Cougars taking steps in the right direction

PULLMAN — Washington State head coach Bill Doba strode off the practice field following his team’s third scrimmage of the fall and stole a line from Neil Armstrong, with some minor alterations.

“One small step for the Cougars, one giant leap for the season,” he said.

And by all accounts, Saturday afternoon’s session in Martin Stadium was just that. After the Cougars offense had struggled badly in the first two sessions, it played mildly better, pushing the ball into the end zone once and successfully moving into field-goal range twice in the two-minute drill.

Of course, as Doba was quick to point out, there were also false starts, ineligible men downfield and a host of other penalties that can make a coach’s hair fall out.

But starting quarterback Josh Swogger — save a short stretch where he threw back-to-back interceptions — played better. The sophomore went 12 of 19 for 123 yards and threw a nice 16-yard touchdown pass down the left sideline to Chris Jordan.

Backup Alex Brink struggled against the WSU defense (for much of the day, it was the No. 2 offense versus the No. 1 defense and vice versa), going 6 for 16 with 82 yards passing, 45 of which came on his last completion, on the first play of the two-minute drill.

The running game fared worse, with starter Chris Bruhn gaining just 19 yards on eight carries and backup Jerome Harrison picking up 29 on seven rushes.

Perhaps the most intriguing on-field battle that played out Saturday was between kickers Graham Siderius and Loren Langley. Langley, a 146-pound freshman, has been more consistent than his older counterpart and looked to be on his way to claiming the job.

Langley did nothing to dissuade the coaching staff early on, nailing his first six kicks of the day, including a wind-aided 52-yarder.

Siderius, on the other hand, missed both attempts from 42 yards.

But then when the team got into field-goal range for two simulated game-tying kicks, Langley missed both (one from 23 yards, the other from 40) while Siderius hit both.

“It muddies it up a lot,” Doba admitted, before reconciling the situation. “But that’s a good thing. If Graham can do it, we can redshirt the little guy, Loren. That’d be awesome. I’d love to do that.

“I’m going to wait until the last minute (to choose). We’re going to have them walk out to the bus, and we might just tell one to go back to the dorm.”

While the kicking situation is confused enough to call for a joke or two, the Cougars defense again looked impressive despite having a number of starters including both captains on the sidelines with injury.

Safety Eric Frampton, who is in the lineup to replace one of those captains, Hamza Abdullah, broke up two passes and intercepted another in his most notable performance of the fall. Frampton is playing hurt with a shoulder sprain, and Doba said the safety can’t hit with full force because of the injury.

Still, it appeared to make little difference on Saturday.

Cornerback Omowale Dada also made a pair of big plays, sacking Alex Brink in the end zone for a safety and stripping the ball inside his own 5-yard line, a fumble he would have taken back 98 yards for a score had coaches not blown the play dead when Dada was on his way.

“They’re flying around full speed to the ball,” defensive coordinator Robb Akey said. “The biggest thing we want is to try and get 11 hats to the ball. That’s kind of the motto our players have adopted and they’ve played that way.

“When something big did happen against them we found a way to recover and go. So they’re starting to deal with adversity a little bit.”

Injury update

The Cougars appeared to escape the scrimmage without any injuries, but the following were hurt during Friday night’s practice: Wide receiver Greg Prator and linebacker Pat Bennett will miss at most a week with strained hamstrings. … Right tackle Sam Lightbody, a captain on offense, could miss up to a week with a calf strain. … Wideout Tramaine Murray has a foot contusion and is day-to-day. Murray wore a boot on Saturday and X-rays of the foot were negative.

With both defensive captains (Abdullah and Will Derting) already out, Lightbody’s injury means that Swogger is the lone healthy captain. He led stretching by himself before the scrimmage.