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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Physical play returns to WSU practice


COUGARS

The pads were on today, at least the shoulder pads, so Washington State did a bit of hitting at practice. Not a lot, but enough to know the Cougars are ready for Saturday's game at Arizona State. Read on.
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• You know, it isn't easy trying to watch the World Series and write this post, so it may just be short. We'll start with the most exciting thing that happened at practice today. ... The two starting groups were going after it a bit in a 2-minute drill and the defense was getting the better of it. On fourth down, Kevin Kooyman and Travis Long both got good penetration and "sacked" Jeff Tuel by touching the sophomore quarterback. For some reason Carl Winston and Travis Long were jawing when Tuel walked up behind Long and bumped the defensive end. Long turned and shoved Tuel to the ground. Wade Jacobson jumped in and pushed Long to the turf. Boom, others jumped in with cooler heads and it was over. Asked about it after practice, Paul Wulff was not at all upset about the display of temper, but he did caution that players have to be smart because he doesn't want anybody hurt. If someone had gotten injured in this shoving match, it would have been a freak, because the contact was not that intense. But it's obvious the Cougars are ready to play again, despite having played games for seven consecutive weeks. ... There were a couple of minor injuries today, one to walk-on Justin Amundsen, who banged a leg on a kickoff return. After being helped off the field, Amundsen was worked on and was able to return to practice. ... Winston left practice with ice on his left hamstring and Chima Nwachukwu, who returned to practice for the first time in a few weeks, didn't finish, taking off his shoulder pads and heading to the locker room. He returned in shorts and a T-shirt. ... Speaking of Nwachukwu, he's a finalist for the ARA Sportsmanship Award, which Alex Brink won in 2007. ... Jared Karstetter missed practice today suffering from an eye problem. He's expected back. ... We have a short story for tomorrow on the fund-raising initiative launched last year, 10/10/10. It didn't reach its goal. We also have our Pac-10 picks.

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• That's all for tonight. We'll be back in the morning with our usual posts. Until then ...



Vince Grippi
Vince Grippi is a freelance local sports blogger for spokesman.com. He also contributes to the SportsLink Blog.

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