From Pullman -- The Cougars had a 9 p.m. practice today to accomodate the players' finals schedules, and they will take tomorrow off. It was also the first bowl practice that the veteran players fully participated in, as WSU coaches devoted the first few to getting extra work for the underclassmen. The Cougars coaches said they practiced mostly 1's vs. 1's and will get into the game plan later in the week.

"It was really a chance for us to get some spring football in for the young guys," linebackers coach Ken Wilson said. "Obviously we work with them on Thursday nights but this has been a chance for us to get them in position meetings and go over the base stuff and watch it on film, watch them get extended reps and see what we got out there."

Wilson added that linebacker Jeremiah Allison has stood out amongst the underclassmen and has excelled at the BUCK position, a hybrid between linebacker and defensive end.

More from practice, after the jump.

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The Cougars haven't usually had a full contingent of coaches available for their bowl practices with many of the coaches on the road recruiting. Wilson recently returned from Southern California where he says he literally had a warm reception.

"It's been great. The USC game down there was big for us and the bowl game was obviously big for us. The excitement of us playing on TV has been good for recruiting as well. We've been recruiting hard and we've had good reception most of the year but obviously those last couple games, the Arizona game and Utah game and obviously the bowl game have all helped. Some of the coaching changes gave us some life with the stability of coach Leach being here. So things are looking good right now."

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