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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Thursday Night Lights

While the Cougars have adjusted their practice schedule this week to accommodate next week's Thursday night game, Washington State still held its weekly Thursday Night Football practice at the regular time. The event, which follows a normal practice, is a full-contact scrimmage for the team's younger players.

Linebacker Nathan Hundeby was the night's most impressive player. The freshman from Spokane had seven tackles to go with an interception of Tyler Bruggman and a sack of Connor Ennis. It was a rough day for Bruggman, who finished the day 7-of-14 with two interceptions. The first-year player out of Arizona did have a touchdown pass to Jamal Morrow, but most of the work was done by the freshman running back.

After practice we spoke with offensive line coach Clay McGuire who gave us the lowdown on the practice from a coach's perspective.

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Offensive line coach Clay McGuire

(How was practice?)

Pretty good considering we just had four days off, or however many we had, it goes two ways, either really good or really bad if they're rusty.

(Were the players fresh?)

Should be. It's been eight week straight in the season and then they get four days off, they should be fresher.

(Do the coaches get any time off?)

It just depends, it's happened different ways. Just depends on the time of year and where your program is at. We went out and did some recruiting this week and then got back here and we're trying to get ready for Arizona State, trying to catch some extra days on them.

(Is Bruggman hitting a "wall"?)

You can't really compare. Sometimes he's has good receiver play, sometimes not. There are so many factors that go into it. Sometimes it's not all him, sometimes it is all him. It's never as good as it looks, it's never as bad as it looks.

(How did the offensive line look?)

It was better this week than last week. I thought our tackles -- Ivan McLennan beat our tackles a couple times -- other than that I thought we were OK, we did do some good stuff. We're starting to single out a group to gel and compete next year.

 

 



Jacob Thorpe
Jacob Thorpe joined The Spokesman-Review in 2013. He currently is a reporter for the Sports Desk covering Washington State University athletics.

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