WSU Football | Coug seniors prepare for their final home game of 2009

November 17, 11:39 PMWashington State Cougars ExaminerLew Wright

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Washington State football Coach Paul Wulff was proud to talk about his Cougar senior student/athletes who will suit up in their home uniforms for the last time this coming Saturday.

The Cougs will take on Oregon State this weekend. Though there won't be a live telecast of the game, kickoff at Martin Stadium is slated for 2pm PST.

Television or not, it will be a challenge to fill the stands with Cougar Nation paying tribute to young men who have given their best to Washington State football over the past four or five years.

Heading into Thanksgiving break, students will be heading out of Pullman en masse. Hopefully a large number of students will postpone their departure a few hours and take in all the pagentry of college football, Cougar style.

There’s always been a history at Washington State when you have back-to-back home games that the second game sometimes is not attended quite as well. We will try to get everybody to stay if they can and weather doesn’t force them home early because some kind of front is moving in. We were talking about (Thanksgiving break) this morning. In the 2002 season WSU was playing ASU. WSU was in the top ten and ASU was in the top twenty and I think there were only 15,000 fans here for that game." - WSU Coach Paul Wulff

Coach Wulff offered a reminder of what his seniors have meant to the WSU football program, the university and the greater community known collectively as Cougar Nation.

When anybody goes through a program four or five years of their life and invest the amount of time that’s required to be a student athlete, there’s a lot of emotional things that go on inside of you when you know it’s coming to an end and your career is over. It’s real tough and I sure respect what they have all gone through and have had to go through during their career here. These guys have shown a tremendous amount of perseverance and I’m very proud of them and their ability to hang tough and keep working." - Coach Wulff

As you might expect, Coach Wulff will start as many seniors as possible. "That's just what's going to happen", Wulff said. He added, "I think that's the right thing to do."

Yes, there will be an opponent this Saturday. Coach Mike Riley will bring his red hot Oregon State Beavers to the Palouse.

In what has become an annual pattern comparable to summer leading into fall, the Beavs started this season with mediocre results. The last six games have been Beaver football at it's best. Their only loss during that span was to USC 42-36 when the Trojans had a full compliment of offensive weapons.

When you talk about Oregon State football this season, three players command discussion. Senior quarterback Sean Canfield is playing outstanding football.

(Sean Canfield) is a good player. He’s a fifth year senior in their program. He’s gotten better and better. He gives them just enough balance between Jaquizz (Rogers) running the ball and throwing it. It’s not going to be an easy game for us defensively. They have some tough matchups for us that way. We’re just going to have to play sound, play hard and tackle well." - Coach Wulff

Between the play of Canfield and the Rogers brothers, James and Jaquizz, Oregon State has been an offensive juggernaut for the past month. But the Beavers aren't all about offense. Their defense is starting to come together as one of the better units in the conference.

Even the play of the two sophomore safeties from California, Cameron Collins and Lance Mitchell, prompts praise from Coach Wulff.

They’ve got a couple of sophomore safeties and for us that would be a really old safety or an old player. They’ve got some experience and they’ve played a whole season. I see their safeties getting better and improving…so I think it’s going to be a challenge for us and they’re coming together on offensive and defense at the right time." - Coach Wulff

Praise for the defensive units of opponents is beginning to sound like a broken record. Then again, that's what is to be expected from Pac-10 teams. In the case of Oregon State, their defensive line is quite different from the UCLA DL the Cougs faced last Saturday. Instead of the brute force that comes with 300+ pound linemen, Oregon State's front seven are all built for speed.

(Oregon State isn’t) quite as big (as UCLA), but they are very quick. As a whole, that defensive line runs around very well as does their linebackers. They’ve got excellent speed on defense. We’re going to have to do a good job of staying on blocks. That’s the challenge for our offensive guys to come out and do that." - Coach Wulff

The Cougars came out of the UCLA without any more players sustaining serious injuries. That fact will make a difference is just how much the WSU offensive line can improve this week. There were plenty of signs against the Bruins that the OL is stepping up their play.

This final home game for the 2009 season will be ignored by some, joked about by others. Coach Wulff and his staff are preparing for Oregon State as if a conference championship is on the line.

That's what  these Cougs do.

…the game is still fun. If you’re a competitor you want to be able to go out and compete as hard as you can. That’s what we’re trying to do. We’re got a lot of young guys playing and they want to do well. Their effort’s good and they’re going to do everything they can to compete and play hard." - Coach Wulff

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