A pregame post from Martin Stadium

• It’s not often there is this much snow in Pullman for a football game. It’s stopped now, but there are flurries expected the remainder of the day. Then it’s expected to clear up late this evening and get ungodly cold. I would say the weather will keep the crowd down, but that would be a bit redundant. Today’s crowd was never going to be large, not on the Saturday before Thanksgiving break. In the time I’ve been covering this beat, whenever the Cougars play on this date, and it’s not the Apple Cup, the crowd is tiny and gets smaller as the game wears on. Only the hardcore will be out today for Senior Day. … One thing you might not think about with the snow. When the plows go over the turf, they drag off many of the rubber pellets that give the turf its bounce. If you look at the snow banks at the end of the end zones, you can see the pellets. As more pellets are removed, the turf hardens. I walked on it Thursday and it’s not nearly as bouncy as it usually is. When the weather clears, there is a machine used to basically roto-till the pellets back in. As I type this, trainers Bill Drake and Brian Oelke are going over the field making sure it’s safe to play on. … The Cougars are going to be a bit shorthanded today I believe, though we’ll give final updates as we get closer to kickoff through Twitter. Deone Bucannon seemed to be walking fine yesterday when I saw him by the weight room, but we’ll see. Marquess Wilson may be hurting – by the way, he injured his hip last week on the reverse pass when Bo Moos, yes, Bo Moos, drove him into the turf; wonder what he’ll get for Christmas this year if Wilson doesn’t play today? – but I see him as a guy who will play through it if he can. Right tackle Dan Spitz seems to be a real question mark, what with his bad ankle. He’s been playing on a bad one recently, but this is new this week. We’ll see. … And it’s starts to snow again.

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• That’s it for now. If we have updates to pass along, we will put a little update label on the link. Otherwise, follow my Twitter feeds. Until later …