October omen of things to come

PULLMAN – Many Washington State players – especially the ones from Southern California – arrived at Tuesday’s practice bundled up with extra layers as temperatures dipped below freezing on the practice field.

“October’s been beautiful,” defensive end Mkristo Bruce said on the afternoon of Halloween.

The senior captain wasn’t talking about the weather, of course, but of his team’s fortunes. In 2004 and 2005 WSU failed to win a single game in October, going 0-9.

This time around, the middle month of the Pac-10 season has been especially kind to the Cougars. WSU entered October at 3-2 with serious questions as to how many times they would be able to win over the rest of the season. It exits it at 6-3, with serious talk of winning every game left on the schedule.

The Cougars lost one game this month, to Cal, but they’ve also won a pair of road games at Oregon State and at UCLA, throwing in a home win over Oregon for good measure. As a result, WSU is already bowl eligible and is playing not to create a December destination but to improve it.

Head coach Bill Doba said he would have gladly taken the team’s current record on Oct. 1.

“Honestly, that’d probably be (good),” he said. “Of course, you’d like to win them all.

“It’s just been fun. I don’t know how we do it, to be honest with you. We’ve got a bunch of kids coming off the bus or off the plane, and they don’t look like they’re going to beat the opposing team. But they play hard, they hit and now they’re making plays.”

While the wins have been the most important thing to come out of the month for WSU, confidence has to rank a solid second.

After getting contributions from both key players (Alex Brink has completed nearly 80 percent of his passes in the last two games) and role players (Jed Collins stepped into the starting tight end role and made a big splash), the Cougars are clearly believing that October wasn’t the peak of their season, just a harbinger of things to come.

“The snowball’s starting to roll, and it’s getting colder,” Collins said after the ice-cold practice under the lights. “But that just means the snowball’s getting bigger.”

Toeing a new line

Loren Langley’s pulled quadriceps had Doba ruling out the kicker for the Arizona game this week, which means the kicking duties fall to Romeen Abdollmohammadi. (Once again, that’s AB-dull-mo-HAHM-uh-dee.)

The junior made a 31-yard field goal in relief of Langley at UCLA, just the second field goal he had attempted in a game situation at any level.

He also chipped in a pair of extra points, giving him three on the season after making one earlier this year against Idaho.

Before he said that Langley had been ruled out, Doba said the switch to Abdollmohammadi was by choice – not default – probably not a huge surprise after Langley missed a pair of field goals and sent a kickoff out of bounds against the Bruins.

Doba did say, however, that he’ll have a decision to make when Langley is healthy enough to kick again, but the coach declined to put a timetable on his return.

Notes

WSU got a number of players back in practice, possibly a sign that Doba’s battered roster is finally getting healthier. Defensive tackle Aaron Johnson (elbow), wide receiver Chris Jordan (knee) and offensive lineman Andy Roof (heel and ankle) were all in pads and they all might play this weekend against Arizona, although Doba said before practice that he had his doubts about Roof’s availability. … Punter Darryl Blunt also returned after further tests on Monday revealed no problems. Blunt missed the UCLA game after experiencing an irregular and unusually rapid heartbeat in warm-ups. … WSU didn’t escape the Rose Bowl without losing players, though. Running back Derrell Hutsona suffered a high ankle sprain and Doba said he has no specific schedule on a return, although he mentioned the possibility that it might end the runner’s regular season. Cornerback Courtney Williams suffered a torn ACL and will need surgery in the coming weeks, with the soonest possible return date during spring practices. … More bad news for WSU on the television front: It appears that the Nov. 11 Arizona State game will kick off at 6 p.m. Pacific time with no broadcast coverage from Tempe, Ariz.