Want Ad Helps Price Land Spare Qbs

Washington State University, with a football program that claims National Football League millionaires Drew Bledsoe and Mark Rypien, may more closely resemble “Quarterback Who?” than “Quarterback U.” when spring practices start Monday.

Ryan Leaf, the returning starter, is serving a DWI-induced suspension while recovering from off-season shoulder surgery. Former starter Chad Davis quit the team after being supplanted by Leaf. Shawn Deeds ran out of eligibility.

That left head coach Mike Price with one available quarterback, redshirt freshman Steve Birnbaum, heading into Monday’s 3:30 p.m. practice.

One isn’t enough, so Price started taking applications through an ad in the school newspaper, ultimately settling on three students with high school playing experience.

Freshman Jim Kobeski, sophomore Robert Mensonides and junior Josh Lucca survived auditions.

“It was really kind of heartwarming because, within one day, we had 15 applicants for that backup job and none of them were trying to be Drew Bledsoe,” Price said by cellular telephone Friday, on his way to visit his ailing mother-in-law near Seattle. “They just wanted to help the Cougar football program out a little bit. And just say, hey, if you need a (tackling) dummy holder, I’ll be there to hold the dummy. I just want to help.”

But there was a catch, without so much as a throw.

“I haven’t been able to watch them throw,” Price said. “I’ve watched them do some agility drills just for a couple of days is all, because as soon as the ball comes out, then spring ball starts.”

That means the timing patterns will have to wait.

“We’re not going to look real great as a team, maybe, offensively, because we’re concerned with getting the ball from center and handing it to the right guy right now,” Price said.

But Price, whose team lost its final six games to finish 3-8 last season, expects that to change when Leaf returns from the suspension that will force him to miss the first week of practice.

The right-handed Leaf played well after replacing Davis for the final two games last season, but underwent surgery on his left shoulder in February and had been expected to miss three months. That timetable has changed, Price indicated.

“When Ryan gets off his suspension, I think he’s going to be able to do a little bit more than we anticipated originally,” the coach said. “He’s really healed real well and everything has just been 100 percent successful with his shoulder.”

In the meantime, Birnbaum will get most of the work.

Notes

San Diego State transfer James Curtis, who Price expects to challenge Miguel Meriwether, Michael Black and Ron Montgomery at running back, will be limited this spring by a knee injury suffered playing intramural basketball.

The departure of sophomore Phillip Glover, the most prominent among four Cougars to quit the team in a two-day exodus this off-season, makes WSU potentially thin at linebacker.

“I think we need to find out who our backup linebackers are going to be,” Price said. “It’s going to be time for Chris Dixon and Tom Wagner and Todd Nelson and Steve Gleason from Gonzaga Prep in Spokane to step forward and get the job done for us.”

Price said the desertions have helped the program.

“I think we’re a much better football team and football program than we were two months ago,” he said. “We’re much more dedicated and we’re putting pressure on these kids, both academically and athletically, in our drills. And you either step up and get going or you step out and get out. That’s kind of what happened.”

, DataTimes