WSU puts the pads on for first time
COUGARS
There's other, non Tony Bennett news coming out of Washington State this week – OK, I would understand if your response were "really?" – and it has to do with football. The Cougars hit the practice field Monday with their pads on, then went out and hit each other. All reports were they did it with some fury. At least they did in the parts I was able to observe. Read on for more.
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• We pulled ourselves away from running down Tony Bennett news long enough yesterday afternoon to watch at least part of the thud – they don't hit to the ground – scrimmage that ended practice. We then talked with Paul Wulff, whose quotes I'll share here. The Cougars are off today, and will hit again Wednesday, have a lighter practice Thursday and go again on Saturday.
• Wulff on Tony Bennett leaving: "Obviously, when you lose someone within your family for another opportunity, it's always sad to see that occur. No question, he will be missed. These things happen in all our businesses right now. But if he felt it was something good for him and his family, then congratulations to him."
• The practice itself: "I thought practice went pretty good. We've got a lot of guys not practicing, but for the guys who were out here, we did a great job. We can take some good things from practice today and put it toward our next one."
• We then asked what those good things were: "The defensive line is definitely showing some signs of physical strength. They are very improved. ... Offensively, we completed some balls and we did some things that we didn't necessarily do all the time in the past. The running back situation is going to have great competition, so every day those guys are going to have to compete."
He also mentioned he wished it was warmer – it is spring practice after all – and that they took it easier Monday with the hitting because it was the first day in pads.
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• That's it for this afternoon. Our spring coverage plans will be a little up in the air until a new basketball coach is hired, but we know how important football is to so many of you, so we won't abandon it. We'll be back. Until then …
