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WSU DE Travis Long having a great season
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Washington State Cougar football Coach Paul Wulff had plenty to say about his team Tuesday afternoon.
Before Coach Wulff met with media, Coach Chris Ball was on with Ian Furness' show on KJR Sports Radio 950AM in Seattle. Coach Ball is a regular guest on the show Tuesdays and his interview with Furness is always available to hear on demand if you go to the KJR Sports Radio website.
Since Coach Ball is the co-defensive coordinator for Washington state, a job he shares with Coach Jody Sears, Furness posed a question about who has been the best overall player on defense for the Cougs over the first eight games of 2009.
Coach Ball pointed out something most fans of Cougar football would heartily agree with. The best player on defense for the Cougs this season has been true freshman Travis Long.
Furness wondered if the fact a freshman was the best defensive player for WSU so far this season was a good or bad thing, Coach Ball didn't hesitate to set him straight.
"It's a good. It's a great thing for the future. He's tough as nails. He plays a lot of snaps. His work ethic is the best I've ever been around for that age of kid. He's just got a high motor. He practices hard. You know, this is my 24th season coaching, my dad was a coach and I can't remember ever seeing a freshman at his position do so well...at defensive line to see what he's done as a true freshman, it just doesn't happen. He's in here watching tape, He's smart. He's mature and he's carrying a 4.0(GPA)" - WSU Assistant Head Coach Chris Ball
Coach Ball wasn't the only one to praise the play of a young Cougar player. During his news conference Coach Wulff pointed to progress and development of a player who hasn't seen any action the past few weeks. When the topic of quarterback came up, Wulff jumped at the chance to talk about his backup quarterback.
"Marshall (Lobbestael) has gotten a lot better in the last two weeks. It’s probably been really good for him to sit back a little bit and let his body feel a little bit better. You can see that things have slowed down for him, but in a good way. Although I knew this was going to be a tough year for Marshall, right now...you can really see him starting to grow in practice. I’m really pleased with his progress even though he hasn’t had an opportunity in a game the last couple of weeks. But you can clearly see it’s happening. ...we’re not hesitant to put Marshall in. If the timing is right and he needs to play then he will get his opportunity." - WSU Coach Paul Wulff
A freshman who has played very well the past two games is converted linebacker Jared Byers who had made the switch to fullback.
"For a first year player right out of Pullman High School who walked on for us (Jared Byers), has done an outstanding job. We’ve known he’s tough and wants to be a good football player. He’s got some physical ability, too. He’s got a chance to really help this program. It’s a great learning experience for him right now, something he can really build off of. He does some really good things when he’s in the game. It’s really been a pleasure because we’ve tried to find that second blocking back kind of guy between Marcus Richmond we’ve tried at times. We’ve tried Logwone Mitz at times. We’ve tried Dwight (Tardy) a little bit. Jared has stepped in really quickly, early in his career and immediately made an impact for us He's better than anyone else has at that position. He’s always been a Cougar. He recruited us. We had him in summer camp and we really liked him and knew he wanted to be here. And we wanted him here as well. We made sure he was in our initial count when we started fall camp." - Coach Wulff
Coach Wulff touched briefly on the opponent this weekend, Arizona.
"They are a screen team. They’re going to screen you and screen you and screen you. On the outside a quick receiver screen is a form of running the ball. They’ll do a little deception and do a little fly sweep (with wide receivers) and things of that nature. Then they’ll obviously run the ball out of primarily balanced spread sets. They have been throwing the ball quite well. I’ve been impressed with Nick Foles and what he’s been able to do in his first year." - Coach Wulff
Foles has emerged for Coach Mike Stoops as one of the best young quarterbacks in the conference. Regardless of down or field position, he's completing a phenomenal 72% of his passes. The guy is incredibly accurate and stands tall at 6'5", in the pocket. Foles has the Wildcats converting nearly half of their third down plays.
How do you slow down drives by stopping Arizona on third down? Blitz?
"Blitzing could be good and it could be bad. If you blitz sometimes you give up an easy six points. Sometimes you can get to the quarterback. It is a gamble anytime you blitz. We’ve just got to be smart and pick and choose our opportunities. We’ll do our best to keep things mixed up." - Coach Wulff
Arizona has plenty of speed across the defensive front. As a team, they've already registered 18 sacks in just seven games. That includes five sacks against Oregon State and four on UCLA. Washington State is coming off a game against Notre Dame where the offensive line couldn't give quarterback Jeff Tuel enough time to work the Irish secondary.
So what will WSU do differently this week in Tucson? Coach Wulff smiled and said, "Protect him."
"We know that Arizona has excellent speed and they’re going to be able to get to the quarterback. There’s absolutely no question about that. If you play quarterback, you have to expect to get hit. We can watch football games on TV all the time from the NFL or at any level and you can see the pass plays and the catches. What the TV usually doesn’t cover is the quarterback a lot of times getting hit as he’s throwing the ball. And that occurs a lot. That’s going to happen to Jeff. If you play the position you just have to accept that. I know that it will happen this Saturday. That’s football. We just have to do the best we can to make sure we are smart schematically. From that point the players have to go execute the schematics. And if they execute the schematics then I think we’re going to be in good shape. If we can’t execute it and we physically get beat or we don’t use the proper technique to do those things then we’re subject to making mistakes and the quarterback is going to get hit more often than he should. We need all eleven to do well. The other ten around the quarterback position have to continue to improve so the quarterback can do well. We’ll do our best as coaches to put him in the best positions we can to assure that success." - Coach Wulff
Speaking of offensive line play, starting left tackle was a position up for competition last week between Alex Reitnouer and Tyson Pencer. Coach Wulff explained what happened with those two players.
"We didn’t know how Tyson (Pencer) would respond. He’s been out been out for three weeks. He had a decent week of practice. You could see that as each day came along Tyson was getting more and more comfortable. But I don’t think we felt he deserved to start the game at the time. Alex (Reitnouer) had played the whole week. So we decided (instead) to get Tyson in there real early and see how he would do. He did some good things early so we just went with him.
Alex is doing a lot right now. It’s hard for him to start every single game in this conference right now with where he’s at physically. He’s been able to gain some real valuable experience and learn along the way. Chances are he’s still going to play a lot of football." - Coach Wulff
Incremental progress and improvement are the watchwords for Washington State these days. Coach Wulff offered an overview of the program once again.
"We’re trying to get some solutions and get some answers. That’s one of the reasons you see a brand new quarterback playing. Someone we think can come in and compete at the Pac-10 level. He’s young but we’re going in a direction to bring in the people that can execute, score points and win ball games. And score more often. We’re doing the best we can right now. The players are working real hard. They’ve got great attitudes. We just can’t focus on the negatives. We don’t spend a lot of time focused on numbers and statistics because that doesn’t help us move forward. We just have to focus on the things we need to do to get better." - Coach Wulff
There wasn't news one way or the other on whether Chima Nwachukwu will be ready to go on Saturday. He was the only lingering injury coming out of the game last Saturday. Coach Wulff said he might try to practice either tomorrow or Thursday. Wulff went on to credit Nwachukwu's improvement this season to his off-season dedication to strength and conditioning. His hitting the weights has converted into big hits on the field.
If Nwachukwu can't go on Saturday, Jay Matthews will likely start in his place.
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