WSU focused at Wednesday’s practice
COUGARS
Practice is over for Wednesday afternoon. Which means just two more practices, probably neither in full pads, before the opener Saturday vs. Idaho State. We have a few things from practice and some other, more personal, thoughts, so read on.
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• What should we pass along? I guess we can tell you Travis Long practiced more today, participating in more live team sessions and making it pretty clear he'll be on the field Saturday. Other than that, there was really no change in any of the personnel, with the positions that were up in the air, like the right cornerback spot between Daniel Simmons and Nolan Washington – Washington seemed to be full-go – still up in the air. Asked afterward about it, coach Paul Wulff said he hasn't made up his mind about the starter at that spot, but he said Simmons and Washington and possibly others all scheduled to play. ... One guy who seems to be catching the coaches' eyes is walk-on freshman safety Jordan Simone. Gino's little brother was already ticketed to play on special teams, but he's been seeing more action with the twos on defense each day. Wulff said he comes to play every day, focused on the task at hand and works hard, all of which is earning him more time. ... The ones actually matched up with the ones today for about 10 minutes, mainly going over situations and I would have to say the success rate was split pretty even. For every big play by the defense – Damante Horton stealing what looked to be a touchdown pass away from Jared Karstetter for example – there was a big play by the offense – like Marcus Mason picking up a Chester Sua blitz, allowing a long passing gain. Really, no one gained an advantage, so I guess that means both sides are ready. ... We have one story to pass along. Ours. The one we did for tomorrow's S-R on three redshirt freshmen who expected to be stars last year. Saturday's game can't come fast enough. ... Now the personal news. Kim had a doctor's appointment today and texted this to me afterward (I was at practice). "Just got out of the dr office. No more cancer. No chemotherapy needed." That's what I call a real win. By the way, thanks for all the support here. It did make her feel better.
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• That's all we have for tonight. We'll be back in the morning with links to our football section and the three stories we had in it. Until then ...
