A Thursday night post from Pullman
COUGARS
Night is falling in Pullman, with a large, round moon slowly rising over the northeast stands of Martin Stadium. That was the backdrop for the Cougars practice this evening, as they continued their prep for Saturday night's Arizona State game. We have notes from that along with some items from Paul Wulff's press conference. Read on.
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• Before we get to football, center Richard Peters, the 6-foot-10, 250-pounder from Westwind Prep in Phoenix, signed his letter of intent and sent it in today. That's the fourth of WSU's four-man signing class from the early period. As Peters has said in the past, he's a center, not a big guy who likes to shoot it from 3-point range. ... Back to football and Wulff's presser. The most interesting comment from that was the coach saying Connor Halliday will play Saturday. There's no set time or series, but he will get on the field. Halliday will go into next season as the No. 1 backup, so the Cougars need to see him in action against Pac-12 competition. ... Wulff also said Marshall Lobbestael, who will start, needs to relax and get back to the player he was earlier in the season. ... I asked if Steve Gleason still had the option of speaking to the team this week and Wulff said nothing had been worked out. ... He also had a pretty funny remark about Dennis Erickson. It came after he gave a long answer concerning the Cougar family and how special it is. I followed that up with saying one of those members would be across the field Saturday and doesn't he want to kick Erickson's behind. Wulff said sure. After all, Dennis did only spend two years here. ... And that's about it. ... We talked a bit afterward about Wade Jacobson's recovery from back surgery. Wulff was saying with Jacobson coming back, the development of Matt Goetz at center and the solid play of John Fullington at guard, the Cougars were shaping up to have a strong offensive line next season. Dan Spitz, Wulff said, is starting to get what needs to be done and executing it during games. Plus Rico Forbes has shown flashes of brilliance in practice and has been helped immensely by being able to redshirt. At the beginning of this year, the Cougars had four senior starters up front. Through injury and the emergence of Goetz, that number is only two, which bodes well for next season. ... The only news from practice worth passing along is Andrew Roxas was out because he was sick. He's expected back for Saturday. ... Our story for tomorrow's S-R is about Bo Moos, Bill's son. You can read it here.
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• That's it for tonight. We'll be back in the morning and we may be blogging from an odd spot. Until then ...
