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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Same old practice, but new notes

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FROM PULLMAN -- Thursday practices are downright routine around here -- especially with WSU preparing for its 11th game of the season -- so there really isn't much to report from a news standpoint. But since we weren't able to pass along anything from our conversation with offensive line coach Clay McGuire last night -- basketball duties and all -- you can read it here now.

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(On Joe Dahl, Eduardo Middleton and Denzell Dotson) "They’re all tough kids. Joe plays with a lot of confidence. He’s never rattled. He’s real just kind of never up and never down. Just calm and collected out there. It’s a shame he can’t paly this year. There’s not telling, he might even be starting for us, so you’ve got a guy that definitely can give you quality reps over on scout team. I wish we had him right now."

(More on Dahl) "I think if we had him right now he’d be competing for a starting job right now. With another offseason and bulking up a little bit more I really see him pushing to get in that starting lineup in the spring."

(On Dotson traveling) "There was some talk about maybe playing him but it would probably be an emergency type situation right now."

(On the UCLA game) "It’s one of those deals, we gave up five sacks in the first half and six total. Pretty much everything bad happened in the second quarter. It’s kind of the same thing as Stanford – once we settled down and played, we played fine. … We came out and ran the ball for about five yards a carry in the second half and threw for 300 yards. … That’s just been our problem this whole year, we’ve come out and played well in spurts but we’ve played really bad in spurts too. It’s just eliminating those mistakes. Right now our mistakes turn into big plays for the defense."

(How much does running the ball help?) "A lot. We came out and ran it 20 times last week. It really slows down the defense. We’ve got in games where we thrown it almost every play so those guys pretty much can rush whenever they want and they know what’s coming. We try to help them as much as possible with therun game but part of that is on them. If we’re going out there and getting tackled for loss every play, there’s no need to run it, might as well try to throw it. We’ve done a little bit better job of that I think, screening them and running them a little bit more but they’ve done a little better up front too."

(On lack of O-line depth) "We’ve got six guys right now. We’ve got six guys and if something happens to one of those six we’re down to redshirts. That’s all we have. It’d be a shame to have to play a true freshman for one game or a game and a half or whatever but if that’s what it takes to win, that’s what you’ve got to do. But we’ve had some unfortunate incidents happen this year up front, but that’s part of it. We’ve got to do a good job going out recruiting and getting guys in here that can play and build depth. We came in here and thought we were going to have a decent depth and all of a sudden you look out there and you’re playing with six guys at the end of the season."



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