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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Rain falls on WSU rookies


COUGARS

The morning session, featuring mostly freshmen and sophomores, is over. As Paul Wulff said, it was mostly a teaching session, giving the guys further down the depth chart a chance to be seen getting multiple reps, because they may be needed at some point this season. Read on for more.
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• Yes, Wulff was out there. And yes, it rained. And no, there was not a correlation. The steady drizzle – and true rain for a while – couldn't dampen Wulff's enthusiasm for having finished his three-day NCAA punishment. He admitted it was harder than he thought it would be, but he's glad it's over and said it won't happen again. ... He said he didn't miss much because he watched a lot of tape from practice. That, combined with input from the assistant coaches, kept him up-to-date. ... What he got to see this morning were a lot of young guys running around trying with all their energy to get everything right. Who stood out? Quarterback Jeff Tuel threw well, though his fastball, combined with the rain-caused slickness, resulted in a lot of drops. ... Running back Carl Winston just may be a Steve Broussard clone – OK, that's too much pressure to put on a freshman, but he's 5-foot-8, weighs almost 200 pounds and looks for contact. Though he did juke Andre Barrington once in a hole and left the linebacker grabbing nothing but air. ... Jordan Pu'u Robinson was tough to handle coming off the edge from left end, but he had to be reminded more than once to sprint to the ball. ... And Esa Johnwell (we'll have more on him later today) made a spectacular diving catch to end practice. He's the step brother of former Cougars Husain and Hamza Abdullah. ... There are two true freshmen who will be practicing with the veterans this afternoon, receiver Gino Simone and defensive end Travis Long. ... Eric Block was back at practice after missing two days due to a death in the family.

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• That's it for now. We'll be back later this afternoon with our story and the summary from the afternoon practice. Until then …



Vince Grippi
Vince Grippi is a freelance local sports blogger for spokesman.com. He also contributes to the SportsLink Blog.

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