Cougars better mind the gaps

BERKELEY, Calif. – When Jahvid Best broke an 80-yard run to open California’s 66-3 rout of Washington State University last year in Pullman, there was one reason why the play broke so open.

A WSU linebacker had overrun his gap.

The Cougars’ defense is built on each player fulfilling his assignment. If one player is out of place, it makes it that much tougher on the other 10.

Such was the case on that play last year. The linebacker took the wrong angle, pursued too far and, when Best planted and turned upfield, had left a hole wide enough for even a bad back to exploit.

And Best isn’t a bad back.

So what will it take in today’s football game for the Cougars to slow a Cal running game that is averaging 200.5 yards per game, helping the Bears to a Pac-10-best 32.8 points per game?

“The first priority for our defense is, we’ve got to be very gap sound, and make sure we don’t give away a gap,” WSU head coach Paul Wulff said this week. “Because if they hit it full speed, it’s pretty tough for them to be stopped.

“We’ve got to be in good position and we have to tackle well.”

The Bears are 4-2 overall but just 1-2 in Pac-10 play after opening their conference season with blowout losses at Oregon and at home to USC. They regrouped over a bye week, bused to Los Angeles and ran all over UCLA’s defense en route to a 45-26 win.

The Cougars (1-5, 0-4) are coming off a bye, though they didn’t get as healthy as they hoped. Only one of three injured offensive linemen – guard Zack Williams – will return to the starting lineup today.

But the WSU defense is improved over the group that gave up almost 44 points a game last season. That number is down by more than a touchdown, and the Cougars have forced 18 turnovers already, after coming up with just 13 all last season.