Fall Camp Begins!!!!!!!

Hello Followers.  Hope you are having a tremendous week!

As for me?  Well, after an 800 mile drive from North Carolina to the Empire State on Wednesday, me and Little Sutra spent yesterday watching a marathon of Cougar Programming on the Pac-12 Network.  This 8 hour TV marathon included a replay of the 1992 Apple Cup, the entire 2013 spring game, as well as our entire tilt against Eastern Washington. 

Overall, it was a pretty darn good day!

Of course the day before was pretty much the road trip from hell, as I somehow managed to catch virtually every thunderstorm that crossed I-81.   Thankfully, my overall malaise was broken when we hit West Virgina and Little Sutra found this little tidbit by Teddy Football at ESPN.com   In case you haven’t read this piece, it is a must.   Not only does Ted highlight my idiocy in spades…

I know that dude!

….he also puts forth the best piece of WSU Football Blog style writing that we have never done on this site.  I mean, I literally almost drove off the road laughing when Little Sutra started reading about the Kracken—and that was before I saw the link to this picture.

Anyhow, a terrific, terrific piece of work, TM.  And no, Ted, that series has not “jumped the SHARK.”

+++++

So, today marks the start of FALL camp, meaning that the 2013 Cougar Football season is finally upon us.  Christian Caple has his five key storylines to camp right here. And if you want to know what’s going on in my feeble brain this morning, well, then you’re going to have to click on the old jumperoo.

(read on).

+++++

Followers, there were a lot of takeaways from watching this year’s spring game—and we’ll get to at least a few of them before we get to game week at the end of the month.  But the first thing that came to mind yesterday was how stinking deep our WR unit is—and that doesn’t even factor in the addition of Mr. Vince Mayle. 

In fact, our WR group looked so deep and talented that I found myself starting to get pretty darn optimistic about our prospects for success THIS season.   And so, I started to wonder.  How many guys on this team are going to catch over 50 balls?  How many guys on this team are going to eclipse 700 yards in receiving? 

Well, let’s take a look at our final receiving numbers from last year to get a gauge on the possibilities..

Name                                                         Rec                                                               Yds.

When you add all of these numbers up, you can see that as a team last year, we had about 4000 yards in receiving.  So, unless we wind up throwing for 5000 yards, it may be hard to have for more than a few guys eclipse that 700 yard barrier.

Moreover, given that we don’t even have a good depth chart on how things will settle if and when Mayle adjusts to Fall Camp, well, let’s just say that it might be a little early to start reaching for the pie in the sky.

So, instead of looking at the positive, let’s take the opposite view.  Which of the outside receivers from the following list do you think will have the fewest catches and yards this season?

OUTSIDE RECEIVERS

Gabe Marks

Isiah Myers

Kristoff Williams

Dominique Williams

Vince Mayle

Which inside receivers do you think will have the fewest receptions and yards?

Brett Bartalone

Ricky Galvin (RG5)

Bobby Ratliff

Robert Lewis

 I am pegging Mayle as the guy that will finish will both the fewest receptions and yards.  The reason? I think the adjustment from JC to Pac-12 land is going to be too much for him to make an impact in the first half of this season.  And with the news that the guy is officially listed right now as a senior—well, I am afraid he is going to press too much to make an impact early…

Finally, for the inside receivers, I think Robert Lewis is going to be the odd man out.  The reason?  I thought that he looked too fragile in the spring game  to get it done on a team where the offensive line looks suspect.  That said, if our boys can block, Lewis may be a prime four verticals type player, cuz he sure looks fast…

Anyhow, that’s all the time that I have for today.  Feel free to weigh in on your thoughts on arguably the deepest and most talented WR unit we’ve had at WSU since 1997.

All for now.  Go Cougs!!!