Notes From All Over

The Everett Herald had a descent piece on QB, Marshall Lobbestael and how he has begun his road to recovery. If all goes well he will be battling for a starting QB spot next season with Kevin Lopina.

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20081030/SPORTS/710309839/1093/SPORTS06

Vince Grippi kind of covers everything Cougs with a quick note on Taylor Rochestie's injury, the offensive and defensive lineman, and how WSU should be worried about Stanford's rushing attack.

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/sportslink/archive/?postID=8599#more

Also, the Pac-10 Hoop predictions are out from Pac-10 media day. Here are the results of the official media poll with first-place votes and total points:

1, UCLA (37), 379.
2, Arizona State (1), 325.
3, USC, 292.
4, Arizona, 241.
5, Washington, 217.
6, Washington State, 188.
7, Oregon, 147.
8, Cal, 143.
9, Stanford, 115.
10, Oregon State, 40.

I'm not sure with all the turmoil going on at Arizona that they will finish 4th this year. However, the Pac-10 is down, so after UCLA, spots 2-7 may be up for grabs. Arizona State needs to prove they can win a big game while USC is trying to prove that they were more than O.J. Mayo last season. Anything but a top five finish for UW would be a huge disappointment considering the returning players they have. Should be another exciting season of Pac-10 Basketball.

Back tomorrow with Make Some Money, which is close to $200.00 after another win last week and the Weekend Picks. Happy Halloween.

My Pre-Season Hoops Prediction

Here is my prediction on how the season will go.

We play twelve non conference games. I'm gonna say we go 10-2 with losses to Gonzaga and at LSU. The Tigers should be descent this year and I think they will give us a tough game on the road. The Baylor game early in the season may be rough but I think we win it at home. If we end up playing Pitt instead of Texas Tech in NJ I think we might go 9-3.

So heading into Pac-10 play we have to go 10-8 or 11-7 to make a bid for the NCAA tourney.

January 3 Washington Win
January 8 California Win
January 10 Stanford Win
January 15 at Oregon State Win
January 17 at Oregon Loss
January 22 UCLA Loss
January 24 USC Win
January 29 at Arizona State Loss
January 31 at Arizona Loss
February 5 at Stanford Win
February 7 at California Win
February 12 Oregon Win
February 14 Oregon State Win
February 19 at USC Loss
February 21 at UCLA Loss
February 26 Arizona Win
February 28 Arizona State Loss
March 8 at Washington Loss

So this is a predicted record of 10-8 in the Pac-10. That would put us at 20-10 or 19-11 heading into the Pac-10 Tourney. I think the key swing games are at Oregon, at Arizona, at UW and home games against UW, USC and Arizona. If we can go 4-2 or 3-3 in these games our chances at a tourney birth are fairly descent. That five game stretch to close out the season is probably going to be huge in determining post-season play. Anyways excited for the season.

Weaver NBA Debut

While it didn't last for very long and didn't really fill up the box score, Kyle Weaver made his official NBA debut Thursday night in a loss to the Bucks. He played two minutes and recorded one assist. The OKC Thunder may only win 15 games this year so as the season goes on, Weaver may see more and more PT. It is kind of surprising that he is one of the active players on the roster to start the year.

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=3466

Graise A Goner

According to Vince Grippi's article in the Spokesman Review, Senior Mike Graise has been dismissed from the Cougar football team. A violation of team rules and missing practice seems to be the reason why. While Graise was not a main player on the defense he did have experience that helped a already thin defensive line.

There is also a lot more info in the article about J.T. Levenseller, who is dominating Cougar news this week.

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/sportslink/archive/?postID=8593#more

From the San Francisco Chronicle, another article about a highly favored team not taking the Cougars lightly. This is a pretty big game for Stanford. I expect them to come out pretty fired up in this one.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/29/SPBI13PHSN.DTL

Also, Cougar Hoops is only 16 days away. It can't get here soon enough.

Little Levy To Play

When J.T. Levenseller signed on with the WSU Football team, many thought it was just a big thank you to his father for his service to Cougar Football. Now he is going to be on the field against Stanford in his first ever college football experience. The Pullman native had this to say, "It's always what I wanted to do (play for WSU)," Levenseller said. "It's finally here. It's kind of surreal right now."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/cougars/385431_coug29.html

Same story from The News Tribune.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/updates/story/521214.html

Weekend Picks

Cougar nation can rest this weekened knowing that they won't have to watch a 60 point beat down of our team. There is lots of good football on today. Be sure to check out OK State vrs Texas, Penn State vrs Ohio State and Tennessee trying to upset Alabama. The winner of the Penn State vrs Ohio State game may unfortunately be headed to the National Championship game in January as they don't really play anyone else this season. The newest BCS rankings had USC at 10, ranked 5 spots behind a team they drilled, Ohio State. Doesn't make much sense to me. Anyways here are the Pac-10 picks this week.

Last Week: 2-2
Season Total: 36-12

UCLA at California: UCLA is coming off a big win against Stanford last week while Cal may have started their annual second half slide in a loss to Arizona. The Bruins seem to be coming together a bit as a team but they are one of those teams who will play at the level of their opponent. The level that Cal is at, at this point in the season in unknown. Last week had to scare Golden Bear fans. They are still having major QB problems and cannot move the ball through the air. This is a big game for them as they play Oregon and USC the next two weeks. I expect this one to be a sloppy, low scoring game but Cal will pull this one out at home. Pick: California

Oregon at Arizona State: The Ducks can make themselves officially bowl eligible against a struggling Arizona State team this week. OU fans have to think back to the disaster that was the Boise State game and if they had won that game, they would probably be sitting in the top 12 of the national rankings with one loss. On the other hand, has any team fallen harder than ASU this year? They have lost four in a row after expecting the Rose Bowl or Holiday Bowl to be handed to them. Oregon is getting healthier while ASU still has Rudy Carpenter and RB Keegan Herring injured. The grass of Sun Devil Stadium will slow the Ducks down a bit but they should pull this one out rather easily. Pick: Oregon

No. 5 USC at Arizona: The Wildcats are thinking upset as the 5th ranked Trojans come into town after a practice game against WSU last week. Arizona looked sharp on both sides of the ball in a win over Cal last Saturday, but this is USC. The Trojans can not be happy about their 10the place ranking in the BCS polls this week. Historically, Arizona has played well against USC and I expect this one to be close for about three quarters. USC's second and third running backs will take this game over in the fourth quarter. Pick: USC

Notre Dame at Washington: Besides Boise State, these are the two other teams I hate most in college football. Hopefully it ends in a 0-0 tie. Since that is impossible, expect a Notre Dame win so they can get closer to a BCS bowl, only to be blown out by a team who actually plays in a conference. Pick: Notre Dame

Make Some Money

So I guaranteed a victory with the money making last week and I got it. As we head into the later part of the season the betting is getting a bit easier. So start paying attention, I am well over 100 dollars in winnings for the year. As always, 3 games parlayed with $10.00. Lines from Sportsbook.com. $10.00 to win $60.00.

Last Week: + $60.00
Season Total: + $143.00

Virgina Tech at Florida State Over/Under 42.5 Pick: The Over.

Notre Dame -10 at Washington Pick: Notre Dame to cover.

Alabama -5 at Tennessee Pick: Alabama to cover.

Cougs Land Standout

Rejecting offers from Arizona, Boise State, Oregon and Oregon State, Bellevue's star Safety Jamal Atofau has chosen WSU to play football at in college. From the article, "I let him know that I'm behind him 100 percent, and that I want to try to be a part of something real big the next few years," said the 5-foot-10, 185-pound nephew of former Cougars legend Jack Thompson and cousin of current Cougar Tony Thompson. He appears to be a very solid pickup and a guy who could compete for a starting spot right away. His only knack right now is his 2.1 GPA so he needs to get that up and qualify be June.

It is evident that while there is problems with the X's and O's on the field, this staff has done a pretty respectable job recruiting so far. As the season goes hopefully they can keep it all together because these kids are still going to be recruiting until they officially sign that letter of intent to WSU.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/preps/384796_fbbok24.html

Cougs vrs Skyline?

Jim Moore has an article about how the Cougs would fare against a high powered high school football team such as Skyline. It is a fairly funny article to lighten the mood of Cougar nation right now.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/moore/384551_moore23.html

The Daily Evergreen has an article about how the new freshman are shaping up for the WSU hoops team. From the looks of it, Klay Thompson and DeAngelo Casto are going to see significant playing time this year.

http://www.dailyevergreen.com/story/26650

Not Much To Say

The Cougs pretty much made it clear on Saturday that they are the worst BCS football team in America. They are the first BCS team to ever give up 60 points, 4 times in a season. And we still have 5 games to play. Once again there was no improvement shown on Saturday and it was clear from the get go that the coaching staff abandoned the idea of being competitive by passing the ball only 9 times. The Cougs never crossed the 50 yard line in the game.

This is going to be a very slow week for news because of the Cougs being so bad, it being a bye week and Paul Wulff has closed off all practices from the media. I feel bad for the sports writers who have to cover this team daily because it is hard enough just updating a blog every day. Thankfully basketball is getting started very soon.

From the Seattle Times, it sounds like the locker room is pretty divided right now. It will be interesting to hear after the season if players are upset with the way Wulff and his staff are running things in Pullman. If players start to transfer there is going to be some questions raised. But in hard times there is always going to be some tension between teammates, hopefully they can pull it together in these next two weeks.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/cougars/2008286388_coug20.html

The Seattle PI also has some quotes on how the Cougs need to find a team identity this week.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/cougars/384051_coug20.html

Weekend Picks

The Pac-10 standings look a little weird heading into Week 8 of the season. Cal, Oregon, Stanford and USC top out the list, while Arizona State sits at 7th with a 2-4 record. There are no real big games in the Pac-10 this week but it will be interesting to see if OSU can finally get a win on the road at Washington and also if Arizona can bounce back after a loss against Cal.

Last Week: 3-1
Season Total: 34-10

Stanford at UCLA: Stanford has kind of quietly settled into 3rd place in the Pac-10 right now. They don't do anything exceptionally well but they have found a way to win four games this year. This game is pivotal for their bowl chances. With a win this week and a win next week against WSU, Stanford can really start to turn their program around. UCLA put up a good effort last week at Oregon, but despite what Slick Rick says, their 2-4 record has got to be getting to them. I expect a close game but for Stanford to continue their surprising season. Pick: Stanford

No.25 California at Arizona: Arizona suffered a gut wrenching loss last week against Stanford. If they are the good team that they seem to be they should bounce back and play well this week. Cal sits at 4-1 and has got themselves ranked and sitting atop the Pac-10 standings. Will they begin their annual second half of the season collapse this week? The Golden Bears haven't played a road game in over a month so expect them to be a little shaky at the beginning of this one. I want to pick Arizona in the upset but I can't see Mike Stoops winning a big game like this. Pick: California

Oregon State at Washington: With the one man show Jake Locker on the sidelines, UW has all of the sudden had to run an actual offense and it is killing them. Ronnie Fouch is a descent passer but the young receivers and backs is hurting UW because teams no longer have to worry about Locker running. Oregon State who has not won a road game this year is coming off a drubbing of WSU and looking to have a winning record for the first time this season. Jacquizz Rodgers should be able to have a big day and build on his 718 yard, 8 TD season. Pick: Oregon State

No.6 USC at WSU: What can you say about this one? A national title contender against the worst team in D-1 Football. I think this is the week the scoring streak ends. I hope I am wrong but I don't see how the Cougs could score on USC's second team defense. Hopefully nobody gets hurt. Pick: USC, big.

Make Some Money

Last week didn't go so great as I only picked one out of the three games correctly. This weekend I am guaranteeing victory, and will make some more money. Three games parlayed with $10.00. Lines from Sportsbook.com. $10.00 to win $60.00.

Last Week: -$10.00
Season Total: + $73.00

Miami -3 at Duke Pick: Miami to cover.

USC at Washington State Over/Under 57 Pick: The Over

Michigan at Penn State Over/Under 47.5 Pick: The Over

Slow Times

Not much news these days regarding the football team, but hey, basketball gets going tomorrow at 5. So that is something positive.

WSU may be missing 5 offensive starters on Saturday while USC will be missing RB Joe McKnight, who had this to say. "If we were playing somebody else I'd probably go," Yes, that is how far WSU has fallen.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/cougars/383670_coug17.html

Random notes from Vince Grippi and what some players are planning to do during next week's bye week.

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/sportslink/archive/?postID=8518#more

So tomorrow I will have more news, as Fridays usually have lots of articles out there and the weekend bets and picks up. Until then, Go Cougs!

Bumpus Cut, Lopina Will Start

Michael Bumpus has been cut by the Seattle Seahawks, making room for rookie running back Justin Forsett of Cal. Bump can still be picked up for the practice squad if another team doesn't pick him up.

http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/seahawks/index.html#33216

Lots of notes from Vince Grippi's blog today including Kevin Lopina quotes, an inury update and notes from around the conference. One intersting part discussed a bit of a flare up regarding Paul Wulff and Jim Moore. Scroll to the bottom for that one.

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/sportslink/archive/?postID=8502#more

From ESPN's Bottom 10. The Cougs are now officially the worst D-1 football team in America. Sweet.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?page=bottom10087

From Ted Miller's blog, a piece about the supposed, "running up the score" OSU did on the Cougs.

I am so sick of Cougar fans and now even players complaining about this. When the games are over before halftime what do you expect other teams to do? The TD pass that people are complaining about was thrown by a guy who has hardly played this year to a walk on wide receiver. Our starting defense was still in there, it is their job to stop somebody. It is embarasing as a Cougar to have to read about this crap in the papers. Perhaps Romeo Pellum should be worrying about the 60 plus points his defense has given up three times this year. Bad players on bad teams make excuses to shed some of the light on someone else, so I guess this is expected. Pretty soon we are going to have a full fledged war on our hand between fans, players and coaches. And to think Paul Wulff has only been at the helm for 10 months...

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/pac10/0-3-94/Did-Oregon-State-run-up-the-score-vs--Washington-State-.html

Basketball Getting Started, Finally

Well it is finally time we can start talking about Cougar Basketball. Fresh off a first ever Sweet 16 the Cougs are looking to continue the magic with a young but very talented team. Practice will start this Friday at 5 PM and there will be all kinds of fresh, young faces on the floor. WSU has never seen Freshman like this in the Basketball program. Many expect Klay Thompson and DeAngelo Casto to see extended playing time this season. Meanwhile, Taylor Rochestie, Aron Baynes, Daven Harmeling and Nikola Koprivica will help the youngins transition to Bennett Ball.

Vince Grippi has his first article regarding hoops this season. You have to love this quote, "It's exciting when someone who has way more talent that you is looking up to you and listening to what you're saying," Rochestie said, laughing. "The freshman class, as talented as they are, they kind of blew us away with how eager they were to learn and to be a part of something bigger than themselves."

Can't wait until Hoops gets going.
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/sportslink/archive/?postID=8494#more

White Flag

I didn't update yesterday because after the Seahawk game I just didn't want to think about football for awhile. I think it is about time we all shut the door on this football season. The Cougars are getting beat by 50 points week in and week out. Our 3rd string QB goes down for the season, leaving us with walk-on Dan Wagner possibly starting against USC this week. The players seem to have quit already and our coaches seem lost and over their head in the Pac-10.

Meanwhile, the Seahawks are 1-4, look like hell and have injuries all over the field. It is just a god awful time to be a Seattle sports fan right now. At least Cougar basketball is right around the corner right? Anyways here is some updates.

ESPN's link to the Lobbster injury. Any chance he is going to transfer? I think it is a legitimate question right now.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3641620

From the Seattle Times, Lobbestael's injury, Wulff sticking to a plan (what plan?) and more injury news. It appears Chris Ivory and Devin Frischknecht will miss Saturday's game. Once again no accountability for the coaches in Wulff's quotes.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/cougars/2008259627_coug13.html

From the Seattle PI, the Cougars on pace to be the worst Pac-10 team of all time.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/cougars/383004_coug13.html

Last week I linked up the Jim Moore article about him taking his family down to the OSU game. Well this article is about the trip back up to Seattle after WSU get smashed by the Beavers.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/moore/382991_moore13.html

And lastly, this has nothing to do with WSU football but if you have some time to waste at work, check out College Football Tour Guy on Youtube or SI.com. He has toured all over the country to tailgates, interviewing drunks before football games. He has done every Pac-10 school except WSU actually. A good time waster if you are bored....Here is the Florida episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzpmotHaUQA&feature=user

GameDay Links

Seattle Times preview discusses how WSU plans to stop Jacquizz Rodgers.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/cougars/2008254176_coug11.html

Seattle PI's preview talks about the blowout loss to OSU in front of 15,000 fans at rain soaked Martin Stadium last year. Also, how Brandon Gibson says he needs to step his game up.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/cougars/382781_coug11.html

From The Oregonian, can the Cougs pull the upset?

http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindbeaversbeat/2008/10/wazzu_coach_says_slithery_quiz.html

Also from The Oregonian, Mike Riley knows exactly what Paul Wulff is going through right now.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindbeaversbeat/2008/10/osus_riley_can_empathize_with.html

From Espn.com, the final injury report for the Pac-10. Looks like WSU will be without Dwight Tardy and Chris Ivory at RB while OSU may be without Sammie Stroughter who has a hip injury.

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/pac10/0-3-61/Final-Pac-10-injury-report.html

Weekend Picks

Last weekend seemed to prove that the Pac-10 is a three team race between USC, Cal and Arizona. Meanwhile the rest of the teams are trying to work their way up to that sixth win and become bowl eligible. Unfortunately for fans in Washington, we are just hoping for our teams to win 1 Pac-10 game.

Last Week: 4-1
Season Total: 31-9

Arizona State at No.8 USC: ASU has really taken a fall this year and now that Rudy Carpenter is not playing this one won't even be close. Danny Sullivan will take over signal calling duties against a Trojan defense who is going to blitz all day long. USC will be busy watching the scoreboard and rooting for Texas, OK State and Florida to win and get themselves back into the top 5. Expect a big day from the USC running game as QB Mark Sanchez is a little banged up too. Pick: USC

Arizona at Stanford: Arizona sits at 4-1 and is the talk of the Pac-10 right now. The surprising thing is they still haven't really played a good team and somehow lost to New Mexico. This could easily be a trap game for the Wildcats as games with Cal and USC are coming. However, Stanford as good as they have looked at times just hasn't played that well against teams that are better than them. Willie Tuitama and his 13 TD passes will make the difference in this one. After this one Arizona will be one game away from being bowl eligible. Hard to believe isn't it?
Pick: Arizona

UCLA at Oregon: A down year for both teams but OU is still fighting for a bowl game. After getting spanked by USC last Saturday the Ducks should be fired up for this one at home. Slick Rick and Mike Belloti don't really like each other, so if OU has the chance I imagine they will run up the score. UCLA could only manage 28 points at home against the WSU defense, so expect them to score somewhere in the 0-13 range against Oregon. Pick: Oregon

WSU at Oregon State: I will probably be hearing Jacquizz Rogers in my sleep tonight as he torches WSU for 200 rushing yards. Once again I am looking for improved play from Ocho Rojo and the offensive line. They have to give the RS Freshman some time to throw. I will also be looking for some shakeups in the offensive play calling. We have to start using our TE's and spread the defense out a little bit. Overall though I expect a similar game to last week but with a little bigger score. Beavs 44 Cougs 17.

Make Some Money Week 7

Last weekend was another big winner, $62.00. Now that the teams are starting to shape up the betting is getting a little easier. This week is a huge one for college football and we will go for two wins in a row and hopefully earn some big bucks. As always, 3 games parlayed with $10.00. Lines from Sprortsbook.com. $10.00 to win $60.00.

Last Week: +$62.00
Season Total: +$83.00

No.5 Texas vrs No.1 Oklahoma -7 Pick: Oklahoma to cover.

No. 17 Oklahoma State at No.3 Missouri -14 Pick: Ok State with the points.

No.4 LSU at No.11 Florida -6 Pick: LSU with the points.

Scoring Streak In Jeopardy

Unless you are a poster on Cougfan.com you may not know that WSU has the second longest consecutive game scoring streak in the nation. We trail only Michigan in this stat. The Cougs haven't been shut out since September 19th, 1984 against Ohio State. This year's team may be at risk to end this feat, especially with USC looming in two Saturday's.

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20081009/SPORTS/710099909/1093/SPORTS06

Ted Miller of ESPN.com has some quick hits about the struggles with the football team.

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/pac10/0-3-56/Washington-State-looking-for-a-bright-spot.html

A pretty good story on WSU's star Brandon Gibson from The Oregonian. He has been a bright spot in an otherwise dark season.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/pac10/2008/10/wsu_receiver_takes_the_hard_ro.html

With some good news, Alex Brink has signed with the Houston Texans practice squad. Congrats to him.

http://www.battleredblog.com/

More Roberts News

Peter Roberts has dominated the news once again today as he has gone from fraternity brother to Scout team QB. He now has the job of being Lyle Moevao, the OSU QB and preparing the WSU defense for Saturday.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/1043/story/502465.html

Similar story from the Seattle Times. Looks like Chris Ivory is going to miss the OSU game as well.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/cougars/2008238526_coug08.html

From ESPN's Bottom 10, the Cougs roll in at #3 this week behind UW at #2. The Robb Akey coached Vandals show up at #4 on the list.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?page=bottom10086

And lastly, Jim Moore has an article about having to make the trip to OSU and watch perhaps the worst Cougar team of all time.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/moore/382380_moore09.html

Phase 3 Is A Go

The 40 million dollar upgrade to Martin Stadium is expected to start in January of 09 and will feature luxuries never seen before in Pullman. 16-20 luxury suites, 31 to 35 loge boxes and 1200 club seats will fill out Martin Stadium, hopefully making it a serviceable Pac-10 venue.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/cougars/382041_coug07.html

Another story about the upgrades and a quick look at Oregon State.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/story/501466.html

And a story from Cougfan.com on the new scout team QB, Peter Roberts from Woodinville. He sure is getting his couple days of fame before he has to start taking a beating on a daily basis.

http://washingtonstate.scout.com/2/798745.html

More notes on Peter Roberts from the Spokesman Review.

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/sportslink/archive/?postID=8451#more

That is all for now. Tomorrow evening I will break down the Beavs and discuss the key points that could lead to a Cougar victory.

New Week, Same Story

With the Cougars being 1-5 and not being competitive in any game against a D1 opponent, it is hard to find articles that are anything but negative these days. You have to take the hard times with the good times though. So here are a few articles.

An article from the Seattle PI regarding the struggles of the WSU offense. They managed just 177 yards and 3 points in Saturday's loss.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/cougars/381899_coug06.html

Percy Allen of the Seattle Times chimes in on the QB tryouts and how the Cougars will continue to huddle up on the offensive side of the ball.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/cougars/2008231167_coug06.html

From the Oregonian, OSU knows all too well what it is like during tough times. Will they be looking past WSU while being favored by 30 points? From the article, "When I mentioned to coach Riley that it must make him nervous to be an overwhelming favorite in a conference game, he nodded. "It's the Pac-10,'' said Riley, "and you simply cannot take ANYTHING for granted.''

http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindbeaversbeat/2008/10/does_being_favored_by_30_point.html

That Kind Of Season

The Cougs looked improved on Saturday night, but it was still not enough to be competitive late in the game. The defense managed to only give up 28 points but they got no help from the offense who only scored a field goal in the game. There were moments when the offense looked good but they couldn't put it all together for a whole drive. I think Chris Ivory being hurt really killed the WSU running game last night. There seems to be two running plays for Dwight Tardy, off tackle and the sweep which has not worked all year long. He is simply not fast enough to get around the outside. Ivory adds a different element with his bruising style of play.

Overall the Cougar defense looked better, but that could have something to do with UCLA's horrible offense. Hopefully it will give them a bit of confidence heading into the OSU game next weekend. The offense still needs a lot of work. We don't seem to be taking any shots whatsoever. Very conservative play calling which may have something to do with our O-line's inability to block. However, we need to spread defenses out a bit and get our WR's and TE's some space to work with. Baby steps I guess...

Weekend Picks

Well I took a shot last week and picked UW to beat Stanford but they let me down. I guess that is a good thing for us Coug fans considering they are still winless and their QB is down with a broken thumb. This should be a week where the Pac-10 standings start to take shape from top to botton. USC and OU may be battling for the top spot while WSU and UCLA may be battling for the the bottom spot. The rest of the Pac is kind of up for grabs right now.

Last Week: 3-2
Season Total: 27-8

Stanford at Notre Dame: Stanford is continuing to look better and better as the weeks go on. This game is critical to them as far as bowl chances go. If they can beat Notre Dame they will have 4 wins with games still to play against UCLA, WSU and Arizona. The Cardinal should be able to win two of those and make themselves bowl eligible. Meanwhile, Notre Dame is sitting at 3-1 and looking to rebound after last year's disaster. I have watched a couple of their games so far and I have not been impressed at all by the Irish or their Big-10 opponents. Jimmy Clausen is very inconsistent throwing the ball and they don't have much of a running game. I think Stanford will want this win more. Pick: Stanford

Arizona State at California: Both of these teams had high expectations this season, but after bad losses they have both fallen out of the rankings. A win for either of these teams could get them back into the Top-25 next week. Jahvid Best and his 7.1 yards per carry are out due to injury so Cal will turn to Shane Vereen, who is actually averaging 8 yards per carry himself. Not too bad of trade off. ASU is coming off a two game losing streak and is facing a pivotal three game stretch at Cal, at USC and then home against Oregon. The Sun Devil's lack of a running game will hurt them in this one and probably kill their confidence for the season. Pick: California

Washington at Arizona: Arizona is going bowling this year. UW is 0'fer and their god of a player has a broken thumb. Expect Arizona to be fired up for this one as they can make a statement that they are a challenger in the Pac-10 this year. Pick: Arizona

No. 23 Oregon at No. 9 USC: I feel bad for the Ducks. Their QB situation didn't really effect them against a terrible WSU team, but it will kill them against a fired up USC team. USC hasn't lost back to back games since 2001 I believe. Don't expect it to happen this year either. Duck fans better hope they don't have another QB get hurt in this one. Pick: USC, big.

WSU at UCLA: Ocho Rojo will make his first road start in the Rose Bowl Saturday. UCLA has been bi-polar this year. They beat Tennessee, got crushed by BYU and then looked improved in a loss against Fresno State. The Bruins offense has been terrible. They haven't had a 100 yard rusher in a game all season. Good thing for them, WSU can't stop anything resembling a run. Khalil Bell and Derrick Coleman are both expecting to go off on Saturday. I think the Cougars will looked a bit improved in this one but I don't see them winning. Let's just hope we are within 4 touchdowns when this one is over. Pick: UCLA

Make Some Money Week 6

Last week didn't go quite as planned. The only game I got right was Alabama vrs Georgia. However, I am still up on the year so we will give it another shot this week. As always, 3 games parlayed with $10.00. Lines are from Sportsbook.com. $10.00 to win $62.00.

Last Week: -$10.00
Season Total: +$21.00

Penn State -13.5 at Purdue Pick: Penn State to cover.

Uconn at North Carolina -7.5 Pick: North Carolina to cover.

Florida State at Miami Over/Under 42 Pick: The Over

Weekend Pick

Since Oregon State plays on Thursday night again I wanted to get the first pick out of the way. The rest will be up later tonight or tomorrow.

Oregon State at No.15 Utah: Well the Beavs did it again. They shocked the world while easily taking it to USC last Thursday. This week they play an undefeated Utah team who is slowly creeping up the rankings. Utah is led by QB Brian Johnson who has completed nearly 70% of his passes this year for 1129 yards and 8 TD's. Can Oregon State pull the upset again? I don't see it happening. Utah desperately needs this game to continue moving up the rankings and the Beavs will have trouble getting up two weeks in a row. The MWC continues its dominance over the Pac-10. Pick: Utah

Mid-Week Links

From the Everett Herald. Are the Cougs the worst of the worst?

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20081001/SPORTS/710019741/1093/SPORTS06

From the Seattle Times. Despite Alfonso Jackson's quotes last week, Paul Wulff said the team did not come out flat. "I don't think we were flat," Wulff said. "That's not accurate. They were ready and emotionally into it. I wouldn't use that as an excuse — it's just not the case." There is also more information about the nutrition crisis in Pullman.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/cougars/2008217718_coug01.html

And one more thing from the Seattle Times article. Wulff has announced to WSU students that he is holding open tryouts for a scout team QB. Yes you read that correctly.

The News Tribune writeup on the Cougars defensive woes. Seems to be a hot topic these days.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/story/496399.html

Basketball Is Almost Here

So I have been looking for good news regarding WSU Football, but there is none out there right now. The Cougs are simply that bad. Paul Wulff has even gone on to blame the players calorie intake and conditioning as a result for the poor play. I don't know about others but as I have stated on here before, I am getting very tired of Paul Wulff throwing his players under the bus while not holding himself or his staff accountable for anything. I have not seen one quote this year that says, "we as a staff need to improve" or "us coaches need to look at the tape and look at some of our play calls and schemes" or "us coaches are on a learning curve too." We are constantly being bombarded with how the depth is bad, the last staff left everything in shambles, these players lack talent, they lack any type of work ethic and now their calorie intake is bad.

Well Coach you came to WSU in December. So let's say you got the players on your eating and conditioning program in January. That gave you eight months until August to get these players where you felt they should be physically. Eight months is a pretty long time for young athletes who are already in good condition, to get into even better shape. It also gave you eight months to get them going into your offensive and defensive systems. We look completely lost on both sides of the ball. We sure as hell don't run a spread offense, and I'm not even sure what our defensive philosophy is except that players are switching positions every week.

I am not looking for WSU to go to a bowl game this year. I predicted a 4-9 record actually. But this team has fallen so far from last year that I think a lot of people are starting to wonder if Paul Wulff was the right man for this job. He and his staff lacked major college coaching experience and it is showing in a bad way right now. All that I am asking for, and I think a lot of the posters of Cougfan are asking is for is some accountability for our coaching staff. It Wulff continues to thrash his players week after week he will lose not only their faith, but the faith of Cougar fans as well.