Trouble Finds Roof, Again

Say it ain’t so Andy! Yep, apparently the anger demons have once again taken down Andy Roof. Per the Evergreen, Roof assaulted THREE MEN outside a house party on Saturday night, where one was left unconscious. Yikes. I guess those 28 days in rehab didn’t do the trick. I think we all would be pretty shocked if he puts on a WSU uniform again. You don’t want to kick a kid when he’s down, but man, Andy, you need some help. Good luck to you.

One more piece of bad news. Looks like Doba left a “phantom” on his way out the door to the lake place. While the WSU athletic department overall is doing well in the classroom, graduating 92 % of players who exhaust their eligibility which is good for second only to Stanford in the conference, well, the football program failed to come through. As a result of poor academics, the football program will lose six scholarships, down to 79 from the standard 85. This isn’t good news for any football program in America, but for WSU, where depth is always an issue, this is not a happy deal. At least Wulff wasn’t surprised by this:

“When I got the job we knew we were going to take a hit this upcoming year,” Wulff said. “We have to go in with a mindset that this next year we’re going to play with 79 instead of 85.”

Sigh. We’ve heard all along that Wulff has been taken aback by the rebuilding job in front of him, and that was mainly due to depth on the field. But it’s clear there is heavy lifting ahead off the field as well. Just remember Cougar Nation, if/when we hit some rough spots over the next few seasons, think about the condition of the program when it was handed off before you complain about what you see on the field. This thing is going to take a while to get it into the shape Wulff needs it in order to be successful. Let’s give it some time.

Finally, some good news – Brink’s draft revisited. Even though Houston recently released QB Craig Nall, the Texans will still have five QB’s on the roster, including Brink. Given that teams usually have two QB’s active on gameday, plus a third emergency QB, that leaves Brink at the back of the line. But stranger things have happened. And given that he’s now an official draftee, he’s going to get a shot. Gary Kubiak comes from a west coast offense background, so not having a Bledsoe-like arm might be OK for the Texans. Again, good luck Alex.

But the news is good for our draft hopefuls as well, as many are finding free-agent homes. As many have already heard, Michael Bumpus is a Seahawk signee. Who knows, given the Deion Branch injury, there may be a real shot at making the roster. He’ll have to fight for table scraps with UW WR Anthony Russo, who also signed.

At least Bump can learn from Bobby Engram, who is a pretty good role model in terms of playing the slot and how to get open. And the west coast offense might be a great fit for a guy like Bump, a system designed for the intermediate passing game and doesn’t require a bunch of burners running 4.3 40’s every play. I know it’s a stretch, but if Bumpus has any hope at the next level, that’s a system that could work and a guy in Engram that he could emulate pretty well.

But others have signed, including Husain Abdullah in Minnesota, Jed Collins in Philly, and even Charles Dillon ended up in Indianapolis. The odds are long for each, but again, undrafted free agents make it every year for one reason or another. Anything can happen.