Good morning, Cougs. Welcome to another exciting edition of Hump Day With Huddy! Instead of firing off quick hits completely at random, this week I’m going to fire off quick hits in the form of mid-season grades. Maybe someday I’ll string together multiple paragraphs that all come together in a cohesive narrative, but probably not. One thing to keep in mind as you read through the grades is that I based them on expectation. If I were grading on the same scale that, say, Oklahoma has, the grades would be lower, but I had to be a bit more realistic. That doesn’t mean that I’m being soft or that I don’t think we should have higher expectations of ourselves. I’m simply trying to be fair to where the program is right now. I’ll be looking at position groups and some other stuff along the way. With all that settled, let’s do this, after the jump of course.
Quarterbacks – B+/IncompleteSitting in the stands at the Idaho State game as word of Jeff Tuel’s injury came out, I never thought a B+ with in the cards. My sincere apologies to Marshall Lobbestael for doubting you. The Lobster very nearly pulled out an A in the first half of the season, but the unfortunate (read: disastrous) turnovers against SDSU had to be penalized. The incomplete reference is obviously for Tuel who hopefully knocked off a considerable amount of rust on Saturday. Thanks to Stanford, by the way, for their part in knocking off said rest.
Running Backs – B-The three-headed monster of Galvin, Winston and Mitz has been decent, but far from excellent. Obviously success in the running game requires help from the rest of the offense so it’s hard to put a low yards-per-carry on the backs. They’ve done a fair amount of making guys miss, but haven’t broken off enough big plays. On the plus side, they are a three-headed monster, so that’s pretty cool.
Wide Receivers – B Too bad for this unit the Stanford game was part of the first semester. I mean, what the hell happened? I think we can all agree that this was the last position group we thought would let us down, but they did just that against Stanford. Jared Karstetter with both the dropsies and fumbleitis? Really? That’s an astonishing number of ridiculous sounding football diseases to come down with at once. If we can get that horror show out of our heads, let’s look at the big picture. Marquess Wilson is on the team. He’s good. The emergence of Isiah Barton in the slot has been a welcome surprise. I expect Karstetter to bounce back. Bobby Ratliff and Kristoff Williams have each chipped in with some key catches. All in all, this is still a good group, folks. They’ve just got some things they need to get cleaned up.
Offensive Line – C+When we play crappy teams, they protect the quarterback. Good teams have a propensity to sack us like it’s 2009. OK maybe not that bad, but I didn’t give them an F. Sacks are absolute drive killers. We’ve got to find a way to allow less of them. I’m holding out some hope that the Stanford game was somewhat misleading since Tuel was probably slower making reads than normal and having a running quarterback in there must make blocking a little different. The running game has improved, but short yardage deficiencies lower my mark as well.
Tight ends – ?? I’m not hung up about this. We have one healthy tight end and a whole slew of receivers.
Todd Sturdy – B+ Yeah, I said it. Coach Sturdy has become Cougar Nation’s favorite whipping boy, joining the likes of Chad Davis, Steve Birnbaum, Alex Brink and Paul Wulff in the ranks of Cougs That Other Cougs Irrationally Hate. This season, much of the criticism aimed at Sturdy has been misplaced in my opinion. Problems with execution are regularly being chalked up to problems with play-calling. I won’t re-hash the debate, but if you really want to see it, check out the comments sections of the posts after the UCLA game. If we throw too much and get picked off, it’s “Where’s the running game?” If we run a lot, it’s “Where’s the deep ball?” There are constant cries of “Stop throwing the bubble screen!” OK, maybe I should have stopped at two. Even the screens are slightly defensible. The Stanford defense was out to punish Jeff Tuel. Getting the ball out of his hands quickly and letting receivers make plays is actually sound in theory. The bottom line is that the offense has been good and it has been pretty dynamic in doing it. Have at me, commenters.
The All Grey Uniforms – A++ Since you’re already made, yeah, I said that too. I thought the jerseys looked fantastic.
Andrew Furney, Field Goal Kicker – A The Pride of Burlington (I work in Burlington and legitimately can’t think of who else would qualify as “The Pride”) has made all of his field goal attempts this year.
Andrew Furney, Kickoff “Specialist” – F Maybe an F is a little harsh, but watching teams start drives at the 34 yard line over and over again, really pisses me off.
Andrew Furney’s Nutritionist – F– Come, on! Jokes, people! He makes me look ripped so he can make fun of my fake nutritionist too.
Defensive Line – C-In the spirit of accentuating the positives, Travis Long is having himself a terrific season. In the spirit of reality, that’s about it. There is simply not enough consistency from this group in either stopping the run or getting after the quarterback. If they can put together a good performance for four quarters, the fortunes of WSU football will turn.
Fake Justin Clayton – A+++++++ Nobody saw it coming when Fake Justin Clayton piled up 42 sacks in the regular season on my NCAA 12 dynasty this year. Dude was actually listed among the Heisman Contenders for a while. Way to go, Fake Justin Clayton. You’re the man.
Linebackers – B+The primary reason for any improvement shown by the defense has been this group. It started last year when Kaufusi and Mizell became regular contributors and has carried over with the added bonus of Alex Hoffman-Ellis improving by leaps and bounds. Throw in an excellent debut by Chester Su’a and you’ve got the best position on our defense.
Cornerbacks – C+A lot has been asked of this group since the plan when we go into stop the run mode is to leave the one-on-one while the safeties crowd the mythical box. The results have been hit and miss. Damante Horton has made some terrific individual plays, but also been on the receiving end of some. Daniel Simmons and Nolan Washington have spent more time on the receiving end. Look for their second semester grade to be markedly improved. Just a hunch.
Safeties – C-I have an unabashed man crush on Deone Bucannon, but his role, especially lately has been more like a linebacker than a safety. He still has to make far too many plays in the run game and it has hurt his performance in playing the pass. Tyree Toomer seems like a terrific guy and a quality team leader, but his play is below Pac-12 standards in my opinion.
Chris Ball – C There are times when this defense is simply too easy to beat. We dared UCLA and Stanford to beat us throwing and they gladly accepted. Breakdowns in execution as a one time event can be put on players. A repeated failure to recognize the play action pass, as though it was just invented two weeks ago represents a coaching issue.
Paul Wulff – B- Look, the program still isn’t where we all want it, but aside from a couple poor quarters and getting beat by a top 10 team, can we all just agree that things are going pretty damn well? We’re like a real team and stuff.
Paul Wulff’s Glasses – F- Dude. Come on. Are those transition lenses? What is happening?
If this season plays out like last, all those grades should go up a tick over the second half of the season. If there is improvement, in some cases only marginal improvement, three more wins will come. It starts this week against the Beavs. Go Cougs.
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