
Six weeks and counting!
Good morning from Florida, where I live now, again. In just 42(!!!) days, the college football season will begin anew, when the ball is kicked Houchens Industries–L. T. Smith Stadium at Jimmy Feix Field in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Apparently Western Kentucky wanted to name the stadium after every citizen in town. Half an hour after that, the Nebraska Cornhuskers will face the Northwestern Wildcats in Dublin, where the local spectators will quickly decide that a pint at Darkey Kelly’s (I highly recommend) is preferable to the abject boredom being played out on the field. But hey, college football!
A week later, your Washington State Cougars will get things underway at 6:30 p.m. with a game against the FCS Idaho Vandals. This will be the third matchup between the two in the last 10 years. WSU won 42-0 in 2013, a game which became infamous for Paul Petrino’s temper tantrum during the handshake. The last meeting was in 2016, when a 0-2 WSU team took out a lot of frustration on the poor Vandals, winning 56-6. That win would be the first of eight straight in what is still one of the more bizarre WSU seasons I can remember.
In that vein, the fine folks over at College Football News published their annual WSU season preview this week. As usual, Pete Fiutak and the team didn’t exactly do a deep dive, since they write these things for ever FBS team, but there is usually a nugget or two that a fan can find useful. I thought this blurb was about as simply put as could be regarding the offensive line.
The line will do some shuffling.
Pretty much!
This is probably the key to the 2022 defense – don’t give up the explosives that killed the team in 2019, and take advantage of turnover chances.
The defense was good at not breaking after bending. It was the best in the Pac-12 in red zone defense, it wasn’t bad in the secondary, and it was solid on third downs, What it was really, really good at was taking the ball away, coming up with a Pac-12 high 29 takeaways.
What else did I learn? After several years of Mike Leach, in which 300 yards passing was often the floor, WSU had just one 300-yard passing game all of last season against FBS competition, when Jayden de Laura strafed Oregon State for 399 yards in a 31-24 win. That total will certainly increase this season, especially since WSU lost two stalwart running backs.
As far as the defense, it all starts up front, and slowing down opposing rushing attacks.
The Cougars allowed 200 rushing yards or more five times and lost four of them, and they’re 1-8 in their last nine since 2019 when giving up that many.
Stop the run and increase your odds of winning games? Funny how some things never seem to change.
We all know who the key transfer is, but I found it interesting that CFN listed offensive line transfer Grant Stephens as the season’s key player. It’s an offbeat choice with Cam Ward’s presence, but I think it’s a good one. WSU has to keep Ward upright or this season will never get out of first gear.
Two other interesting stats I learned about from this article:
- Opponent Scoring: 1st-3rd quarters 188. 4th quarter 127
- Fumbles: Opponents 29 (lost 14) – Washington State 11 (lost 5)
Reeeeeallly gotta tighten up that fourth quarter defense, fellas. And man, it’s incredible to see the difference in the fumble numbers.
Ultimately, Pete and CFN predict the Cougs to finish an even 6-6, with this final analysis:
New quarterback Cameron Ward is too good and the offense will be too strong to not get to a bowl game, but it’s going to be a fight to get there. It’ll be a fun season, but it’ll be dramatic.
Sounds about right to me!
You can read all three portions of the preview here, here and here.
Football
The Cougs got a new recruiting director this week, according to the Twitters.
#WSU‘s new recruiting director: https://t.co/kbuP6fJxo7
— Colton Clark (@SpokesmanClark) July 15, 2022
Baseball
Checking in on former Washington State baseball players climbing minor league ranks | The Spokesman-Review
The MLB draft is upon us. Will more Cougars turn pro in the coming days? There aren’t any sure bets – certainly not like last year, when Kyle Manzardo, Zane Mills and Brandon White all heard their names called.
This Week in Parenting
As briefly mentioned, Team Kendall left Europe for good this week, and the boys had mixed emotions, usually changing by the minute. We’re taking in a MLB game today and will probably hit Top Golf soon, after which the last four years will likely be a distant memory. We’re spending a few days visiting old friends in Tampa, and it really is amazing how long four years can seem in the context of growing children. The kids we left as neighbors are barely recognizable, and the cracking voices are much more prevalent!
The oldest will soon be on the freshman football team, so he’s begun working out, and I’m trying to teach him what I can. One learning point regards the many-layered iterations of gym guy. This week, he got to learn about “checks phone for 2 minutes between sets” guy. We wanted to do some shoulder presses, but had to wait, and wait, and wait while this clown stared at his phone. It was a good learning point, because I was able to point out an example in real time and say, “don’t be that guy.”
Elsewhere, SportsCenter did a feature on Kevin Durant, causing the 10 year-old to ask, “Did Seattle used to have a basketball team?” Goddammit
Later on, he asked me about my favorite band, prompting the question, “Who is Van Halen?” I have failed as a parent.
Tales from the Road
Burn JFK airport to the ground and start over. That is all.
Non-Sports
He Had a Dark Secret. It Changed His Best Friend’s Life. – The New York Times
Tin Chin and Mo Lin were inseparable at the homeless shelter. But one of the men wasn’t who he seemed to be.
Mega Millions Winners Lost Riches After Using Lottery Lawyer – Bloomberg
Jay Kurland built a practice giving legal and financial advice to jackpot winners. He’s now accused of fraud.
Checking in on former Washington State baseball players climbing minor league ranks | The Spokesman-Review
The MLB draft is upon us. Will more Cougars turn pro in the coming days? There aren’t any sure bets – certainly not like last year, when Kyle Manzardo, Zane Mills and Brandon White all heard their names called.