A GRIP ON SPORTS
The weather turned colder last night, reminding us once again winter is coming (and yes, I know it is still officially summer). I'm under the weather a bit, reminding me once again I'm getting older. Read on.
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• Thanks to my physical condition, I'm not going to write a lot of commentary this morning. Sorry if you look forward to it and you're welcome if you don't. Thanks to the fine doctors in this town, I'm on some miracle drugs and on the way to recovery, if getting back to my former out-of-shape, obese, addled-brained self can be termed recovery. Anyhow, the links are below.
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• Washington State: All of those Cougar fans who follow a tradition as old as football itself – to whit, the backup quarterback is their favorite player and can never understand why he doesn't play – will probably be getting their wish this Friday, when WSU travels to Las Vegas to play the Rebels. According to Christian Caple's blog post last night and his notebook in today's paper, starting quarterback Jeff Tuel was on a bike during practice yesterday, rehabilitating his knee injury. With Tuel riding, Connor Halliday (above) took the snaps with the No. 1 offense, which usually means he'll be starting. If that happens, does that force the backup quarterback lovers to become huge fans of Tuel or David Gilbertson? Just wondering. … Christian had more yesterday, of course, with video from the weekly press conference, a look at the depth chart and a blog post on kicker Andrew Furney. I have a confession to make. I got Furney in trouble earlier this season. When I visited practice in the preseason, Furney came over and we talked for about five minutes, a typical occurrence between the special teams guys and myself when I covered the team. We weren't just talking football as I often felt the players looked upon me as their grandfather surrogate. Anyways, special teams coach Eric Russell saw Furney talking with me and started yelling (a common occurrence I've been told), causing Furney to sprint away from me as quickly as his legs could carry him. If you want to know how fast, just watch the video of Furney running off the field after his 60-yard field goal. … Christian also has his morning blog post. … Elsewhere in the conference, Bud Withers takes another look at the weekend that was, ESPN.com's Kevin Gemmell examines the Pac-12 Heisman contenders and his tag-team partner Ted Miller looks at the weekend ahead. Also, Jon Wilner rates the conference teams, the Cougar offense is considered a big disappointment and, getting away from football for a moment, Oregon's baseball coach is working without a contract.
• EWU: Eastern football player Dalis Bruce pleaded innocent to two charges that have caused him to be suspended from the team. Jim Allen has the story. … Montana dropped a bit in the rankings after their road loss to Appalachian State. … Portland State is trying to figure out some things on defense.
• Idaho: San Jose State had a good week and earned high marks.
• Preps: The Chalich family (above) has been a fixture in Spokane for longer than most of us can remember. Thanks to this story, we can now know for how long.
• Gonzaga: St. Mary's Matthew Dellavedova reflects on his Olympic experience.
• Whitworth: The Pirates will have six new faces on this year's team. Jim Allen has the story.
• Seahawks: Though the Hawks were beaten and beat up in the desert, the injury report, while bad, isn't as bad as it could have been. … Without a credible release valve at tight end and under a seemingly unending stream of pressure, Russell Wilson (right) didn't shine like he did in the preseason. … We learned all that on Sunday.
• Mariners: The starting rotation will look different the rest of the season with one guy who really wants to be here and one guy who is really happy to be here.
• NBA: News broke late last night Christopher Hansen and the Seattle City Council reached an agreement on an arena deal. The question still remains, however, which NBA team, if any, will move to Seattle?
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• After another day of swallowing pills, I am of the hope tomorrow will be better. If it is, watch out. Because I have built up a lot of things to say. Until then …
9:41 a.m. Sep 11
“Furney came over and we talked for about five minutes … special teams coach Eric Russell saw Furney talking with me and started yelling (a common occurrence I’ve been told …”
Hmmmm! That, and several other comments in the press over the past few months, indicate that this coaching staff is not overly confident in itself (or they of themselves).
Comment: A team that is not ready to play or who reacts to game situations like the Cougs have done the past two weeks, is a team that has not been well prepared by its coaches.
Rosie and Levy used to drill the fundamentals into their players. Are the break downs at least in part due to poor fundamentals?
9:58 a.m. Sep 11
Great stuff Vince. Keep it up and get healthy.
#2 Mead volleyball takes on another ranked opponent tonight in their second match of the year, #7 U-Hi at U-Hi. Both teams are dealing with a key injury but am expecting high level volleyball that again has state implications.
10:40 a.m. Sep 11
Seems like the injury policy and media policy is something that’s a bone of contention for the media that’s covered this program. Those two items are brought up at almost every press conference and interview and are responded to the same, every time. Might be time to turn the page on that one, it ain’t changing.
It was good to read coach McGuire say that our lineman are in great shape, it’s just a focus issue. I think that shows faith in player, but still holds them accountable for improvement.
As far as the “Levy and Rosie” comment…I’m going to leave that one alone.
12:48 p.m. Sep 11
Ah yes, if only we could harken back to the glory days of the Coach Rosenbach era. Man, we were so fundamentally sound back then. Not to mentioned all those winning seasons and bowl games.
8:08 p.m. Sep 11
Patrick—I had to go back and check the record to see how the “fundamentals” paid off for Levy and Rosie in their first year at WSU. Your right, we put the wood to Portland State!
Oklahoma State L, 39-13
California L, 66-3
Baylor L, 45-17
Portland State W, 48-9
Oregon L, 63-14
UCLA L, 28-3
Oregon State L, 13-66
USC L, 69-0
Stanford L, 58-0
Arizona L, 59-28
Arizona State L, 31-0
Washington W, 16-13 (2ot)
Hawai’i Honolulu L, 24-10