Cougars prepare new QB

PULLMAN – It may have happened behind closed doors, but coach Paul Wulff said Wednesday there was at least one change that occurred during Washington State’s bye week practices.

The Cougars are preparing freshman quarterback J.T. Levenseller to play against Stanford on Nov. 1.

“It’s something we’re really, really considering,” Wulff said. “We’re leaning towards doing it, but we haven’t made a final decision.”

Wulff broached the subject on his radio show Tuesday night, saying that starting quarterback Kevin Lopina is still not 100 percent after missing four weeks with a back injury.

WSU practiced this week in its indoor facility, with the workouts closed to the media and public.

“We try to come up with the best decision for the program and the individual,” Wulff said Wednesday. “If a kid is dead set against playing, in a situation like this, we would never play the kid. If the kid really wants to play and we feel it would be beneficial to him and the team, for the current time and the future, then we’ll play the kid.

“Right now he really wants to play and we clearly have two quarterbacks who are out for the year, so it’s looking like that’s the direction we will go.”

Levenseller, son of longtime Cougars assistant Mike, graduated from Pullman High in 2007 but delayed his enrollment at WSU until spring semester 2008.

The plan heading into this season was for Levenseller to use his redshirt, but that was before season-ending injuries to Gary Rogers (neck) and Marshall Lobbestael (knee).

Besides Levenseller and Lopina, who returned in last week’s defeat to USC, redshirt freshman Dan Wagner and scout team quarterback Peter Roberts, who joined the team a few weeks ago, are the healthy quarterbacks on the roster.