Some pretty good stuff floating around so we’ll get right to it.
Cougfan had a good look at the Canadian sleeper, Johnny Forzani. He really is an interesting story. Have you ever seen such intrigue with a kid who didn’t play a down of high school football, yet has already garnered three-star ratings out of Scout.com? But the hype seems somewhat deserved in this case, and it is a special one. A hoops standout who caught serious attention with the football videos he sent around, he showed up at a tryout camp for the Calgary Stampeders junior team and blew them away with his size (6-1, 204), athleticism, and speed (4.37 to 4.45 in the 40??).
As Scout.com said in their evaluations:
“On Forzani, you notice first how quick off the line he is,” says Brandon Huffman, Scout’s West Coast analyst. “Some receivers don’t utilize their first step right but that’s not the case with Forzani.
“He’s got very good speed, and has good explosion. His size will help him in the Pac-10, especially against smaller corners. He’s got a good combination of speed and strength that you notice early and often in the film. Body wise, he looks like he could be a safety too, but I think receiver is where his best days will be.”
Nice! But that’s not all.
There was also a pretty good read about Forzani and his father, John, a former CFL WR who made a good living playing Canadian ball. The whole idea of wearing his father’s number for the Calgary team, wow, that’s pretty cool. He’s got the bloodlines, that’s for sure, and you have to wonder what will happen once coach Levy gets his hands on this kid.
I know, I know, you don’t want to get too jacked about a recruit. But doesn’t he look like your turning-over-rocks type guy who you get through hard work and thinking outside the box?? These kinds of stories, they are just the kinds of things we can probably come to expect out of the Wulff regime, don’t you think?
Meanwhile, on the theme of offense – an anonymous poster informed us that he spied none other than Ocho Rojo, Marshall Lobbestael, on campus yesterday. Big deal, right? Well, he was WITHOUT crutches. Certainly a better sight compared to last fall….
I tried checking it out today but didn’t hear much that isn’t already known. He will be EXTREMELY limited in spring ball and likely won’t truly be part of full practices until the fall. If he does get out there in the spring, it will be very, very light work. But the early word is things are looking pretty good.
While it will make for some good bar-stool chatter, and it should be an interesting QB derby this fall, I would bet the majority believe that if Lobbestael is healthy, he will be THE GUY in ’09? I sure would love to see him ready to go by August and really compete hard for the job against JT Levy and Kevin Lopina.
Most of all, let’s hope whoever the hell wins that job gets the full keys to the car so to speak. You know, like MORE than 50% of the playbook? You’ve all at least been in the system for a year, now let’s see what happens!
The Evergreen weighed in on the ’09 schedule. Not a bad look at next season, and they even take a shot at UW: “The Apple Cup concludes the regular season Nov. 28. The Cougars will head to Seattle this year, hoping to build a three-game winning streak against a Husky team that has a new head coach, a new system, but the same mediocre personnel.” So there.
Oh, and hey, they even throw out a PREDICTION – 5-7? Really? Maybe it’s just me, but doesn’t it still seem WAY too early for predictions in January? Don’t we need to get through signing day and spring ball, at the very least, to see the way these teams are going to be? You know we will weigh in this spring, and that means a return of the “fishwrap” series where we look at each 2009 opponent.
We’ve made a few changes around this here blog. First of all you might have noticed the “click here for more….plus Comments”. Kind of a cool little feature, it helps keep the front page of the site without too much scrolling for stories. Plus it gives you a jump right to the comments of each story, making it easier for YOU to weigh in. We also put a “latest comment” feature to the right of the page, if you scroll down below the Spokesman Review feed. It shows you the last five comments posted to the site. Interested to see if anyone responded to what you said? Just check there.
Finally, many of you already know this, but signing day is next week….Seriously. There is a free function in Spokane on the 4th, followed by a deal in Shelton on the 5th and the Seattle dinner on the 6th. We will do what we can to get some great coverage, one way or another, and provide the best recap available! But if you attend one of these functions and hear or see something pretty cool, by all means, you are welcome to share it here. The more tidbits we can pass along the better. We’re all in this together….right??
That’s it for now. ENJOY YOUR EVENING, and GO COUGS!
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