A Night With Cougar Football: Recap

Happy Saturday Cougs!!!

It’s hard to imagine that it was one year ago, as I took my seat at my table for “A Night With Cougar Football,” when a gentleman sitting next to me leaned over and whispered something in my ear…

“Sterk’s gone.”

By the end of the night, the news had spread like wildfire. But the obvious replacement was already on the tongue of the Cougar faithful, and the initial uncertainty turned into excitement as we all examined the possibility of Bill Moos coming back to his Palouse roots.

Fast forward one year. Through a 2-10 season that started off abysmal, but ended with hope. Through a signing day that ended strong, despite a tumultuous week leading up to it. And last but not least, through a regime change, that after last night I am sure will return us to greatness.

You could FEEL the energy in the crowd of 500 Cougar supporters last night in Seattle…and it wasn’t all to do with the open bar. For the first time in years, we are excited about Cougar football. Bill Moos summed it up best last night when he said, “There’s a lot of energy in this room tonight after a 2-10 season. I can only imagine what it will feel like after we go 10-2. But then again….I prefer 12-0.”

For all you Cougs who couldn’t make it out last night, myself and LucasCoug have got you covered. I’ll give you a couple of highlights:

Jason Puckett from KJR was the MC of the night and did an absolutely fantastic job. The current players that came out and represented the team were Jeff Tuel, Nolan Washington, Logwone Mitz, and Wade Jacobson. Some of the former players in attendance included Jack Thompson, Jason Gesser, Ryan Leaf, Brandon Gibson, Marcus Trufant, Erik Coleman, and Mike Utley just to name a few.

Paul Wulff took the stage early this year which was different than in previous years. He went through some clips of game film for each of the new recruits and was genuinely excited about this class. At one point when he was going through all the commits, the room started getting a little chatty. He stopped the crowd and told them they need to pay attention, because these are the kids that are going to take us fans to bowl games in sunny weather every year. I love it!

A couple of guys he singled out for potential early playing time were Chester Sua, Henry Eaddy, Darryl Monroe, and Marcus Mason. He also said about half of the JC guys will play and the other half will redshirt. One interesting story he told was about our talented linebacker prospect Daryll Paulo. He said they put him on the scale on his official visit and he was pushing 275!!! Now it seems he’s destined for the d-line, at either DE or even at DT!

Bill Moos then took the stage and broke down all the fundraising he and his team have been doing. He talked about Oregon, and the main reason for their success: Facilities. This is obviously his main agenda right now and he touched on some of the various projects including the newly proposed football-only facility and upgrades to Martin Stadium. He also talked about building a stronger brand for WSU Athletics and we will be teaming up with his good friends at Nike… 😉 …to design new football and basketball uniforms that will be unveiled at the spring game in Spokane on Aprill 11th.

Some additional impressions:

– Wade Jacobson has a helluva hand shake. It almost brought me to my knees.

– Jeff Tuel looks HUGE! I sat about three feet away from him and you could definitely tell the difference from last year to this year. He looks like a man. I chatted with him briefly and he said everybody is busting their butts in the weight room and he is up over the 220 lb. mark.

– Talked with Tuel and Nolan Washington briefly about Kristoff Williams. I told them that I had heard he was just as good as Marquess Wilson before he hurt his toe, and neither of them denied it. The words they kept using when describing him were “big and physical.” I’m very excited about watching him next year and beyond.

– All of the assistant coaches were there with the exception of two: Travis Niekamp and Malik Roberson. I’ll leave the speculation to you, but I think you can read between the lines on that one.

– I spoke with Paul Wulff breifly, and asked him what we plan to do defensively now that we have all these talented linebackers on the roster. I have heard chatter that we could be changing to a 3-4 or a 3-3-5 scheme. He said that there would be no huge changes schematically and if anything, they like the 4-2-5 defense with an extra free safety, but that they don’t have the proper personel to run that effectively right now.

– This was the second time I’ve spoken with Paul Wulff in person and both times he left quite an impression on me. I’ll be the first to agree that he is not the most savvy when it comes to talking to the media, but if you have a real conversation with him, you’ll see that he is truly a genuine and honest man. For this reason, it comes to no surprise to me that he does so well in the living rooms of these recruits.

Here’s some pictures from the night courtesy of LucasCoug. If you’ve never been before then I suggest you try and make it out next year!!!

…

Butch!!!