Its only day 4 of camp, but have those dreaded “dog days” of summer arrived already? All I do at practice is stand and watch, but even I am starting to drag a bit. It comes as no surprise that today the players seemed to need a little more encouragement to hustle between drills and finish plays. But for the most part, the practice remained spirited with the much anticipated emergence of one player in particular, and a little refreshing fun from the coaches to help combat the monotony.
Read on for more…
Wednesday’s practice was overshadowed a bit by some Cougar news off the field, including a couple Cougar legends being invited to the White House and another Cougar legend giving us all a good scare in an ATV accident. As Tommy covered below, the Abdullah brothers were invited to an annual dinner at the White House, and Bobo Brayton, the iconic former Cougar baseball coach, crashed his ATV on his ranch, and ended up in the hospital in serious condition. Yes, Bobo is 85 years old and he still tears around his ranch in an ATV. They just don’t make ‘em like they used to. I am sure we are all happy to hear that Bobo is stable and expected to be fine and we hope he is back on his feet soon.
Meanwhile, the Cougs were practicing in shoulder pads for the second day in a row and one player in particular was starting to make his presence known… a development that has to be welcome news to a Cougar nation that has been holding their collective breath since Spring football. CJ Mizell was running full time as the #2 MIK linebacker and, yes, he was giving full effort. I saw a lot of encouraging stuff from CJ since he appeared on the practice field on Monday, including some great interactions offering encouragement, challenges and guidance to his fellow teammates on the sideline, while also showing off his potential to make big plays on the field. Two plays in particular that stood out to me: CJ was in coverage on a wide receiver and stuck with him like glue, no matter where he went. Given the speed of our receivers, it was a sight to behold. After the play he even got a slap on the helmet from the receiver who I am sure is not used to not being able to shake a linebacker in coverage. CJ also had a tackle for loss on a RB where it seemed as if he was in the backfield so fast that he almost could have taken the handoff himself.
On a related note, if you haven’t already, do yourself a favor and read Vince Grippi’s article on CJ Mizell. Turns out, CJ had about the best reason you can imagine to miss Sunday’s practice. Congrats to CJ. Oh, and happy 32nd Anniversary to Vince and his (obviously very resilient) wife Kim.
Back to practice, there continues to be a lot of shuffling of players in and out of the #1 and #2 units as the coaches are giving plenty of guys a chance to impress, especially along the lines. Both Jordan Pu’u Robinson and Toni Pole sat out yesterdays practice as precautions after suffering minor injuries, so that meant more reps to go around. The usual suspects, Brandon Rankin, Travis Long, Ian Knight and Anthony Laurenzi continue to hold down their spots in the 2 deeps. Meanwhile guys like Adam Coerper and Skylar Stormo saw lots of action at defensive end. Also seeing the field at D-end, Lenard Williams and Mathew Bock. At D-tackle, Justin Clayton and Steve Hoffart got a number of reps and look ready to provide solid depth at that position. Also, don’t sleep on newcomer Chas Sampson who is getting plenty of work as well. All of this bodes well for our depth, but also provides increased competition in practice which can only help this team continue to improve at the line of scrimmage.
Whether it was the number of different players rotating in and out on the defensive front, or the absence of Toni Pole who has become a very disruptive force, or good old fashioned improvement in personnel and coaching, the offensive line had some pretty good moments during scrimmages. On a number of plays their pass protection was excellent, giving Tuel a nice secure pocket from which to survey the field and step into his throws. They have also shown a good ability to open holes for the running backs and both Ricky Galvin and Logwone Mitz have taken advantage, ripping off some nice runs. Marcus Mason has also stood out. He usually gets carries behind the #2 offensive line, so the holes aren’t always there like they have been for Mitz and Galvin, but he definitely has the ability to make the most of whatever room he can find.
Another player that really stood out to me on Wednesday was Nolan Washington. As anybody who has been to a football banquet probably knows, Nolan has become a very vocal leader of this team. He is also backing that up with his play on the field. When you are going up against big athletic wideouts like Karstetter, Marquess Wilson and Kristoff Williams all day long, you definitely have your work cut out for you as 5’11” 185 lb cornerback. Nolan was up to the challenge all day and made a number of great plays breaking up passes to much bigger receivers. Basically, in order to keep Wilson or Karstetter from getting to a ball in the air, as a smaller corner you have to do everything right and that was just what he was doing. It was fun to watch the reaction from his teammates on the sideline, including fellow corner Daniel Simmons who came off the sideline to greet Nolan with a celebratory shower from his water bottle as he broke up a perfectly thrown pass.
Wednesday’s practice also featured what are becoming some pretty typical big field goal boots from Andrew Furney. I am happy to report that I feel pretty good about our place kicking. Furney doesn’t have the typical “kicker physique” and as he lined up for one of his kicks the other day, I’m pretty sure I heard someone yell out “Kung Fu Panda”. Furney responded by blasting the cover off the ball.
As I said before, these days are already starting to get long and the coaches are doing a good job of keeping up the enthusiasm. On Wednesday, the practice was concluded with a slip and slide session that even included the head coach. You can see all the refreshing fun right here, courtesy of the WSU Sports Information Department.
I’ll be back at camp again today for another report. Until then…
Go Cougs!
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