Practice report: a new receiver and a reemerging running back

After Tuesday’s practice Mike Leach spoke about Washington State’s newest football player, receiver Kyrin Priester.

He said that the 6-foot-1 receiver, who will enroll in the spring after transferring from Clemson, is big, physical and has good hands. Priester will sit out next season and then have three years to play at WSU.

Leach said that he knows several Clemson coaches and that Priester liked the idea of playing in WSU’s high-volume passing offense.

Our report from tonight’s practice is after the jump.

…

Theron West was slowed for about a month with some ailment but was good to go against USC on Saturday, picking up 41 rushing yards on nine carries and catching seven passes for another 91 yards.

“He was really good in the open field,” running backs coach Jim Mastro said. “We found ways to get him the ball one-on-one and with screens. Our game plan was good.  We’ve just got to execute it but our whole deal was to get those guys the ball in space, we added a couple wrinkles we hadn’t done before and they worked.”

Mastro said that part of West’s success can be attributed to his fresh legs after not playing much for a month and that speed was on display again during Tuesday’s practice. While the senior running back entered fall camp No. 1 on the depth chart following a breakout bowl game performance, he has played only sporadically this season.

West was a jet during kickoff return drills – he was moving at a different speed than everyone else on the field.

On one running play he had the entire defense running to his right as he approached the line of scrimmage, only to spin to his left and emerge with nothing in front of him but space.

The Cougars will need West to continue to play at a high level with Gerard Wicks out sick, and Jamal Morrow struggling to create offense on Saturday after carrying the load for most of the season.

“I think as the season’s went on, and he gets dinged up a bit he’s lost that little bit of edge he’s had, but he’s just got to stay healthy,” Mastro said. “We’re all about making guys miss in the open field and he’s got to do that better.”

Tuesday was Luke Falk’s first practice as the starting quarterback and he went through some struggles early when the Cougars went “good on good” for 7-on-7. He actually completed a pass to Vince Mayle that bounced off linebacker Darryl Monroe and on the next play he overthrew a pass that was intercepted by Darius Lemora.

The freshman QB quickly settled down, however, and fired off a pair of deep passes that hit Dom Williams and Mayle in stride for sizable gains. Falk had plenty of zip on his passes, and has a nice, high release.

Falk appeared particularly comfortable in the red zone drill, completing touchdown passes to Drew Loftus and Tyler Baker on consecutive plays.

The defensive regulars had a number of big plays on the day, particularly toward the end of the cold and windy practice. Cyrus Coen and Cooper Pelluer combined to sack Connor Ennis early on, and it foreshadowed a period toward the end of practice in which Paris Taylor intercepted Ennis on a pass to the sideline, Daquawn Brown came up with an interception following an Ivan McLennan sack and Taylor Taliulu added a pick of his own.

Kevin Griffin saw some time with the ones at cornerback, despite struggling to keep up with USC’s speedy receivers in Saturday’s game.

“Kevin got about 20-something plays … He had a tough day,” defensive coordinator Mike Breske said. “He had some one-on-one situations and same with Pat (Porter) but they’re growing up.”

Charleston White was back in action with the defense – we haven’t seen him since he was injured against Stanford.

Limited in practice were Calvin Green, Isaac Dotson, Mack Hopkins, Nate Derider, Nick Begg and River Cracraft, who did participate in some drills. I did not see Cole Madison, Gerard Wicks, Hercules Mata’afa or Tracy Clark at practice.