Cougars fail test again

PULLMAN – Paul Wulff sounded a little like a tutor whose student was doing well in class, acing all the assignments and pop quizzes, only to fail every big test.

In the college football world, those come every Saturday.

“We really felt that, for two weeks, I think the players felt it and the coaches definitely felt it, that we got better … in practice,” Wulff, Washington State’s first-year coach, said a day after the Cougars dropped to 1-8 with a 58-0 loss at Stanford. “It really showed. It didn’t show on Saturday. A little bit, but, ultimately, at the end it didn’t.

“That’s what really frustrated us coaches and the players is we really did make progress as a football team but it didn’t show up on Saturday. … The improvement we’re making, it has to show up on Saturday.”

But, in the pouring California rain, the Cougars couldn’t respond. And that was after what Wulff called a decent start.

“The first couple series, on both sides of the ball, (we) thought our kids actually played pretty good football,” he said. “What slowed us down both times was just some individual big mistakes.”

Those mistakes eventually sank WSU’s hope.

“Eventually, we have no trust or confidence right now and we can’t overcome mistakes,” he said. “It just flattens their play. Their belief of winning right now is not there. We spent a lot of time talking about that as a team (Sunday).”

It’s not as if this is new.

Wulff referred to the December 2007 news conference announcing his hiring, saying, “The No. 1 thought in my brain was the big question, how will this team handle adversity?”

The challenges hit in fall camp with an inordinate amount of injuries and have just grown through an 0-6 conference start. In the process, the Cougars have already set a Pac-10 record they would rather not have, most points allowed in a conference season (350).

Wulff used Dwight Tardy’s struggles Saturday as an example of the team’s problems in microcosm.

Tardy lost a fumble early in the second quarter. But Wulff said it wasn’t the turnover that kept the junior running back glued to the bench the remainder of the game. It’s how he handled it.

“He didn’t respond well,” Wulff said, adding “it affected his performance. He needs to bounce back after that, like our whole team does. We need to respond very well when bad things happen to us.”

And that’s all he’s hoping to see Saturday. Well that, and one other thing.

“What’s happening to us right now really doesn’t surprise me,” he said. “I mean, a little bit, because of the scoring, the amount we are losing by, but in terms of how we truly handle it, doesn’t necessarily surprise me.

“We’ve got to work ourselves through it. There are going to be brighter days ahead, I guarantee it.”

Though he would like it cloudy and cold Saturday when Arizona visits the Palouse.

“I hope we get some flaky weather this weekend,” he said. “Can we get some of that?”

When told the forecast is for showers and 55 degrees he expressed his disappointment, adding, “We need to drop it about 20 degrees.”

Notes

Wulff also explained why Andy Mattingly didn’t play defensive end the first half. “We’re still trying to get players to learn how to focus and how to prepare for games on Fridays and Saturdays,” he said. “And sometimes, when coaches see players who they don’t feel are very focused, you don’t feel like they are going to be able to perform because their mind isn’t right. We, as coaches, have to educate them on the importance of being focused so you can go out and play, perform. We’ve got a lot of education with this team still. And he would fit under that category for this particular game.” Wulff wouldn’t say Mattingly was guilty of any particular thing, but just some little things he wouldn’t mention to anyone outside the team. … On the injury front, Tyrone Justin’s sprained ankle was still swollen Sunday, but team trainers told Wulff the cornerback should be back at practice Tuesday. Guard B.J. Guerra, defensive end Kevin Kooyman and linebacker Myron Beck all suffered stingers Saturday, but all are listed as probable for the Arizona game.