Cougs, Vandals Back To Back Injuries Dogging Cougars La. Lafayette At Washington St.

Washington State, hot off its first win in more than a year, is juggling the lineup again this week.

But this week it’s injuries not demotions that will force fresh faces into today’s game against Louisiana-Lafayette. Six starters from last week are out today, five of those because of injuries. The other, cornerback Marcus Trufant, missed practice this week because of a death in the family.

“This is not the same team that beat Cal last week,” WSU coach Mike Price said. “We have (some) different players in there.”

Five of those players are on defense. Linebackers Curtis Holden and Raonall Smith will be replaced in the starting lineup by redshirt freshman Fred Shavies and senior Grady Emmerson. Defensive end Jesse Ratcliff, who, in his first start since a back injury gave the Cougars a huge emotional lift last week, will be replaced by sophomore Mark Hedeen. Safety Earl Riley will be replaced by senior Torry Hollimon. And Trufant will be replaced by Lamont Thompson.

On offense, redshirt freshman Jason Hughes will be getting his first start on the line. Phil Locker, another redshirt freshman, will start for the second week in a row. And redshirt freshman Derrick Roche will play a reserve role. Redshirt freshman Brian Hollenberg and sophomore Joey Hollenbeck, two players who were switched to the offensive line this week, will also play.

Price would also like to get backup quarterback Paul Mencke some “quality” playing time.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how they do,” said Price. “The part I like about it is they are just excited to be playing. They don’t care who they are playing.”

They are playing a 1-4 team that, with an average of 209 yards per game, is 113th in Division I in offense. The Ragin’ Cajuns are 112th in defense, giving up 459 yards per game.

These facts, coupled with the memory of a 77-7 win over Louisiana Lafayette (the school was then known as University of Southwestern Louisiana) in 1997 had Price wary his players may take the game too lightly.

“I’m being real demanding on the team right now,” said Price. “We’ve just won one game. We really haven’t done much. We have to give this game all of our concentration and all of our effort.

“We want to win as much as we can win by, but we tried pouring it on our first four games and we averaged like 17 points.”

One thing the Ragin’ Cajuns have proven they can do is put points on the board, despite their low yardage numbers. After stumbling through the first three weeks, trying to learn new coach Jerry Baldwin’s system, the team has averaged 38 points in its last two games.

“They’re beginning to believe what we’re telling them,” said Baldwin. “It’s showing up on the football field.”

And from what has shown up on film, Baldwin believes he has the keys to solving a WSU defense that allowed only 90 yards in the last three quarters against Cal last week.

“They’re sound and aggressive defensively,” Baldwin said. “But from what I’ve seen on the video to this point, there are some things that they do that I feel we match up well against.”

One of the matchups in the Cougars’ favor could be the size of the Ragin’ Cajun cornerbacks against the WSU receivers. Both Lafayette corners are 5-9. WSU receiver Marcus Williams is 6-5 and Nian Taylor is 6-1.