COUGARS

Washington State is off the practice field and has already eaten dinner, so we better get to our practice notes. Read on for those. Earlier today, we summarized Paul Wulff's press conferences, which you can read here. You can also watch his local one here.
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• The one element worked on above all others? Tackling. Open field tackling to be precise. Just like the Cougars will have to do this Saturday in Dallas. After watching the scout team offense against the WSU defense, it's obvious that the Cougars expect SMU to get guys isolated in space. It's not a vertical attack, but guys are running hard across the field. ... The offensive line is still in flux, with Wade Jacobson running with the ones at left guard this week, backed up Tyson Pencer. Andrew Roxas moved over to the right side to backup B.J. Guerra. ... Speaking of Guerra, he and Brandon Rankin and a memorable battle in a pass-rush drill. Guerra won the first chapter, locking up Rankin to the whistle. The next snap Rankin exploded into Guerra, knocked him off balance and touched the stand-in QB. ... Rankin also had the best line after Bernard Wolfgramm bull rushed a poor offensive lineman onto his back, calling Wolfgramm "The Bulldozer." ... Elsewhere, Mike Ledgerwood was back, albeit in a yellow practice jersey. Talking before practice he was complaining about having to wear yellow (sort of like the football equivalent of the Scarlett Letter) and a new support off his shoulder pads to keep his head from snapping back. ... Kristoff Williams was going full speed at wide receiver but seemed a little rusty. ... One injury of note. Backup offensive lineman Sebastian Valenzuela was guided to the locker room after banging his head. As he's coming off a concussion recently, that's not good news. ... Finally, the place was swarming with scouts again. There must be some talent to watch.

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• That's all for now. We'll be back as usual in the morning when we'll link our Pac-10 notebook and all the other stories we find. Until then ...

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