Price Will Focus On Cougars’ Yellow Flag Woes Practice Will Include Officials After 17-Penalty Nightmare

One day after his team threatened Bob Packwood’s Oregon record for personal fouls, Washington State football coach Mike Price promised to address his team’s penalty problems by having officials attend practices this week.

WSU was flagged 17 times for 189 yards in the 24-3 victory, a performance Price said won’t be good enough against No. 19 California, which visits Martin Stadium this week.

“I’m telling you, we’re going to correct this,” Price told reporters Sunday. “This isn’t going to happen again.”

The Cougars continued to make late hits on punt and kickoff returns, and were called for several illegal-motion penalties. The motion rules seemed to be enforced more strictly Saturday, Price indicated.

That means WSU may need to be more meticulous in executing future offensive formations - especially during the Nov. 23 game against Washington, when the Cougars will see the same crew that worked Saturday’s game.

“We motion and move a lot with our offense and we had some real good plays that were run with the motion that were stopped because of penalties,” Price said. “And I think we can correct that with officials being at practice, making sure that guy’s not leaning upfield too much.

“Or, if that’s the way they’re going to call it from now on, we need to make sure that we’re correct in what we do.”

Injury update

Price said 13 players will probably be held out of tonight’s practice, although he would not release the WSU injury report.

“If a guy can’t play, I’ll certainly let everybody know,” Price said.

At least three players are known to have played with injuries Saturday: defensive tackle Gary Holmes (neck), running back Miguel Meriwether (back) and quarterback Ryan Leaf (ankle, knee, shoulder).

In addition, linebacker Brandon Moore and offensive tackle Ryan McShane were shaken up against the Beavers.

Michael Black (ankle) missed the game entirely, but Price said he expects his starting tailback to be ready for Saturday night’s 7:15 kickoff.

Leaf expected to rebound

Price dismissed Leaf’s 13-for-28 showing against the Beavers as an aberration, and said rainy weather was more to blame than the minor shoulder injury his quarterback suffered against Arizona last week.

Leaf tweaked his knee early in the OSU game, but continued playing.

, DataTimes