A delayed WSU morning post
COUGARS
If you don't follow our Twitter account, you missed the reason why our morning posts have been appearing anywhere from a half-hour to an hour late recently. For some reason recently, Adobe Flash videos on a few newspapers' websites have slowed my high-class MacBook Pro to a crawl. I've tried just about every work-around I can think of, but nothing seems to help. So we're slogging through the delays and trying our darndest to get you your news before noon. We did it today, but not by much. Sorry. Read on.
••••••••••
• Washington State: I shared the Jeff Tuel news with you yesterday, talked with him for a while before practice, then watched practice. After that, we shared some thoughts, but it is my thoughts from yesterday I want to revisit. "(Tuel's) improving – he was better Tuesday than he was the Tuesday before, a lot better – but he's not 100 percent. If he's given the green light after his examination today and he is spot on in practice the rest of the week, could he start? Possibly. But the chances of those things happening aren't very high. Put your money on Lobbestael in the shotgun against the Cardinal." That's what I wrote yesterday morning. This morning I would say don't bet on either guy right now. I'm not sure which guy will take the first snap against Stanford. ... We had another story in today's paper, one that was planned for a while. It's about quite possibly the best player at his position on the Cougars, left tackle David Gonzales (OK, I just reread that sentence and it didn't come out right; what I meant to say is not that he's WSU's best left tackle – of course he is – but that's he may be their best offensive lineman). This story, which I think is pretty darn interesting if I may say so myself, may have been a bit overshadowed by the Tuel news. ... John Blanchette talked with former Cougar quarterback Ryan Leaf, who has a book out, an excerpt of which you can read on Cougfan. ... I put together my Pac-12 picks for the week. No, I don't think the Cougars will upset Stanford, but I do believe the game will be tighter than expected. ... More thoughts on Tuel from CougCenter. ... Jim Moore is headed over for homecoming, but before he gets here he has some more thoughts on the Huskies' national title year.
•••
• Around the Pac-12: ESPN.com's Ted Miller tells us what to look for this weekend and who is going to win. ... Jon Wilner's Pac-12 picks and some thoughts. ... Washington: It's hard to keep every good player in a state and Colorado didn't. ... Oregon State: The Beavers have become a passing team under new quarterback Sean Mannion, but they would run more if Malcolm Agnew were healthy. ... Oregon: With LaMichael James hurting, the Ducks will be bigger at running back. The also got bigger at receiver when Aaron Pflugrad transferred. Bigger, but maybe not better. ... California: Can the Bears compete with USC for the first time in a while? ... Stanford: The better the quarterback, the better the receivers. And tight ends. Or is it the other way? ... Colorado: Jon Embree is looking for advice to make his team better. ... Utah: With a game in the East, the Utes are looking to take care of the ball. ... USC: The receivers' numbers in this game could be huge. ... UCLA: The LA Times' Chris Dufresne and I are of the same generation – he actually married a neighbor of mine from when I was young – and see the booing of Kevin Prince last Saturday the same way. ... Arizona State: Cameron Marshall isn't 100 percent. Still, he's looking forward to playing Oregon. ... Arizona: The coaching change has cost the Wildcats a player.
•••
• That's it for now. We'll be back after practice as usual with notes and a summary of what Paul Wulff had to say at his press conference. Until then ...
