Eichelberger accepts heroic role

PULLMAN – Matt Eichelberger is a big guy.

At 6-foot-3 and 305 pounds, he would be big in comparison to just about anybody – except maybe other Pacific-10 Conference defensive tackles.

Maybe that explains why Eichelberger’s favorite hero is Hiro.

The Washington State senior is a fan of the TV show “Heroes.” The hero he admires the most is one of the smallest, the Japanese time traveler, Hiro Nakamura.

In the show, Hiro can slow down time, a super power Eichelberger finds fascinating. Maybe it’s because Eichelberger’s main job, in the center of the Cougar football team’s defensive line, is to slow down ballcarriers.

Like Hiro, Eichelberger and his defensive mates haven’t been all that successful at it this season.

The Cougars (1-7, 0-5 Pac-10) are second to last in the nation in rushing defense, yielding 266.3 yards per game. That’s almost 31 yards per game more than the Pac-10’s next most-porous team, Washington.

“Everyone has to take responsibility,” Eichelberger said after Wednesday’s practice. “I take it on myself just as much as anybody else.

“We do play 11-man football. If you’re not in your gap, it’s gashed – they go for 25 yards, they go for a touchdown.”

The gap responsibility becomes more important Saturday, when WSU travels to Stanford. The Cardinal have the Pac-10’s second-best rushing attack, averaging 192.4 yards per game.

The Cardinal running game is powered by an experienced offensive line – that will be missing starter Chris Marinelli – and two of the conference’s better running backs, Toby Gerhart (averaging 97.4 yards a game rushing) and Anthony Kimble (56.5).

It is Gerhart, all 6-1, 232 pounds of him, who worries the Cougars the most.

“What Toby Gerhart presents – he breaks so many tackles, you really have to get your body on him to get him down,” WSU coach Paul Wulff said. “Arm tackles generally aren’t going to work.

“Everybody on that defense is going to have to tackle that guy.”

“You can’t just hit him with one guy,” Eichelberger said. “If you hit him with one guy, you have to hit him low and keep driving your feet. Seeing him on film, he trucks linebackers, he trucks safeties.”

To help the Cougars’ defense become used to being “trucked,” redshirt tackle Zack Williams (6-4, 293) has been occasionally running the ball for the scout team in practice.

But Eichelberger has his own frame of reference.

“I kind of reference back to Jed (Collins), whenever he lined up a fullback,” said Eichelberger, talking about the 6-2, 250-pound former Cougar now on the Chicago Bears’ practice squad.

Linebacker Louis Bland never played with Collins, so the Gerhart experience will be new for the freshman. But he knows what to expect and what to do.

“I have to use my speed a lot, because I’m smaller than other linebackers,” said Bland, 5-10 and 203 pounds. “Then I have to get low, lower than everybody else. When I drive, then there is a pretty good collision. … With Gerhart, I’ve got to go low.”

Reversal of fortune

Bland was one of the few Cougars recruited by Stanford, but it wasn’t for football.

The Cardinal wanted him as a wrestler.

It’s not hard to understand why. He was a two-time California state champion and once a runner-up, wrestling for Central Catholic High in Modesto, Calif., a little more than an hour from Stanford.

“They recruited me for wrestling a lot,” Bland said. “I thought about it a little bit, but I wanted to play football in college.”

In high school, Bland was known more as a running back than a safety/linebacker. In four years at Central Catholic, he rushed for more than 5,000 yards and 107 touchdowns. But WSU recruited him for his defensive prowess and put him in the defensive secondary.

“I really didn’t expect to play linebacker until the end of camp,” Bland said. “Then I had to relearn linebacker. A couple of people got hurt, so I had to step up and learn fast.”

Bland expects about 35 friends and family to make the trip to the Bay Area on Saturday to watch him play.

Notes

M arshall Lobbestael’s knee surgery Wednesday went well, according to Wulff, but took longer than expected because of the MCL damage. He is expected to stay another night at Pullman Regional Hospital and be released today. … Redshirt freshman Marshal Pirtz has moved from linebacker to tight end/fullback, because of injuries at that position. “He’s been doing OK for a guy who’s learning the snap count,” Wulff said. … The Cougars’ depth is such that Wulff can afford to reward two scout team members with spots on the 64-man travel roster. Freshman safety LeAndre Daniels, from the Bay Area, earned a trip, as did freshman tight end Skylar Stormo. “Any time you can take young players on the road and give them a flavor of what it’s all about, when it is their time to actually play, it’s not going to be so new to them,” Wulff said … Wulff said some starting spots are still undecided, including left tackle, where Vaughn Lesuma has been taken the majority of the snaps with Steven Ayers backing up, and running back, where Dwight Tardy still isn’t 100 percent.