Yes, another week, another radio show. This one on Wednesday due to the historic election on Tuesday, but still, the show goes on. They actually cut the show short 15 minutes early and brought on the soccer coach, so I turned it off at 7:45. Also note that the next few weeks will also be on Wednesday, due to the hoops season firing up, so we’ll have our usual recap on Thursday. Anyway, on to this week:
- Bud in the host chair again. He asked Wulff first about the election and what the players thought. Wulff said they didn’t discuss it a whole lot but knew it was being talked about by a lot of them. He also said that at the end of their team meeting on Tuesday, they always wrap the meeting by chanting “1-2-3 GO COUGS!” This time, he said at least half of them said “1-2-3 GO OBAMA!” Kind of funny. Wulff didn’t say a whole lot about the election or politics or anything, clearly not an area they were going to go.
- Once again, Wulff said they have had some very good practices this week. But he was quick to point out that he thought they practiced really well the week leading up to Stanford, and that didn’t work out. Wulff did say that they did, in fact, do some OK things against Stanford early on, and it’s actually true. They were within about 50 total yards of offense from Stanford in the first half. But the mistakes continue to drag this team down, and as soon as a couple of them happen early, it becomes an avalanche.
- Nameck asked about the strength of the PAC-10 compared to the SEC, and how it’s hurting USC’s BCS rating. Wulff said that he still thinks that the PAC-10 is a brutally tough conference, and that the SEC might not be all that. BLASPHEMY, I know, to many NCAA fans! But mainly Wulff pointed out that in the SEC, you only play seven conference games, total, and that’s it. You can stock up on some weaker out-of-conference teams to pad your stats and victory totals. Personally I can’t support that argument myself, as we’ve seen enough of the SEC to know that it’s pretty bad-ass while this might one of the weakest PAC-10 conferences, outside of USC, that we’ve ever seen. But whatever.
- Arizona was brought up pretty quickly. Wulff is hoping for a decent crowd, and that is usually the case on Dad’s Weekend. But Arizona is having their breakthrough season, and Wulff said they are easily in the top three teams in the conference in terms of overall talent. They have a lot of speed, they are very physical up front, and hey, they’ve been pretty HEALTHY this year! We know how important that can be.
- A caller asked if Wulff could cool it with being so negative on his players, and then went into another question about recruiting in-state talent. Wulff didn’t acknowledge the negative question, and instead said they are working hard on some in-state kids and will continue to do so all the way up until signing day. The caller than slipped in a “how are you dealing with this nightmare of a season?” Wulff said that it has been tough, clearly the toughest situation of his career. But he said the good news is that this situation is something that can be fixed! He admitted he’s been through a lot in his personal life, but at least this situation can actually be fixed (hard to argue with that logic when you think about his mother and first wife). Wulff said that you can’t always grow without some adversity and/or the real tough times, and he still believes that this team is growing as he speaks. Wulff finally said that there are some very good pieces here, and that they are taking some decent steps forward.
- Another caller asked about some of the younger players in the program that we aren’t seeing right now, players who will be on the field next season (Kaddy mentioned this in comments the other day). First Wulff brought up James Montgomery.
Wulff said that Montgomery is an exceptional talent and will be a HUGE BOOST to the running game next season. You could hear it in Wulff’s voice, but he can’t wait until Montgomery can play. While we’ll only get Montgomery for two seasons of on-field playing time, it should be worth it. The next name brought up was Brandon Jones. Another Cal transfer as a defensive back, he has looked really good in practices this year. Like Montgomery, we’ll see him for two seasons of playing time starting in ’09. Bernard Wolfgramm was next, and Wulff said he has played extremely well in practices. They are excited to get him in games next season and will really add something to the defensive front. Another defensive tackle brought up was Jesse Feagin. Feagin played in ’07, but is redshirting this year. He will be back in the rotation at tackle next year and they really are hopeful about him. Finally, Zach Williams, an offensive tackle, is another guy they are thrilled about. A “gifted” guy who is strong and light on his feet, he will be in the offensive tackle mix next year. He even stood in at times last week at running back to try and simulate Toby Gerhart, so you can imagine he’s pretty athletic. - Some true frosh redshirting right now who Wulff brought up were Cory Mackay and Andrei Lintz, as well as a big safety in 6-2, 200 lb LeAndre Daniels, who has looked really good in practices recently (As a listener, one can hear it in Wulff’s voice when he says he believes they are going to be better with some of this younger talent on the field next year).
- ON that same tone, a caller asked about how he’s dealt with knowing that he has some good young talent, yet has held off with redshirting many of them. Wulff said it’s been tough, but it’s a necessary thing. The only true frosh who are playing right now are purely out of necessity, but if he had his way, all recruits would redshirt that first year (we’ve heard this before). But then Wulff went deeply into why – he wants to do this thing THE RIGHT WAY. He understands that people don’t have a lot of patience these days, and at times, neither does he. But he also understands that the quick fix can be the worst possible thing when you are trying to build a program. He said sure, you could go with the quick fix and play all the youth immediately or get a bunch of JC guys and put them out there right away. But with a quick fix can come a quick fall, and the slower way to build and sustain success is to do it the right way. Wulff brought up some of the recent successful WSU teams, and how those teams were built. It was done the right way, built from the ground up, and that is what they are going to try and do here. But a big part of that is to avoid the quick fall after a successful group comes through, and that’s where the building with layers and layers of depth comes into play (Oregon State is the perfect example of building depth with Mike Riley’s approach, vs. the Erickson way which is to interject JC’s and youth immediately to win now, and worry about tomorrow some other day).
- Arizona was brought up again. Wulff mentioned that the biggest difference he’s seen from them is that they are running the ball this season so much better than last year. A big reason is because of Nic Grigsby and Keola Antolin, two smallish, faster backs who have really given them a nice balance to what they are trying to do. They are the complete opposite of what they had seen out of Stanford’s power running game, so it will be quite the contrast. But they can kill you through the air, with WR Mike Thomas and TE Rob Gronkowski both big-time players. And of course, the senior QB element here with Willie Tuitama.
- Their offensive line got some good mention as well, regarded as strong and physical. But again, even with Sonny Dykes coming from Texas Tech as the OC who created this “Air-Zona” passing attack, it’s the running game that has been the biggest reason why they have had success this year. In fact, Arizona has actually run the ball more times than they’ve thrown it in 2008! That’s not something that you would think, given their reputation.
- Wulff was also impressed with their defense. It is better than people think, and very impressed with their back seven, with four seniors and three juniors among the starting linebackers and secondary. They are athletic, fast, play hard, and again, they’ve been healthy this year. Wulff said he was very impressed with how they played against USC, holding the Trojans to their lowest point total of the season.
- Injuries were quickly brought up. Wulff said BJ Guerra is very questionable this week, and he was disappointed because he thought Guerra has been showing a lot of upside lately. Both Micah Hannam and Vaughn Lesuma are still dinged up, but they should both play. Wulff also mentioned that Lopina is getting better and better, and didn’t really address how that will affect J.T. Levenseller’s playing time (Boo! WE WANT JT!).
- A caller asked about the workouts during the season, and just how much these kids are able to lift during the actual year. Wulff said that players who travel will get two to three lifting sessions in per week. But the redshirts go in at least four days a week – Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. And the redshirts are up at 5:30 in the morning hitting the weights! Wulff said that builds discipline and chemistry, and it’s a good time for them to be together as a unit. But they are working hard to get bigger and stronger.
- Finally, Nameck reminded Wulff that they haven’t scored a point in 10 quarters now, not since the 2nd quarter of the Oregon State game. Wouldn’t it be nice to get some points early and put this behind you?? “ABSOLUTELY.” Wulff would love to get off to a quick start, get some points, and try to build some momentum and confidence. It is very important to what they want to do this week (and every week).
So there you have it. A bit of a lighter recap, as I’m trying to just touch on the highlights of what you, the reader, would give a rip about. But they cut it short for 15 minutes, so, this is about it.
Enjoy your Thursday, AND GO COUGS!
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
