It’s all on the line
PULLMAN – With seven practices under their helmets, the Washington State Cougars will hold their first scrimmage this afternoon at 2:30 in Martin Stadium.
When it’s over, offensive line coach George Yarno hopes to have taken a big step toward answering the Cougars’ most important question of the fall.
“In tomorrow’s scrimmage, we’ll see who can play football,” Yarno said of the offensive linemen following Friday morning’s practice, the first of two on the day. “It will give us the first indication. Right now all we’ve done is practice. We have to see who’s who and what’s what. Tomorrow will put us on that road.
“We’re just crawling right now, we haven’t even started walking. I’ll know more after tomorrow’s scrimmage, who wants to compete, who wants to play at a high level, who’s willing to play with their heart and soul. When I find those five guys, they’re the ones who are going to play.”
WSU has three returning starters in sophomore center Kenny Alfred and guards Bobby Byrd, a sophomore, and junior Dan Rowlands. But the solid center is going to be flanked by two newcomers at tackle, no matter whom they turn out to be.
Finding the two starting tackles and developing a unit where five players function as one has been a priority for the Cougars since practice started.
“Oh, yeah,” Doba said when asked if the offensive line was still a worry. “You have to be worried, but what was this practice six, seven? We have 21 more to go. They have time to get them to jell.
“I know they will know their assignments (against Wisconsin). Now whether they can execute or not, that’s the question.”
Yarno is blunt in his assessment.
“We’ve got to get better,” he said. “We’ve got to get better as a group. All five have got to play well, you can’t just have two or three play well.”
The trio of returnees has been flanked, for the most part, by junior college transfer Vaughn Lesuma at left tackle and redshirt freshman Micah Hannam from Peninsula High in Gig Harbor, Wash., on the right side. But Friday, Lesuma’s “little” brother Reed – Vaughn is 6-foot-5, 329 pounds, Reed 6-3, 302 – split first-unit snaps with Hannam. Also in the mix on the left side is 6-7, 275-pound redshirt freshman Joe Eppele from Vancouver, British Columbia, who has been through two spring sessions after enrolling in January 2006.
No matter who wins the battle, none has played a down of Pac-10 football. The two Lesumas, in fact, between them have only four years of football experience of any kind.
“I’m just trying to find pieces,” Yarno said of the challenge of putting together the offensive line. “They have to come out of that group we have right now. We’re just going to keep working to put the five best guys on the field.”
Yarno is getting through to his charges, at least to Reed Lesuma, who struggled to contain his admiration.
“You want that guy who can instill the trust and confidence in you,” Reed said of the line coach. “But I tell you, he makes you work for it. He’s not one of these guys who say you believe it and you’ll achieve it. He’s you believe it, you work for it and you’ll achieve it.”
Still, achieving success against Pac-10 players, even just in practice, isn’t easy.
“That first hit, it woke me up and I was like ‘You ain’t in JC anymore,’ ” Reed said. “All you can do is get better. When you play against better people, it makes you better. I’m glad we have people like that to go up against.”
The two Lesuma brothers – Vaughn is a little more than a year older – are both juniors, having played at Mt. San Jacinto College (Calif.) for two years each. Before that, rugby was an option but not football.
They lived in Hawaii when they were young, but moved to Fuji until Reed was a high school senior. That’s when they moved back to Laie, Hawaii, and Reed spent a season on the football team, seeing limited action.
“I was one of the guys on the sidelines cheering,” he said.
Two years of football later, he’s in the mix to start for the Cougars.
With the rest of the offense in veteran hands – there are players with starting experience at the other six positions, including the most important one, quarterback, where Alex Brink has held the reins for most of the past three years – finding an effective quintet up front may hold the key to the season.
That hasn’t happened yet.
Still, Yarno was able to find a silver lining.
When asked if he’s seen anything to make him smile so far, he didn’t hesitate.
“That we still have three weeks before we play a game, that makes me happy,” he said.
Notes
The offense moved the ball better than it had all week in the evening practice. A big play came courtesy of freshman Jeshua Anderson, who got behind corner Ryan Kensok and hauled in Brink’s long toss. … Tight end Ben Woodard supplied a couple of offensive highlights, grabbing two of Gary Rogers’ passes despite taking huge hits. … Running back Dwight Tardy (hamstring) was still in street clothes and won’t be available for today’s scrimmage. … What does Doba hope to find out today? “We’ll probably have a blitz period before then play our base defense most of the time,” he said. “We’ll get the twos and threes out there and see what they can do.”… The scrimmage is open and free, but with the construction at Martin Stadium, fans will have to enter through the tunnel on the northwest corner, with seating in the south stands only. … WSU has sold 13,445 season tickets, only 19 behind last year at the same point. Last year was the third best in school history.