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After another review, football isn’t as fun anymore

Posted by Vince

Oct. 18, 2009 6:49 a.m. • 11 comments

COUGARS

Though there isn’t a drop of WSU news available, that doesn’t mean we shirk our responsibilities. Nope. We’ve got your Sunday morning post right here pal. The highlight of Saturday’s football watching? All the great reversals by the instant replay officials. Wow, were they exciting. (If you haven’t realized it yet, I’m being sarcastic.) Made my day. Really adds to the enjoyment – and maybe a second or two to the end of the game. … OK, that’s enough. On to the replays of Saturday’s Pac-10 games. Read on.

••••••••••

• Washington State: Nothing much to report, other than the basketball team went through another practice, which we watched a bit of before heading to the TV remote. Fundamentals were the order of the day. But as for football, the only news is Cougfan is reporting another verbal commit, a 6-foot-3 wide receiver from California. The story costs money, so we won’t be sending you there. But, with all the commits, there is only another 8 to 10 spots open on the recruiting board for WSU. … Also, Phil Steele’s mid-season all-Pac-10 team was announced this week. Reid Forrest was named first-team punter, center Kenny Alfred was named to the second team and freshman defensive end Travis Long and safety Chima Nwachukwu were both on the third team.

• Around the Pac-10: ESPN.com’s Ted Miller passes out his helmet stickers, mainly to young quarterbacks. … Washington: If you stuck with the Husky game until the end, you saw former Idaho coach Nick Holt scream at the FSN cameraman for taping Holt’s conversation with a player after ASU game-winning touchdown. Yep, that’s why UW got beat. Cameras. … Here’s the Times’ story from Bob Condotta. Let me tell you from personal experience, it’s no fun to be writing a game story over and over again at 10:30 at night. … Buster Sports’ Nick Daschel covers the final 77 seconds. … Oregon State: Bye week, no football story. … Oregon: A day in the life of football coach – and already a legend in some eyes – Chip Kelly. … Cal: The game I really wanted to watch was the Bears’ in Pasadena. Cal is next up for the Cougars and UCLA is not too far down the road. After three hours I’m stuck with the impression next Saturday’s game in Berkeley could be awfully interesting. The Bears have rediscovered their offense, which will test WSU’s ball-hawking defense. However, despite his success Saturday, quarterback Kevin Riley still seems to be the Bears’ Achilles’ heel. … Stanford: For all the talk of the Pac-10’s improved defenses, this game was a throwback to the runaway offenses of years past. … USC: Got to love this rivalry. Over the years – there have been a lot of them, trust me – some of the best game-ending moments have come in these games. This one was no different. …UCLA: The Bruins’ defense was one of the best in the conference on Friday. This morning, it is trying to recover from the Cal-inflicted burns. … Arizona State: Yes, Chris McGaha was that open. … Arizona: Last week, a heartbreaking defeat. This week, an exhilarating victory.

•••

• That’s it for this morning. The Cougar football team gets back to practice this evening after a few days off. The most interesting thing this week? Seeing how many players are back at practice and feeling better. We’ll be back Monday with more. Until then …

11 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

rufus on October 18 at 7:30 a.m.
uw’s loss at ASU … made up for the win against UA. lets hope we can get behind the husky secondary… as wsu seems to be able to do to win the apple cup. alos wonder how nick holt will behave if uw contiues to lose ? …
avboden on October 18 at 10:25 a.m.
LOVED Dachel’s article.

“Instead, Washington tried to run the ball out of a two-minute offense Let’s run the ball, but hurry it up. It was as if the UW coaching staff had lost their mind. Were the coaches’ kids on the headphones making the decisions?

The result was predictable. Washington gave ASU just enough time to take one shot at the end zone. *Even Washington State wouldn’t have screwed this one up*.”

Sark’s first big mistake, and it cost them the game.
85coug on October 18 at 12:38 p.m.
What a great weekend. The ending of the UW/ASU game made my entire week!
HannahO on October 18 at 1:55 p.m.
Not a Coug fan, not a Husky fan, but really? It’s pathetic that things are so bad in Coug nation that you think that the UW coaching staff has lost their mind. If I’m a Coug fan, I’d be wishing I had a coaching staff as passionate and with as much success in the first year turning around a program that was in a tail spin. Take the bye week off, enjoy the Vandals success, maybe spread a little love to the Eastern Eagles — learn to find some pleasure in other teams’ sucesses (no I realize that wouldn’t include your arch rival) cause even if UW doesn’t win another game this season, they’ve had a better showing and seem to be on an up swing that WSU’s seemingly not a part of …
Leo_Z on October 18 at 5:10 p.m.
Someone put dirt in your cheerios? If you’re not a coug fan, read a different blog.
Coug4Ever on October 18 at 7:13 p.m.
Hannah, you’re funny. First of all, I think most everybody that posts here is happy for the Vandal’s success. We all remember Rob Ackey fondly, and wish him well. I wonder what school he’ll be coaching at next season, someplace good I hope. I’m really disappointed with the Vandal faithful, only 12,000 for a game of that magnitude? There wasn’t even any snow to stop folks from making the drive. Even as bad as we all knew the Cougs would be drew far more than that for a meaningless game against Hawaii over in Seattle. Come on Vandal fans, you want a new stadium, fill up the old one! This is the first time you’ve been good in a decade, and maybe just a flash in the pan depending on Ackey’s future, so enjoy it!

I think we also hope for the best for the Eagles, their success has never been a detriment to our program.

The Fuskies are another matter. We get into recruiting, funding and verbal wars with the boys who play at the mistake by the lake, so don’t mind us if we enjoy their slips and falls. We rooted against the Fuskies even when we were having great success and they were struggling. Yeah, it’s a pretty dry season for the Cougs, next year won’t be a lot better, so we take our guilty football pleasures where we can. We’ll bet back to respectability in a couple of years. But even then, we’ll still root against the Dawgs.
kaddy on October 18 at 7:50 p.m.
HannahO - I don’t get it.

You chastised students for running onto the field after the SMU win. Then you say you had a soft spot for WSU football until last year - Wulff’s first. Now you talk up the uw’s coaching staff with this post.

Sounds like you have an axe to grind with Paul Wulff and his staff. Am I on the mark?
Skov1 on October 18 at 9:04 p.m.
Hannah,
Please go away.
Thanks.
TommyCoug on October 19 at 2:08 p.m.
Nick Holt, has and always will be…no matter what he coaches or which school he coaches at…A “HORSES AS-“…it’s a given, HannahO!
Grady on October 19 at 6:29 p.m.
Sorry, Vince, I’ll take accuracy over human error any day, and while replay isn’t perfect, it helps. I could care less about the extra time.

And, had instant replay existed in 1998, there’d still be three seconds and a final play left in the Rose Bowl. Like there should have been.

Not that I’m bitter or anything.
HannahO on October 19 at 10:37 p.m.
Sorry Skov, not going anywhere! And, Leo, last I checked, you don’t have to be a fan to read a blog, have an opinion or express it. I read husky blog, Idaho blog, eagle blog and coug blog, WA Preps blog (I’m 100% VA disabled so forgive me for having the time to look in on your fiefdom). Most of the time peeking in is all I do cause it’s fun and I am a sports fan. Once in a while, I have an opinion and express it. Sometimes people agree, sometimes not and that’s OK, but this is the first blog that someone’s told me to go away. Interesting … most of the time fans just tolerate one another. Why so hateful?