‘Replacement’ Cougars Ready To Tackle 1995

Stumbled into a couple of major news breaks here at the steak-dinner-to-the-winners scrimmage which concluded spring football drills for the Washington State Cougars.

Item one: Don Sasa has a Husky sideline parka.

The Flowin’-Haired Samoan of last year’s Cougar defense showed up as a spectator swaddled in purple Gore-tex - a fashion statement that would earn the average Coug all kinds of grief. Sasa, however, is still the same very large, volatile soul who blew up Washington’s Mark Bruener on the Martin Stadium carpet last fall, so he’s entitled to his souvenirs - just like any GI who smuggled home a helmet after the fall of Berlin.

“I got it at the Apple Cup,” Sasa explained. “You have to take something for the battles.”

Item two: the trash-talking gap left by the departure of Torey Hunter and Chad Eaton may not be as significant as once feared, if an exchange between defensive backs Greg Burns (who had an interception for the winning Gray team) and Terrell Henderson is an indication.

Burns: “Get your sorry butt off the field.”

Henderson: “Anyone can get a tipped ball.”

Burns: “Why didn’t you get one then? Because you’re nobody, huh?”

Henderson: “We didn’t give the quarterback time to get the ball off.”

Burns: “Didn’t you give up a 50-yard pass?”

Henderson: “They didn’t score.”

Burns: “But you ain’t saying you didn’t give up a 50-yard pass.”

Henderson: “I’m gonna come and take your steak from y’all.”

Perhaps it lacks the sheer comic inventiveness of Messrs. Hunter, Eaton, et al., but then the Cougar defense of 1995 will inevitably suffer comparisons with the ‘94 model.

But who wouldn’t?

“They set a standard for us,” said linebacker James Darling, who gets the daunting task of replacing Pac10 defensive player of the year Mark Fields. “When they came in here, though, they weren’t very good - but by their senior year, they were dominant.

“We have some experience - not starting experience, but it’s not like we’re going to be all green and get run over.”

Highly unscientific surveys indicate that it’s this that concerns the Cougar constituency. Quarterback? Settled, at least for the time being. A running game? One back, two backs or 10 backs, it still might be the worst in the Pac-10 unless a junior college transfer named Major Norton arriving in August can work some major magic.

So can a defense minus eight starters maintain that rollicking, riveting style?

If it’s a question of style, sure. Can it win with virtually no offensive contribution, as was the case too often last fall?

Not yet.

“At first we were horrible,” Darling said of the progress this spring. “By the end of spring, I think our coaches felt good about us. I feel good about us.”

There is more depth at linebacker than on any Mike Price team in memory. The return of injury redshirt Greg Burns and the arrival of JC cornerback Shad Hinchen have stabilized the secondary. Dwayne Sanders remains a monster in the making at defensive end.

“But in our defense,” noted Darling, “it all starts at the tackles. If you have two good ones, people can’t run up the middle and with our speed, we’re going to chase everything down outside.”

And even though Eaton and Sasa could well be playing on Sundays this fall, defensive coordinator Bill Doba is remarkably bullish on their replacements, Leon Bender and Gary Holmes. “Those guys (Sasa and Eaton) were in the arena so long,” Doba said. “That’s the tough thing - experience. But both these guys can run faster, they’re both taller, they’re going to weigh more - they could be big-time tackles.”

Could be. Bender, though, is the poster child for Price’s risk-taking recruiting and hangs in the balance academically day to day. And Holmes - a 6-foot-7 specimen with a 35-inch vertical jump and a 4.8 40-yard dash - is 19 years old.

In truth, there are always variables to undo a football team’s upside - books, breaks, bruises. Yet it says something about the state of Cougar football that even measured against the dear, departed D, no one envisions a violent dropoff.

“It’s going to be a shock, for sure,” said Burns, “for people to see these guys they’ve never heard of - names and numbers they don’t know - making plays. But we still have aggressive players. Attitude players.”

Guys who’ll take the parka of your back, it that’s what’s called for.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Blanchette The Spokesman-Review