Sunday night WSU practice
Washington State postponed its Sunday night football practice until 9 p.m., but didn't officially get started until 10 p.m. That was when the coaches and a number of starting players arrived at Martin Stadium. Most of the team arrived at 9 p.m. and participated in drills that were overseen by graduate assistants. Once everyone was accounted for the practice lasted around 40 minutes.
Unofficially, the players that arrived at 10 were:
Offense: Quarterback Connor Halliday, receiver Gabe Marks, running back Marcus Mason, center Elliott Bosch, offensive tackle John Fullington, offensive lineman Joe Dahl, offensive tackle Gunnar Eklund and receiver Kristoff Williams.
Defense: Linebacker Darryl Monroe, linebacker Justin Sagote, safety Deone Bucannon, cornerback Damante Horton, defensive linemen Xavier Cooper, Toni Pole and Ioane Gauta.
Practicing at cornerback was Nolan Washington, who warmed up with the wide receivers before Saturday's game.
After practice we had our first chance to speak with defensive coordinator Mike Breske since the OSU game. More on that after the jump.
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(What happened to the defense in the fourth quarter?)
We gave up 16 explosive plays, 14 of which were passes. I don't know what to tell you. We were in position to make plays on several of them and that's not like us. That's not our expectations. We've got to go on the field after a turnover, that's our job. You've got to go play defense.
(How did you feel about the job the defense did containing Brandin Cooks?)
On Cooks I thought we did a really good job. The running back was a nonfactor, they didn't go to the run game other than the fly sweep. The wide receiviers were the leading rushers, I think. Damante Horton did a great job on Cooks, open field tackles on the screen game.
(How important is tempo against Oregon?)
We need to stick to our basics and that type of deal. They're a run team first, pass team second. We haven't had a problem with tempo all year, didn't have a problem with it at Cal. And to be honest, Auburn didn't tempo us that much.
(Is it a challenge replication the threat Oregon QB Marcus Mariota faces in practice?)
We can't replicate him, he's 6'4. We don't have a quarterback that's 6'4, I don't think we have anbody that's 6'4 that can run that way, that type of thing, but we do the best we can. He's a very talented guy.
