty to “his guys” might eventually cost him his job if they were underperforming, Coach Wulff made the difficult decision to jettison some of his assistants and bring in the likes of Steve Morton, Chris Tormey and Todd Howard. Additions like these to the staff will make the players better on game days and help bring in better players on the recruiting front.

Now to the scheme. If you’re like me, you were pulling your hair out and cursing Todd Sturdy as you watched the two tight end “offense” get trotted out week after week. We heard plenty of rhetoric about how the players weren’t ready to run the offense they really wanted to run. As it turns out, that wasn’t just rhetoric. This staff cut their losses for two years and went into full-on self preservation mode, with the primary goal to not get killed (literally and figuratively). Starting with the UCLA game last year, they must have sense that the right pieces were falling into place. Little by little (4-wides that day, read option later) the offense was opening up. It’s been ratcheted up even further this year. With an absurd amount of weapons at his disposal, it seems like Coach Sturdy is having some fun out there. We’ve seen a couple different variations from the “What the heck? That’s Isiah Barton in the backfield” formation and some route combinations that seem to get someone open on every play. Did I mention that Todd Sturdy is the offensive coordinator for the highest scoring offense in the country?!

What’s more, it seems to now be carrying over to the defense. Washington State’s defense is a base 4-3. This much we know. What we also now know is that we may see it once or twice a game, depending on what the staff feels is necessary. Against Idaho State, not much was necessary, but they seemed to figure out that a 3-3-5 stack was the best thing to do pretty much all game. In years past, seeing the three man line meant that we were dropping everyone else at least 7 yards deep and hoping like hell to keep the opponent from making a huge play, at least not immediately. From what I can tell now, the three man line means that the quarterback will now have to figure out whether the giant fast guy (Hoffman-Ellis), the crazy-haired maniac (Kaufusi) or the guy who really wants to hurt you (Mizell) will be blitzing. Someteims it’s all of the above. Or sometimes their friends in the secondary get in on the act. Pick one of those three linebackers to watch for a few plays. You’ll like it.

Lack of experience

There were far too many instances the last few years of trotting out kids seeing their first action in critical roles. Ideally, if young guys are going to play, you’d like for them to be so good that they will come in and make an impact or you’d like to see them on special teams or in blowouts. You don’t really want them starting games and getting their heads kicked in. It’s because of those lean years though, that the Cougars now have starting lineups full of experienced players. They are young players for the most part, but they predominantly at least have a year of big time football under their belts. This should become a pattern moving forward. The guys that will be the foundation of this program in the 3-4 years moving forward are now cutting their teeth on the fringes of the two-deeps instead of on top of it. We hopefully won’t find ourselves in many more situations of playing true freshman simply because a warm body is needed out there. This will lead to deeper, more experienced teams taking the field down the road.

Scheduling

I wanted to close with this because it’s a positive, but also a bit of a double-edged sword. I couldn’t be happier with the way this season was scheduled. This group of players needed to be able to go out there and beat the ever-loving hell out of an overmatched opponent and it has done just that. It sure beats walking into Oklahoma State and getting trounced. I’d like to see a similar approach moving forward, as it will help in the process of getting the program healthy. The problem, though, is that I can’t figure out from this schedule whether or not we’ve definitely got a bowl team on our hands. What I have figured out, based on all the evidence provided is that a corner has been turned for Wazzu football.

Go Cougs.