Cougars open camp with queries

When fall practice opens, every college football team in America takes the field with questions to answer. Even top-ranked and seemingly invincible USC has to settle on a wide receiver or two.

But there may be no BCS school with more to resolve than the Washington State Cougars. Even Bill Doba, entering his fifth year as head coach, acknowledges this month is full of uncertainties – and corresponding possibilities.

“Definitely (we have questions),” Doba said last week. “Just start with defense. We have to find a couple corners. Brian Williams played some last year at corner and he’s the only guy with any experience.”

Finding two starting cornerbacks is just one of the tasks facing the Cougars when fall practice opens this afternoon on campus at 3 p.m.

WSU is coming off a 6-6 season – after starting 6-3 – and is picked to finish eighth this year in the Pac-10. It was 4-5 and fourth in 2006.

Although there are some certainties – Alex Brink returns for his senior year at quarterback, Michael Bumpus and Brandon Gibson at wideout, three offensive lineman, four defensive lineman, linebacker Greg Trent and safety Husain Abdullah – there are some key unsettled spots.

Doba and his staff must decide on at least 10 starting positions and answer most – if not all – of the questions by the end of the month, with a Sept. 1 road trip looming against Wisconsin, a Big Ten favorite ranked seventh in the preseason coaches’ poll.

With that in mind, here are five of the most intriguing questions the Cougars will have to answer during August.

“Who will man the defensive corners?

The aforementioned Williams should be one of the answers, with returnees Markus Dawes and Brian (B.T.) Walker also expected to contribute. But Doba, who is also serving as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, is high on recruits Devin Giles, who redshirted last season at Coffeyville Community College in Kansas, and two high school prospects Chima Nwachukwu and Romeo Pellum.

“This kid, according to the kids who were here this summer, might be the best corner of all of them,” Doba said of Nwachukwu, from Allen, Texas. “He looks good.”

“Is there another decision to be made in the defensive backfield besides corner?

“The other safety position,” Doba said, alluding to the spot alongside Abdullah, who started every game last season.

There is not a lot of experience (“Christian Bass has played some, but he’s it,” Doba said) but there are numbers.

JC transfer Terry Mixon (San Diego’s Grossmont College) is expected to challenge Bass for the starting spot, with Alfonso Jackson, a JC transfer from Texas and freshman Eric Block, a quarterback and safety for Washington power Bellevue High, also in the mix.

“We have some bodies coming in,” Doba said. “I don’t know if they are answers yet. We won’t know until we get them here and get a chance to see them. But we think that they can play now. A couple of them are going to have to play right away.”

“Who will fill the five spots across the offensive front?

“That’s what scares you the most right now,” Doba said of answering the questions on the line.

The Cougars have three starters back: Bobby Byrd (6-foot-7, 308 pounds), who is moving from left tackle to left guard, along with center Kenny Alfred (6-2, 310) and right tackle Dan Rowlands (6-5, 280), both of whom started nine times last season.

Former East Valley High star Andy Roof was penciled in to one of the remaining spots, but was suspended for the season after being cited for a DUI in the spring, so offensive line coach George Yarno is going to have to mold a unit with newcomers.

Junior college transfer Vaughn Lesuma (6-5, 340), who was in spring camp, will probably be the starter at the all-important left tackle spot. The right guard position should begin in 6-7, 278-pound redshirt freshman Joe Eppele’s hands, but, as Doba said, “he’s a long way from learning everything (because) he’s had a lot of injuries.” Another redshirt freshman who should be in the mix is Micah Hannam (6-4, 278), as should Reed Lesuma (6-4, 305), who transferred with his brother from Mt. San Jacinto College.

“If we can stay healthy, we’ll be OK,” Doba said, “and we’ve gone through seasons where we’ve played the same five guys the whole year without anyone getting hurt.”

“Besides Bumpus and Gibson, who will be Brink’s targets at receiver and how good can they be?

Doba, for one, thinks he already has the answer to the latter query.

“I think Gibson can be another (Jason) Hill,” he said, referring to the former Cougars star drafted by the San Francisco 49ers, “and Bumpus is excellent.”

But Doba doesn’t think the talent stops there.

“(Charles) Dillon came on late in the season and had an excellent spring,” the coach said. “And Benny Ward had a good summer and good spring.”

Then there are two freshmen who are intriguing because of their athletic ability: Jeshua Anderson and Daniel Blackledge.

Anderson (6-2, 190) ran a national-record 35.28 seconds in the 300-meter hurdles last spring for Taft High in Southern California while Blackledge has long jumped better than 24 feet, according to Doba.

“So which true freshmen can contribute right away?

Besides Anderson and Blackledge, it should come as no surprise the positions with the most question marks (defensive backfield and offensive line) would hold the brightest possibilities for an incoming freshman.

Doba is especially high on Nwachukwu at corner and sees Steven Ayers, a 6-4, 275-pound offensive lineman from Sehome as “a freshman kid who may have to come in and play – right away.” Another possibility up front is Andrew Roxas (6-2, 300) from St. Francis High in Southern California.

Although there is a crowd at linebacker – despite the loss of potential starter Jason Stripling, who is appealing his academic ineligibility – Hallston Higgins from Magnolia, Texas, has a chance to play, at least on special teams.

“If they can play on special teams and get a few reps at the position they are going to play,” Doba said. “They are a whole lot better next year just by having the experience of being in the stadium (and) making the trips. It really helps them the following year.

“As far as saving that redshirt year: If they are as good as we think they are, they aren’t going to stick around anyway.”