Good morning Cougs, and a happy Monday to you and yours.
As for yours truly? Well, I'm bummed. After the craziness of yesterday's Seahawks playoff loss, it stings. After falling so far behind, looking so dreadful for long stretches, only to come all the way back like that….and then let them get that last second field goal? Brutal, and a tremendous heartbreaker with the finality in all of it.
I still am in disbelief as to how it all came down though. They looked so bad early, where they just couldn't get out of their own way and once again got off to a lousy, WTF is going on start to it all. An early fumble by Marshawn Lynch, going for it on 4th and inches in easy field goal range, not getting points right before the half, and falling behind even further in the 3rd? I sure thought it was over and was tweeting that I hope ATL plays like this next week vs. the hated Harbaugh's and San Fran! But what a fourth quarter, what a comeback, what a disappointment, and finally, what a QB the Hawks have right now.
I am still amazed at how far, how fast, Russell Wilson has come on in the NFL. Early in the season I was just not buying him, I just didn't see it. He just didn't look good enough early on, looked a little too uneasy in the pocket and the accuracy wasn't there yet, things were not clicking. After they lost vs. St Louis early on when Wilson threw an INT on the last possession, I was ready for Matt Flynn. But they stuck with the kid QB, took the growing pains and all that, all the while knowing what they had. And then he played huge in the comeback vs. New England, and things just sort of took off from there. And wow, here we are! And it's not just me being a D-Bag HOMER on Wilson either. Check out some of this stuff on Wilson from Mike Sando at ESPN.com. Pretty impressive, even in defeat!
Anyway, it's tough. Today I can sit here and say "Hey, this is one of the youngest teams in the NFL, they have their franchise QB now and a young, hungry defense. THEY'LL BE BACK!" But will they? There is no guarantee of anything going forward. And a lot of very good/great QB's have broken through early in their careers, only to never get back when things looked so promising early on. Dan Marino went to a Super Bowl in his second season, but never got a taste again. Brett Favre went to a couple of Super Bowls in his first five seasons, but despite getting really close after that and many deep playoff runs, he never made it back either. It's just so damn tough to get to the promised land, and you never know what the future will hold. It's hard to be disappointed with an 11-win season and a road playoff win with a rookie QB who tied Peyton Manning's rookie TD pass record. But at the same time they were THIS CLOSE to playing in the NFC championship game! So today is truly a "mixed bag" of emotions. Sad and disappointed that it's over, yet hopeful (cautiously) for what lies ahead.
Anyway, on to the morning links……
The Cougs have apparently made the move after the rumors broke last week, and the story is that David Yost is now part of the WSU coaching staff. Yost, as you may recall, was rumored last week to be on the way after interviewing with Mike Leach. Yost was the offensive coordinator at Missouri for a few years, and led some pretty potent offenses in his time there. The buzz is that he could be an excellent addition to the offensive staff in Pullman, so we say welcome aboard!
Cougfan has some good news from the recruiting weekend, as in-state athlete Isaac Dotson has committed to WSU while Texas WR Hunter Jarmon, with most of the Big 12 coming after him, loved his visit to Pullman. Dotson was headed for Nevada to play QB in the pistol offense, and has run a lot of option in his time in high school. We'll see how and where he fits in at the BCS level, but it sounds like he's a good, solid "get" for the coaching staff. Scout.com has a free evaluation of Dotson from back in October of last season, and you can check that out here. Jarmon is a 2-star prospect from Scout.com, but is a four-star guy from ESPN.com.
Finally, Jeff Tuel played in his first postseason All-Star game on Friday, and apparently played pretty well per NFLDraftBible.com:
Washington State QB Jeff Tuel helped his draft stock completing 6-of-8 passes for 115 yards in the CDS Game. He will play in NFLPA Game next
— NFL Draft Bible (@NFLDraftBible) January 14, 2013
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There's also a write-up of the game from the AZ Star here, with some good quotes from Tuel after leading his team to victory.
Good luck to Tuel as he pursues his NFL dream. Nobody would love to see him succeed more than those of us at WSUFootballBlog.com.
That's it for now. Enjoy your back-to-the-grind Monday, and of course, GO COUGS/HAWKS!
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