Happy Monday Cougs to you and yours, as we all climb back in the chair and start another weekly grind.
So how 'bout those Seahawks, hmmm? 58-0 in just an amazing performance at home, and just a dreadful performance by the visiting Cardinals. It had many tweeting late in the game yesterday that it felt an awful lot like USC-WSU circa 2008, when Pete Carroll's Trojans yucked it up 69-0 in Pullman.
Yeesh.
Anywho, it was pretty unbelievable to see an NFL team beat another NFL team at that kind of level. It just doesn't happen much in a league where it seems like everyone is 8-8 and games always seem to come down to a handful of plays here and there. And there was already a report after the game last night that AZ might be ready to can Whisenhunt and promote Ray Horton to head coach, like, ASAP!
But as we know, things can change in hurry in this sport. As good as the Hawks looked yesterday, it's certainly possible they could go out to Toronto against Buffalo and lay an egg. Richard Sherman might be done for a few games after the PED appeal this coming week, and it's a long trip from Seattle to Toronto, so we'll see what happens. But maybe that Chicago OT win the week before this one was a true turning point for a young, talented team still trying to figure it out? I guess we'll see!
But enough of all that. On to the daily links!
So Idaho hired a new coach, and with the name "Petrino" it caught some national attention. Not THAT Petrino, but the other Petrino, brother Paul. But he's supposed to be a good Petrino? Anyway, with Paul Petrino in Moscow, Jason Gesser has been shown the door. Gesser as you probably know had taken over as interim head coach at Idaho after Robb Akey was relieved of his duties earlier in 2012. Anyway, naturally some were wondering on message boards and Twitter if there might be a spot at good 'ol WAZZU for one of the best QB's in school history??
I think as a Coug fan, the vast majority of the WSU fan base would love nothing more than to see #17 come back to Pullman. Many will tell you that Gesser was always regarded as a heck of a recruiter for WSU back in his playing days, and would love nothing more than to see him recruit for the crimson-n-gray. But after thinking about it a bit, I wonder if he fits in with Mike Leach and his staff? I mean Gesser has a lot of excellent experience coaching a one back passing attack and has the grasp of that kind of a system, but does he have the experience and knowledge of the Air Raid?
I don't know either way, I'm just not sure what the fit would be beyond all of US WANTING HIM BACK IN PULLMAN!!! Or maybe while it all sounds great, now that Gesser has had a taste of being a head coach he will try to continue that arc? And to do that, he'd probably need to be a coordinator somewhere? Hanging around on Leach's staff might not be the best fit for what he ultimately wants to do. That said, offensive coaches under Leach seem to get a good look at head jobs eventually (Art Briles, Dana Holgerson, Sonny Dykes, etc!). But who knows, maybe something will break and Gesser will once again be back where he belongs, and that's Washington State University.
Speaking of coaches at WSU, looks like we will be looking for a new linebackers coach as Jeff Choate is rumored to be headed for UTEP (could Gesser coach linebackers??) Choate wasn't exactly shy about his career aspirations when he took the WSU job last year after coaching special teams at Boise State, and the UTEP job is for a defensive coordinator position so who can blame him for taking a step up the coaching ladder? Choate was actually rumored to have interviewed for the Idaho job just last month, so, you probably could see something like this coming sooner or later.
We only saw one year of Choate, but it at least seemed like he did a decent job with what he was given? When you think about all the losses to the position coming in to 2012 (3 starters gone), and you had a brand new 3-4 scheme with a new defensive coordinator, the linebackers did have their moments:
Darryl Monroe had 80 tackles, including 8.5 for loss, in his first full year of playing time.
Travis Long did a hell of a job in moving to the BUCK linebacker position, leading the team with 13 TFL's including 9.5 sacks.
Justin Sagote had 61 tackles playing at this level for the first time after spending time at the JC level.
And even Cyrus Coen had 60 tackles and an impressive 12 TFL's himself, 2nd on the team.
Not too shabby from an entire new group of linebackers in 2012! We all know the Cougar D was wildly inconsistent in 2012, but it's hard to pile much of the blame on the LB position.
Finally in recruiting, some not-so-good news: a JC d-tackle has dropped WSU from his finalists as Marquel Combs told Braulio Perez of Cougfan that he is now down to Kansas and Kansas State.
That's about it for now. Enjoy your Monday, and of course, GO COUGS!
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