Cougars reflect on rout

PULLMAN – It was a quiet group of Washington State football players who gathered for treatment, meetings and practice Sunday.

The source of the silence was obvious. Having a 66-3 Pac-10-opening home defeat hung on your record is no reason to be singing and laughing.

“They’re quiet and, you know, no one’s happy,” coach Paul Wulff said during his weekly conference call Sunday, “but they’re OK right now.”

OK, maybe. But probably not unscarred. And the second-longest road trip of the season looms, with a date Saturday in Waco, Texas, with Baylor, a 51-6 winner over Northwestern State, a Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA) team, on Saturday.

Wulff watched the film of the Cal rout and it confirmed two things: There were numerous lost offensive opportunities early and the defense didn’t heed the warnings delivered by the coaching staff last week.

“A lot of opportunities there we just couldn’t capitalize on,” he said. “The players just needed to make the plays. We just didn’t get all 11 guys functioning as one, so that was a big, big issue for us.”

And the defense didn’t follow the dictum it heard over and over.

“We worked on their power play all week long,” Wulff said. “They’re good enough where, when one guy doesn’t fit in his gap, they’re fast enough to get out and go a long ways. That occurred to us a few times.”

In this, Wulff wasn’t happy that he was precognizant.

“I said that early in the week, if you’re not disciplined in the run game, they’re going to take it all the way for a touchdown,” Wulff said.

In his quest to fix the offense’s underlying problems (WSU has 16 points and 363 yards of total offense in two games), Wulff has thrown open the quarterback competition again.

Gary Rogers and Kevin Lopina will get looks early in the week, and a decision is possible by Tuesday or Wednesday.

In his two starts, Rogers is 22-of-45 for 160 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions.

Lopina, who played most of the second half against Cal, is 3-of-7 for 32 yards and one interception.

Wulff isn’t laying all the offensive woes on the quarterbacks’ doorstep. He once again pointed out that, besides Brandon Gibson, most of the receivers are getting extended playing time for the first time in their careers.

The defense also had a possession against Cal with three true freshmen playing together: linebackers Louis Bland and Mike Ledgerwood and safety Tyree Toomer.

“They’re out there running around,” Wulff said. “You know, they’ve still got their diapers on. We’re hoping to get their diapers off soon.”

There are no true freshmen at defensive tackle but if there were, they would probably be playing. Against the Bears, WSU started senior walk-on Adam Hineline and Matt Eichelberger. In reserve was … well, senior defensive end Matt Mullennix slid inside a couple times but, besides the half usual starter A’i Ahmu was eligible to play, that was it.

Sophomore Toby Turpin couldn’t play after surgery last week on his thumb, while junior college transfer Jessy Sanchez, who moved inside last week and was expected to see action, injured his shoulder and will have an MRI this week. If the injury is bad enough, he’ll redshirt.

“We sure need (Turpin) to step up and give us some depth,” Wulff said. “We started Adam Hineline and he’s a 5-11, 270-pound walk-on kid. … It’s tough for those kids to hold up all game. We need to get some guys in there to spell them.”

Notes

There was only one injury of note. Linebacker Cory Evans had a stinger in his shoulder and might be limited in practice this week, Wulff said. … Wulff said there could be other lineup changes besides the possible one at quarterback, but he wasn’t about to make changes just to make changes. “Our deal is we are here to coach this kids, to get them as good as they can possibly get,” he said. “We’re not here to just push kids aside. We want to get the kids out there who can help the team have the most success.” … Jeshua Anderson saw his first action since hernia surgery on Aug. 11, rejoining a receiving corps that prominently features two freshmen and two sophomores. “We’re youthful enough we should make some big strides,” Wulff said. “But we also have to be prepared that they will make some mistakes some times.”