Spring Practice Report: Day 12
From Pullman -- Rain, rain, go away. Today's torrent drove reporters and athletic support staff into the upper bleachers to seek refuge beneath the overhang. Refuge was not to be found. I could go on about the weather but then we'd both be in a stormy mood.
Practice report is after the jump.
...
Receiver Dom Williams was back in pads today after being limited for much of spring. However, inside receiver Rickey Galvin was limited with some unknown ailment. Williams got a full dose of contact early after he didn't take two kindly to some grabbing by former fellow receiver Sebastian LaRue. The two got to shouting, then to shoving and soon coaches and teammates had to separate the two, whose skirmish had taken them to the ground.
One player who looked really good on Tuesday was linebacker Chester Su'a, who didn't play last season but is one of the team's best athletes on defense. He's looked rusty this spring but has shown flashes of his talent and never was it more apparent then today, when on back-to-back plays he blew up a running back after a short gain and then hammered him in the flat on a swing pass. He was rocking a camo undershirt and should probably make a habit of it.
Today was Tyler Bruggman's turn at backup and he looked pretty good until the rain threw him off during team period. In 7-on-7 he went 12 of 20 with three touchdowns including an absolutely beautiful arcing throw to Drew Loftus in the end zone that caused a fan nearby to remark "oh, so that's why he's a 4 star."
He also had a pass broken up by LaRue, who spent all day running with the second string opposite Marcellus Pippins.
Connor Halliday was brilliant to start off 7-on-7's, completing six of his first seven passes with his father, Duane Halliday, in the stands. Jim Zorn was also at practice. But then the younger Halliday had his first truly head scratching interception of the season, throwing a lazy pass into the flat where only Buck linebacker Ivan McLennan could get it.
He bounced right back, however, throwing a 30 something yard touchdown to Daniel Lilienthal and a pair of goal line scores to River Cracraft and Vince Mayle to finish 15 of 20.
Halliday was an efficient 8 of 14 in the team period, while Bruggman was just 6 of 14.
After practice the Cougars did some sort of Sudden Death goal line drill. The offense won the first round 2-1 with Bruggman completing touchdown passes to Robert Lewis and Lilienthal and the defense stopping running back Gerard Wicks in the backfield. But the defense went 3-0 against quarterback Luke Falk, who missed on all three pass attempts.
-- The Cougars will apparently only use two of their three allotted "scrimmages" with Thursday's practice being helmets-only. It doesn't sound like the team will scrimmage on Tuesday after the spring game, meaning only Saturday's scrimmage and the spring game itself will be considered "scrimmages" according to the NCAA.
-- Tracy Clark appears to have taken Charleston White's spot as a starting cornerback opposite Daquawn Brown. Clark started during Saturday's scrimmage and ran again with the 1's today.
-- Along with Galvin, the limited players were Isaac Dotson, Nate DeRider, Brett Bartolone, Isiah Myers and Marcus Mason.
