Cougars shuffle offensive line

Editor’s note: This is the first of nine position outlooks on the 2008 Washington State Cougars. Today we examine the offensive line. Coming Wednesday: tight ends.

PULLMAN – In a season of transition, there was one area of the 2008 Cougars should have been immune.

The offensive line returned four players who started 47 games combined – only right guard Bobby Byrd graduated – along with a key reserve.

Everyone was set. Then fall practice started.

Dan Rowlands and Micah Hannam, who played 12 games last year side-by-side on the right side, switched spots, Hannam moving inside to guard and Rowlands, a fifth-year senior, playing tackle full-time for the first time in his career.

Five guys who expected to fit together like five fingers were now exposed to a new paradigm.

The switch was made to allow for a better fit in new coach Paul Wulff’s offensive scheme and Rowlands, for one, thinks it will be an improvement in the long run. But for the first week of camp, he’s been going through a sharp learning curve.

“You’re almost on an island with a guy, one-on-one, every single play,” said Rowlands of his new position. “I have a lot more respect for Micah now, because tackle’s a lot harder than I thought it was.”

The starters: For a group with so much experience, the Hannam-Rowlands switch isn’t the only new wrinkle.

Andrew Roxas, who played center for the first time in his life last season against UCLA, filling in for an injured Kenny Alfred, is taking Byrd’s spot at left guard, a new piece sandwiched between three-year starter Alfred and standout left tackle Vaughn Lesuma.

Then there is the new voice – or voices – they are listening to.

Harold Etheridge has replaced long-time line coach George Yarno and his tutelage is supplemented by the teachings of head coach Paul Wulff, a former Cougar tackle himself.

“It’s an intensity level,” Rowlands said of the biggest difference with Wulff around. “It’s also good because we can have our o-line coach and our head coach coach us. Coach Wulff is actually helping us out, because we need help at tackle for our pass sets, and that’s where he played.”

“We changed a lot of things,” Etheridge said, “terminology-wise, some things technique-wise, we had to break some habits they had, do it the way we do it. But they’ve bought in. They’re good kids.”

And the starting group is coming together.

“Playing the o-line, a lot of it has to do with continuity and trust,” Etheridge said. “When you play next to a guy you’re used to, you can trust him. Guys have been there, done that together.”

The reserves: One of the goals in camp was to build depth, but injuries to Joe Eppele (arthoscopic knee surgery) and Tyson Pencer (shoulder) along with Stephen Ayers’ late start due to illness has left WSU “tackle poor,” according to Etheridge.

“It’s going to be good once we get our guys back,” Etheridge said of the depth. “Plus we’re having some guys, with the kind of scheme we run, cross train, play more than one position.”

One plus for the Cougars is the offensive scheme. The speed of practice has allowed more repetitions for the reserves and “they’re getting conditioned to play at a high pace,” according to Etheridge.

“The toughest thing for them is they have to be locked in, mentally,” he said. “You can’t have mental fatigue or they may bust.”

The outlook: In the long run this group should be one of WSU’s strengths. But Rowlands, by his admission, is having a tough time adapting to his new position.

Still, the group is experienced enough together – a crucial element of offensive-line play – that Rowlands says their communication is almost non-verbal.

“We don’t have to make calls half the time anymore,” Rowlands explained. “Especially in this offense. We’re kind of getting it down. We know what each other’s thinking.”

And what’s Etheridge thinking?

“We have five of six guys right now I feel decent about,” he said. “We’re a long way from being where we want to be. Right now we’re just trying to work on the continuity of getting a good solid five going and seeing who is going to be six, seven, eight, nine.”