Happy Humpday Cougs. We’re almost there, game day is tomorrow, so just hold on for one more day!
On to this morning’s links…..
Christian Caple has this post from yesterday’s practice. It sounded as though it was the typical “Thursday” practice for game week, including some hard-hitting action in a scrimmage with the back-ups. But Caple did get some quotes from Jeff Choate on BYU QB Riley Nelson, which was pretty interesting:
“When you look at last year, you’re probably talking about a guy who hadn’t prepared to be the starting quarterback going into camp so he didn’t get a lot of those reps. Jake Heaps was the guy taking all those reps,” Choate said. “Last year it was probably one read and go. I would expect that we’re going to see a little bit more mature quarterback, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that when the game’s on the line, he wants the ball in his hand and that’s probably the nicest thing you can say about a guy like Riley Nelson — he’s just a tremendous competitor and you look at that last drive they had against Utah State, I mean they put the ball in his hands most of the time and he delivered. So that’s what it’s all about for them.”
While much is made of Nelson’s ability to throw the ball and not make a lot of mistakes – 19 TD’s to just 7 INT’s in 7 starts last year – he also ran for a net of 392 yards on the ground. He’s not a huge guy at 6-0, 196, but he’s tough and definitely not afraid to pull it down and run.
But Choate makes a great point, in that now that Nelson’s the starter and had an offseason to be THE GUY, maybe you’ll see a lot more of him staying home and looking more to his secondary reads vs. taking off at the first sign of trouble? I guess we’ll find out tomorrow night.
Caple also did something pretty cool, where he participated in five questions with the Deseret News on the Cougs and Mike Leach (not to be confused with Sutra’s three questions with Caple!). And I think Caple might sum up the majority view of most Coug fans with this part of the Q&A:
5. What do fans expect for this first game against BYU? What do you, as someone who has covered them closely, expect?
I think the expectation is that it will at least be competitive. There are some who think BYU might be a little over-hyped, even though they did win 10 games last year and have a lot more experience than WSU does. I think a lot of folks are viewing this as a barometer for the season. If they go down and compete — win or lose — then it bodes pretty well for the rest of the season, given the adversity that comes from playing your opener on the road and everything. That’s probably the key. Can they handle the crowd? Can they execute their new stuff in a hostile environment against an experienced team that knows how to win? That’s what people are waiting to find out, I think. Include me among them.
Of course we have those who are convinced the Cougs will absolutely carpet bomb BYU tomorrow with the Air Raid firing on all cylinders. And there are those who are fearing the worst, ala OK State in 2010, where there is so much hope and it all pretty much evaporates after a quarter of play. But I think Caple is right that the majority of Cougs are looking at it as if the team goes down and shows well – win or lose, as he puts it – then it could be a great read on how this thing is going to unfold for 2012. Then again, openers can be very misleading. After two games last year, Marshall Lobbestael was leading the world in passing yards, and then reality hit by week three. Obviously the light early schedule was a huge reason for the statistical anomalies of the first two games on ’11, and everything reverted back to the norm over the full season (the stat guys call that “small sample size”). So I’m just not quite sure how much we can or should read into game 1 of the Leach era? Maybe it’ll be more like how things look after the first three or four games of the year to get a good feel? We’ll see!
Moving on, Howie Stalwick has this chat with John Fullington in the Kitsap Sun. Fullington just oozes “positivity”, something the program can certainly use after the 40 losses in 4 seasons. You know what I can’t believe? Not that Fullington has played in every game so far as a Coug – 24 games in 2 seasons – but that Fullington is already a JUNIOR!? Time flies! I still remember hearing all the great stuff about him going into the opener at OK State a couple of years ago, and how he was looking like one of those lineman that plays all four years of their stay in Pullman. Looks like he’s halfway there right now! But it’s also great to just read the positive quotes coming from Fullington, about how excited they are and how they are “feeling it” for 2012. We’ve heard this sort of talk before, obviously, but it’s still a good thing to hear it after all the down times they’ve experienced of late.
Mike Leach was on with KJR’s Mitch Levy for the first time yesterday, and it was a really great interview (I totally agree with Cougcenter on their post this morning, it really was a great appearance by Leach). I heard this interview live yesterday morning, and as Levy himself said after the interview, “there aren’t many coaches out there quite like Mike Leach”. Definitely give it a listen, it’s worth it.
But this wasn’t your typical interview of “Hey Coach, who wins, great white shark or a grizzly bear?!”. This was Levy at his best, in that Mitch has this ability as an interviewer to get his guests to talk. I know that sounds really basic or whatever, but I have always admired Levy for letting his guests be about the interview, and not making it about him. Too many times you hear these hosts who talk too much when they are interviewing some interesting people, but Levy is at his best in how he asks great questions, but then allows the guest do their thing. There is great balance to what he does with guests and it is very admirable how these things come off on the air. Howard Stern, Colin Cowherd and “The Fabulous Sports Babe” are the same way in that they just know how to handle these kinds of conversations and while you know who the host is and you get a healthy dose of their personalities, you the listener still get the most out of it in that you get what you want from the guest! So great work Mitch, and a really good listen on Leach.
That’s it for this morning. GO COUGS!
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