Happy Tuesday Cougs. And a tough day today, 9/11, as we of course remember those horrible moments on the morning of 9/11/2001. Little known fact but Sutra and I have an old friend/Coug who worked in one of the WTC buildings and saw the whole thing that went down that day, saw the planes hit the towers and all the horrible aftermath. He got out of there just in time, thank God, but there were many thousands who didn’t make it. Like the rest of America, we will never forget.
Kind of a bittersweet day today, as we remember 9/11…..but also celebrate, kind of, for something else far less important. It appears that the Seattle City Council and Chris Hansen have agreed on the final stages of the new Seattle arena deal. Hansen’s deal now will reportedly include up to $40 million towards traffic issues in the SODO area, and that seemed to seal this deal. The council is set to approve it shortly, probably later this month, and then Mr. Hansen can hit the marketplace looking for a team, which would initially play in Key Arena until the new arena is ready. Ultimately I would hope that the NBA expands, so another city wouldn’t have to go through Seattle’s turmoil of losing a community asset. But we’ll see what happens. All I know is that after last night’s breaking news on the new arena, I have visions of Shawn-Kemp-Style alley oops and throw downs in traffic! Not that Kemp will return or anything, but you get the drift. The Sonics in the roaring 90’s were all that, and I would love to see something close to it return to lighten up the dreary, dark months from November – May in the Emerald City!
OK, some WSU links and such to get to, including some possible QB news, so let’s get started…..
Christian Caple had it last night, but it appears that Jeff Tuel didn’t do a whole lot at practice while Connor Halliday got the reps with the 1’s. Per Caple, Tuel had a brace on the right leg and rode the bike some during practice, and that was pretty much it. But don’t look for Leach to spill the beans on IF Halliday or Tuel will be taking the snaps on Friday night in Vegas (as if we thought he would….?). Leach played coy about the whole thing, but we’ll see how the rest of the week plays out.
I know there was a lot of debate yesterday about Sutra’s post, and the whole QB situation in general. It seems that there are many who believe it’s time to give the keys to Halliday and take the good with whatever bad comes of that decision.
I said it yesterday and I’ll say it again today – IF Tuel is healthy, I am not ready to do that yet. I want to see two more games with Tuel at the helm, up through the Colorado game in a couple of weeks, before making the call. But after the possible knee/leg injury, it may not matter at this point.
That said…..have ya SEEN the offense the other newbies are putting up in this conference right now!?!? Arizona just rang up 59 FLIPPIN’ POINTS on a ranked OK-State team. UCLA put up over 600 yards of offense vs. a ranked Nebraska team. And ASU just hung over 500 yards of offense and 45 points on Illinois! Meanwhile, as ESPN Radio’s Dave Grosby was yelling yesterday on the airwaves – “WHERE’S THE AIR RAID OFFENSE!?!?” 30 points total in two games?? 24 against an FCS team?? Cause this sure ain’t it, at least not yet. Maybe this Friday it all takes flight, and there are certainly some signs that it is getting a bit better anyway. But not yet.
Meanwhile, the latest depth chart is out, which you can see here. The “OR” is still not back in place at QB, as Tuel is listed as the starter. I thought we might get an “OR” this week, but that isn’t the case. Hmm. Anyway, Andrei Lintz is no longer starting inside, as frosh WR Brett Bartolone has moved ahead of him. On defense, Cyrus Coen is the starter again after a solid game vs. EWU. I told Sutra this at the time, but I really like the looks of Coen so far. He reminds me a bit of a throwback to the Price/Doba days of the 90’s, with the smaller, aggressive, speedy linebacker type who flies around and makes things happen with an aggressive approach. So far so good!
Finally, the Cougs picked up a verbal commit in running back Jamal Morrow. Cougcenter breaks it down for you, including some Youtube videos. Just a 2-star at the moment, the 5-8, 180 pounder looks legit on tape.
All for now. Enjoy your morning, and of course, GO COUGS!
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