Cougars focus on health
Good health over the course of a football season often leads to good results, and it appears that Washington State University is getting neither these days.
Some of the Cougars’ marquee players are spending more time in the training room – or even the hospital – than they are on the practice field of late, a trend that hasn’t gone unnoticed in Pullman.
Middle linebacker Will Derting, injured at Oregon State, will miss at least two, likely three, more weeks according to head coach Bill Doba. The partial tear of Derting’s left medial collateral ligament is healing well – the senior captain is off crutches – but Doba confirmed that the original two- to four-week estimate is almost certainly going to skew toward the higher number.
“When I saw it I thought he’d be done for the year,” Doba said. “We’re not going to stick him out there after not practicing for four weeks.”
Wide receivers Jason Hill and Chris Jordan were also still in street clothes for Tuesday’s practice, and Doba indicated that Hill is still a question mark to play this weekend. That’s bad news for WSU, which hasn’t been the same on offense since the star wideout went down with a bruised quadriceps. Hill did some running on Monday, but it’s unclear when or if he will return to practice this week. Jordan, dealing with knee and groin problems, looks likely to be back in the lineup in time for Saturday.
Another captain, punter Kyle Basler, has been in perhaps the worst shape of all lately. Basler hasn’t been able to eat anything more than toast and Jell-O for two weeks, according to Doba, because of an intestinal problem.
The senior spent all of Sunday and much of Monday in the hospital, undergoing tests.
“They don’t know whether it’s a virus or a bacterial infection,” Doba said. “I expect him to be able to punt.”
Head trainer Bill Drake said more should be known when tests come back in the next day. Basler was not at practice Tuesday.
Doba calls for tolerance
UCLA safety Jarrad Page told the Los Angeles Daily News that he was the target of racial epithets and thrown objects from the Martin Stadium crowd in 2003 when UCLA last visited Pullman.
Teammate Maurice Drew told the newspaper he hadn’t heard any epithets but has friends on other teams who have had similar experiences.
Doba, when apprised of Page’s comments, exhorted Cougars fans to avoid any comments that would reflect poorly on the school and the area.
“That’s very upsetting to me,” Doba said. “That doesn’t help us at all. … A racial slur anywhere, any time in any country is uncalled for. It’s wrong. It doesn’t help us in recruiting either. Because that word gets out. Everybody in L.A. thinks we’re up here in the Aryan Nation.
“Please, just stay away. Don’t say anything. That’s just very, very poor sportsmanship.”
Arizona not ready to panic
Many still believe that Arizona State is the second-best team in the Pac-10. But, for all their offensive exploits and defensive star power, the Sun Devils are just .500 more than halfway into their season.
“We’re 3-3, and in football you’re judged by your win-loss record,” head coach Dirk Koetter said. “We’re by no means in a panic situation. … We’ve played poorly in only one of those games.”
Arizona State’s three losses have all been at home, but all are to ranked teams: first LSU, then USC and most recently to Oregon. It’s that most recent loss that Koetter calls his team’s worst effort of the season, but he now has a bye week to try to remedy the situation. Things should get easier, however, as the Sun Devils play Stanford, Washington, WSU and Arizona in four of their last five games.
“We just have to get back to focusing on who we’re playing each week,” Koetter said. “(It’s) very frustrating.”