The Next Day

I'm not going to link up all of the various game reports. We all watched the game and know what happened so I will just write something myself.

The Good: The defense looked better than last year, that is for sure. Greg Trent and Andy Mattingly were flying around the field. Also as stated yesterday, Chris Ivory ran the ball well on his six carries. Between Apple Cup last year and how he ran yesterday, I think he deserves more than six carries a game.

The Bad: The offense sputtered in the first half, not scoring any points. How's this for the first eight drives of the game; punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, safety, punt, punt. They got better in the second half but thirteen points isn't going to win games in the Pac-10. Hopefully in the next couple of games we will see them try to stretch the field more, the play calling was a bit questionable at times.

The Ugly: Specials teams cost the Cougs this game. Reid Forrest is hurt and we need him back in a hurry. Dan Wagner had eight attempts at punting and failed on almost all of them. The line drive punts are a punt returners dream, the field is wide open when they get the ball. OSU had 5 punt returns for 124 yards, that isn't going to get it done. The kickoffs were short and in the middle of the field. Also, players weren't covering their lanes, especially when Perrish Cox went 90 yards for a TD and stole all the momentum from WSU. Wade Penner missed a extra point as well. Just a bad day all around.

Not So Special Teams

Just got back from the game and while I was expecting us to have a down season, I didn't think it would be that bad. The defense played their hearts out and just got outworked later in the game. It also didn't help that OSU kept feeding their much taller and more physical WR's later in the game. The D sure didn't get any help from their offensive teammates as the Cougar offense struggled to even get a first down until midway through the 3rd quarter. Specials teams don't even deserve an explanation. I have never seen such poorly played ST in one game in all my life. However for some positive things, I think Chris Ivory should be the primary running back. I love his hard hitting style of running the ball. Also, Trent and Mattingly were all over the field as expected. Other than that, a poor performance in Wulff's Cougar debut. More updates later on.

Finally Here

The wait is over, Cougar Football season is finally here. I am headed down to the stadium pretty early so there won't be many updates today. I will have something when I get back this evening. Until then, Go Cougs!

Lots Of Pre-Game Links

Lots of links regarding the game tomorrow. Hard to believe Cougar Football is already here.

Howie Stalwick of the Seattle PI compares the two teams.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/cougars/376978_coug29.html

Bud Withers of the Seattle Times talks about how WSU will play 4 True Freshman in the game.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/cougars/2008145891_coug29.html

An article from the Daily Evergreen about Senior TE, Devin Frischknecht. Rogers called Frischknecht's number a lot in Fall Camp so he may end up having a big season. Apparently he is married and has a child, didn't know that before.

http://www.dailyevergreen.com/story/25941

I mentioned yesterday how WSU and OSU seemed very similar. Well, Scott Wright of The Oklahoman must have thought the same thing because he wrote and article about it.

http://newsok.com/stillwater-pullman-are-one-in-same/article/3290067/?tm=1219989380&pg=1

Boyd Released By Steelers

Former Cougar TE, Cody Boyd was released by the Pittsburgh Steelers today. Good luck to him in trying to find another team.

http://news.steelers.com/article/94196/

Grippi Picks Cougs 9th

Vince Grippi of The SpokesmanReview has put out his predicted finish for the Pac-10 this season. He picks the Cougs to finish 9th and UW to finish 10th, stating that the Apple Cup may be the decider of who finishes last. That could end up happening, however he picks Cal to finish 3rd and Oregon to finish 5th. I would probably put Oregon at 3 or 4 and Cal at 5 or 6.

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/sportslink/archive/?postID=8157#more

Times Cougar Preview & Links

Bud Withers of The Seattle Times wrote a piece in the annual WSU preview on how Paul Wulff has joined a pretty elite crew of Pac-10 coaches. It also discusses how Wulff has focused a lot of his recruiting in the state of WA. From the article, "In one week of the May recruiting-evaluation period, with the maximum seven assistants on the road, the Cougars visited some 275 high schools in the state." While I like the idea of recruiting hard in our home state, Washington simply isn't a good enough football state to provide a whole team of Pac-10 talent. It would be nice to see him say that they are hitting California pretty hard as well.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/budwithers/2008143357_withers28.html

An article from The Seattle PI about the beginning of the annual Seattle game.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/cougars/376715_coug28.html

From reading more and more about OSU we seem to be very similar teams with the same type of struggles. This article talks about how OSU's team motto this year is, "finish" because they blew 4 of 6 games they were leading late last year. WSU had that exact same motto a couple seasons ago after blowing their fare share of games.

http://newsok.com/pokes-working-to-avoid-final-quarter-letdowns/article/3289613/?tm=1219893926

Make Some Money, Hopefully

Every week I will pick 3 games that I think have descent lines to make some money on. I am not really betting but we will pretend I am parlaying these 3 games every weekend with 10 bucks. I am using the lines from Sportsbook.com. I will keep a running total all season of how well I am doing. Bet 10 win 60.00.

NC State vrs South Carolina. Over/Under 45. Pick: Over

Nebraska -14.5 vrs Western Michigan. Pick: Nebraska to cover.

Clemson -4.5 vrs Alabama. Pick: Clemson to cover.

Weekend Picks

Since the Pac-10 gets underway tomorrow I am posting my picks tonight. Before each week I will pick each of the Pac-10 games and keep a running tally of how much I actually know.

Thursday: Oregon State at Stanford- I think this is the year Stanford starts the uphill climb. They won't make it to a bowl but if they can beat a down OSU team at home in Week 1 it could build some positive momentum for them through the season. Pick: Stanford

Saturday: USC at Virginia- Virginia is coming off a New Year's Day Bowl but this isn't the same team as last year. USC is solid once again and will be in the mix for a national title. Pick: USC and then they have 2 weeks to prepare for Ohio State.

Michigan State at California- Cal is looking to their defense to carry them to a bowl game in 2008. Their LB core led by Sr. Zac Follett is solid and should contain the MSU running game. Too much Pac-10 speed in the end for MSU. Pick: Cal

Northern Arizona at Arizona State- No explanation needed. Pick: ASU big

Idaho at Arizona- Mike Stoops finally looks to have a bowl team in AZ. If he doesn't get to one, he is probably gone after this year. Pick: Arizona

Washington at Oregon- Tyrone Willingham's seat is on fire and he has a bunch of true freshman trying to save his job. His only playmaker is Jake Locker and speaking of Locker, his 47% passing last year was bottom of the barrel. Combine that with Oregon's dominant secondary, plus a night game at Autzen and you have a Duck win. Pick: Oregon

Oklahoma State at WSU- The Cougs are the mystery team of the Pac-10. New coach, new offense, new QB and some new faces on the field. Nobody really knows what to expect. With OSU we know what we are getting, lots of Zac Robinson and a sub-par defense. It should be a shootout but as a Coug fan, I have to pick the Cougs in Week 1. Pick: Cougs, barely

Monday: Tennessee at UCLA- Slick Rick doesn't have a solid QB. It is as simple as that. Pick: Tennessee

Keys To Ok State

Here is the key matchups that I have identified for the Cougs heading into Saturday's game.

Key Matchups
1. Cougar Defense vrs QB Zac Robinson. Robinson is the real deal, throwing for 2,824 yards, 23 TD's with only 9 picks last year. He also rushed for over 800 yards and 9 TD's. We all know the story with the Cougar defense from last season. They finished near the bottom in the nation in pass defense allowing 255 yards per game. However, almost everyone returns for this defense and while thin at DT expect better things from the secondary. If the ends can contain Robinson from running and the secondary can just hold their own, WSU has a shot to win.
2. Brandon Gibson vrs CB Jacob Lacey. Gibson is expecting bigtime things this year coming off of his 1,180 yard and 9 TD performance last year. Lacey is experienced but probably can't take Gibson on his own so expect double teams all day long. This should open up some routes for Michael Willis or Jared Karstetter. The OSU defense was worse than WSU's last season, so if the Cougs want to win they need to take full advantage of their playmaker on offense.
3. Cougar Specials Teams vrs Themselves. The media, the coach and even the players themselves have been unhappy with how the Special Teams have gone this fall camp. Expect Reid Forrest as the punter. I imagine he won't be doing the rugby dash to his right this year though. Also, expect Wade Penner to be the new kicker but Nico Grasu could step in if he struggles. Field goals have been a disaster in camp and punting/kickoffs weren't good last year. On the return side of kicks WSU ranked 94th in punt return and 97th in kick return last season. So who knows what to expect. If Specials Teams end up being a disaster it could end up costing us this game as well as many more this season.

Rogers Ready To Lead Cougs

Nothing really new here on Gary Rogers, but if you haven't read his thoughts about watching Alex Brink for 4 years then here you go. Rogers may be the most heralded WSU backup of all time, even though Alex Brink shattered most WSU QB records and is now fighting for a spot with the Houston Texans. Hopefully Rogers improves on his less than stellar performance (3 picks) in the last WSU scrimmage.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/story/461801.html

Brandon Gibson, The Next NFL Bound Coug

Here is a very good article about Brandon Gibson by Todd Miles of the Tacoma News Tribune. On why he took his name out of the NFL Draft last year, Gibson said, “That’s the thing, I’m not a money-hungry guy. I understand it’s going to be there,” But even now, some people don’t know me. I’m an intellectual guy. I’m not slow. I can think a little bit. Overall, I took my time in making that decision. I needed to get it out of the way.” If Gibson can have a year similar to last years he should be expecting to be picked in the first two rounds of next year's draft.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/1042/story/461780.html

Lots Of Links

From The Daily Evergreen, it is still up in there on who is going to kick for WSU on Saturday. The kickers were a laughable 7 of 18 in the scrimmage last week. My guess is Wade Penner will be the starter for week 1 at least, but who knows after that.

http://www.dailyevergreen.com/story/25897

Oklahoma State gave up passing yards in bunches last year finishing 112th out of 119 teams. This year, they are hoping to improve but if the Cougars can take advantage of a weak pass defense it could make the difference in the game.

http://newsok.com/gundy-says-true-test-of-defense-will-come-saturday-against-washington-state/article/3289207/?tm=1219814323

A few notes about Oklahoma State and how Junior QB Zac Robinson feels much better about his role heading into this season. Coug fans that don't know him by now will know who he is on Saturday. Last season he set school records in offense with 2,824 passing yards and 847 rushing yards. He also threw 23 TD's while only tossing up 9 picks.

http://www.stillwater-newspress.com/osusports/local_story_239104813.html

Back In Action

After taking a few months off, since the NBA Draft actually, I have decided to get CrimsonChatter rollin again now that football season is about to start. As we all know the Cougs open against Oklahoma State, Saturday at Qwest Field. Today I am going to throw a bunch of links about the game up and tomorrow I will provide a breakdown of OK State and key matchups for the game on both sides of the ball. Also on Thursday, I will be putting up good games to bet on, if you are into that kind of thing. Go Cougs!