Rested, Healed And Rather Fidgety, Cougs Want Usc
Football coaches love bye weeks for fairly obvious reasons. Injuries heal. Game plans are honed. It’s finally possible to sleep in on a Saturday morning, maybe even past 5.
Players aren’t always sympathetic. A weekend off sounds cool at first, but they get antsy.
“I hate bye weeks,” Washington State junior quarterback Ryan Leaf said Tuesday. “It’s fun watching college football, but I can’t sit there and watch it that long because I want to be playing.”
After defeating UCLA 37-34 in their season-opener Aug. 30, Leaf and the Cougars took last weekend off. It was the first of two WSU byes this season. Because of recuperation time, no player injured against UCLA is expected to miss Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. game at USC.
The sprained ankles of Leaf and junior receiver Nian Taylor appear to have healed sufficiently. Leaf hasn’t missed a practice since the injury, although he did not run last week. Taylor’s injury has taken more time, but he was back at practice Monday.
“Just a little sprain,” said Taylor, who lit up the Bruins for five receptions and a career-high 200 yards. “I’ve been running on it, practicing hard. I’ll be ready - 100 percent.”
Senior receiver Shawn Tims, who pulled a hamstring against the Bruins, also resumed practice this week.
“The leg’s fine,” Tims said. “It’s still a little tight, but it’ll be fine by Saturday.”
The Cougars figure to need all of their offensive weapons if they are to exploit a USC defense that includes two of the nation’s best college cornerbacks. Daylon McCutcheon and Brian Kelly are NFL prospects.
The crafty McCutcheon intercepted Leaf twice during USC’s 29-24 victory in Pullman last year. Since-departed linebacker Sammy Knight, who also had a pick, preserved USC’s victory by causing Leaf to fumble in the closing seconds.
“You learn what you could have done differently in situations like that, but I’m not looking back and hoping I have the same type of shot, with (39) seconds to go, having the ball at the USC 11-yard line again,” Leaf said. “I would rather have us up by 30.”
Price denounces radio report
WSU coach Mike Price opened Tuesday’s teleconference call with reporters by chastising talk-radio host Paul Seebeck for comments that aired Monday.
Seebeck, host of KTRW’s Spokane Score Central, irritated Price by alleging that Price had been given a win-or-else ultimatum by athletic director Rick Dickson after the Cougars went 5-6 last season.
Price, who heard the comments while he was driving from Pullman to Spokane for a WSU function, denied that any such meeting took place.
“I’d sure appreciate it if you’d ask Rick Dickson, because he’d be the source of that information,” Price scolded, as reporters from Los Angeles, Seattle and the Inland Northwest listened in. “Why don’t you ask him?
“You know, if you’re concerned about it and saying those things on the radio, you probably should ask me or Rick Dickson, because we’ll tell you the straight scoop.”
Seebeck downplayed the issue.
“I’d have to listen to the tape, but based on what I thought I communicated, it was just kind of like, ‘Here’s what I’m hearing, what do you think?” Seebeck said. “Kind of throwing it out for a topic.”
Blitzing Trojans
By WSU’s count, the Trojans blitzed 33 times against Florida State. This came as a great surprise to the Cougars, who had been preparing to face a USC defense that traditionally hasn’t blitzed much.
Perhaps USC doesn’t have as many superior athletes as it once did. The early departure of Russell to the NFL could certainly play a role in the Trojans’ decision to blitz more.
UCLA paid a heavy price for blitzing Leaf, who passed for 381 yards. With McCutcheon and Kelly, USC should fare better.
, DataTimes