Some urgency for Cougars

PULLMAN — Two weeks remain until Washington State’s season opener, and with their second subpar performance in a scrimmages recorded on Wednesday, the Cougar offense is searching for answers.

“The clock is already ticking. It’s been ticking for a while,” WSU wideout and punt returner Marty Martin said. “We know now, Saturday is our last scrimmage, school (starts) on Monday and then we basically have a week-and-a-half. We got to start locking it in.”

Head coach Bill Doba said he wasn’t as displeased with the scrimmage after watching it on film, though he still wasn’t willing to let some of the mistakes from Wednesday slide.

“They’re never as bad as you think, and they’re never as good as you think,” Doba said. “The thing that stands out is the offsides and the false starts; that’s a couple of young kids. We had the same problem (Thursday) with another young freshman. The center-quarterback exchange (fumbles), we’re too far into the season to have that.”

Doba addressed his team on Thursday in an attempt to ratchet up the effort as the trip to New Mexico on Sept. 3 looms.

The Cougars had a fantastic attendance at voluntary summer workouts this year, with more than 70 players spending their off-season in Pullman together. But Doba felt he needed to remind the team that a strong summer alone isn’t enough to compete in Division I-A football.

“We’ve worked our tails off to prepare for the season all summer,” Doba said. “But what I told them is, you prepare to prepare to play. What you do in the summer, it helps you to get ready for practice. Now what you got to do is bust your butt again to get ready to play a game. What you did in summer is not going to carry you through double days to get ready for New Mexico.”

WSU’s coaching staff decided to cancel a scheduled Thursday morning walkthrough and had the afternoon session in pads interrupted shortly after stretches when a thunderstorm passed over the practice fields. That forced the rest of practice to the Cougars’ indoor facility for the first time this fall.

Martin said he thought the Cougar offense responded nicely to their scrimmage struggles, setting it up to improve when taking the field for the third and most important scrimmage of the fall on Saturday.

“We did some good things, corrected some stuff from the video of (Wednesday) night,” Martin said. “I know the receivers have been feeling it a little bit because we have the feeling we can do good things and be a great corps, but we keep doing little things that keep holding us up.

“You need that wakeup call.”

Ticket update

WSU Director of External Relations Pete Isakson said tickets will probably be made available to the public for the Apple Cup.

Earlier this month, it appeared that the Nov. 20 game against Washington would sell out before general sales began, but some tickets the school had held aside will now be made available, most likely over the Internet in early October.

Two other home games, however, are nearly sold out.

Isakson said there are approximately 300 seats each left for the Oregon game on Oct. 9 and the USC game on Oct. 30. The first home game of the year in Pullman, against Idaho, is also selling well, partially because the Vandals bought a block of 4,500 seats, more than initially expected.

Notes

Freshman defensive tackle Aaron Johnson, who should play a significant role in the Cougars’ rotation, has missed a couple of days because of an abdominal strain. Johnson was held out as a precaution to avoid more serious injury, and said he expects to return to the field today. … Freshman offensive lineman Josh Duin, who suffered a knee injury last week in practice, has had X-rays come up negative and will have an MRI over the weekend. … Defensive lineman Lawrence Ball of Fresno, Calif., who signed a letter of intent with WSU in February, has been admitted to Arizona. Ball was denied admission by WSU. “He’s a fine young man, and I wish him the best of luck,” Doba said. “I hope he has a great career.” … Another recruit, wideout Charles Dillon of Oxnard, Calif., was denied admission as well. Dillon was the last question mark from the 2004 recruiting class, bringing the academic casualty count to eight out of the original signing class of 28. Three of the eight players could still join the Cougars in January as grayshirts. Dillon is expected to seek admission to a JC. … The Cougars have two practices today, the first in helmets and no pads at 10:30 a.m. and the second in full pads at 7:30 p.m. … Saturday’s scrimmage is at 3:30 p.m.