What will it take, according to SB

[Coug95man2]

Interesting take… Pretty clear and concise. AND upbeat without sounding fluffy and rainbow'y. I completely agree with this assessment. CML is doing all he can, he's taking/taken action to fix issues.

The one issue that is easily overlooked, and done so in this article, is the ever-lovin' injuries bug. With CML and his rules about not talking injuries, I look at last year and see a few injuries that affected us but wasn't talked about much and really wasn't on anyones radar because it wasn't "talked" about. Minimum, I see Marks and Cracraft, I see Dotson just off the top of my head. If we can keep injuries down, like '13, that will be a huge step.

Winning at WSU

 

[CougEd]

Relatively speaking, they have been really healthy

On the offensive line how many games have been missed because of an injury? In 2013 they started all five guys all year. LAst year our center missed two games I think, Cole M missed games because of mono.

 

[bhamm03]

I think he really updated the defensive coaching staff and went Defensive emphasis in recruiting. Leach knows he has to win.

 

[cr8zyncalif]

Fair summary. The only area that I thought was a bit off base was the commentary about starters on O/D playing on special teams. We had several guys that were getting regular O and D playing time on the special teams. I had to conclude that special teams lack of preparation was a bigger deal than the actual bodies that were on the field. How much of that was the wrong ST coach and how much was the amount of practice time allocated to ST is something that I don't and probably will never know, but I am expecting that both will be improved this year.

 

[earldacoug]

Re: Relatively speaking, they have been really healthy

Wicks at RB missed a lot too. Along with the other guys missing, having him healthy would have made a difference imo.

 

[Coug90]

Re: Relatively speaking, they have been really healthy

Yeah wicks is a beast. He runs his tail off. Would love to see what he can do with a full healthy season.

 

[YakiCoug]

Re: Relatively speaking, they have been really healthy

Originally posted by Coug90:
Yeah wicks is a beast. He runs his tail off. Would love to see what he can do with a full healthy season.

As the O-lines develop and stabilize at WSU, the running backs will look better and better. Then again, so will the offense generally.

 

[cr8zyncalif]

You are right about the O line, Yaki. And the bench depth looks good. O line is the position that benefits the most from time and years of development, and it looks to me as though we will officially turn that corner this year. When that happens, everything the O does looks better.

 

[Coug95man2]

And while I completely agree with you guys, as the article points out via raw numbers, our Offense (thus our Oline) isn't the REAL problem. You're looking at souping up our car engine when it's our brakes that are making us lose the race. I look forward to our Oline development and I think it'll make a great difference but for the short term, I just don't see THAT being the real problem.


If we can get the Defense making stops, we are golden. And think of the ST! If they would have made 2 or 3 stops, our season would have been COMPLETELY different. Just ST...

 

[chipdouglas]

Originally posted by cr8zyncalif:
You are right about the O line, Yaki. And the bench depth looks good. O line is the position that benefits the most from time and years of development, and it looks to me as though we will officially turn that corner this year. When that happens, everything the O does looks better.

Dallas Cowboys. Ranged from a huge embarrassment to an only marginal embarrassment. Then, the last piece of the OL puzzle snaps into place and bam--they're a hair away from the NFC championship game.

 

[CougPatrol]

Maybe my football IQ board cred rating will go up since this article hammers home the points that I made in the middle of the season. Granted, my comments were akin to saying grass is green, but....

There are some iron laws that we have to accept as fans of the most rurally located Big 5 schools in the Nation. Attendance challenges, booster challenges, more difficult recruiting, overcoming the fact that Pullman isn't viewed by most people as a "destination" coaching gig. These are facts that, for the most part, we cannot change. Certainly not with 1 or 2 winning seasons every 10 years.

With that said, there are some mistakes that WSU shouldn't (and cannot afford to) make. Poor special teams play is inexcusable for a program like ours. We know that in most years, a lot of teams in our league will have more depth on the offensive and defensive lines.

Given that reality, the last freaking thing we can afford to do is give away yards, turnovers, and points on special teams. In 2014, we ranked among the worst teams in D-I in kick return defense, punt return defense, FG's made, kick returns, and punt returns. This is the #1, most correctable area of our program right now.

Our defense was another unit where a change had to be made. It wasn't that we were getting blown off the filed in all of our games. We were lining up wrong, continually blowing assignments in the back-7 and getting gashed for huge plays, getting beat routinely in the secondary, often times because we were playing tight man coverage with corners who had no ball skills.

The offense under Leach is always going to be respectable. At least I think it will. As the article stated, if we had any semblance of a kicking game last year, we would have averaged 36-38 points/game. As our line play stabilizes and if we can count on 35ppg, we'll win at least half our games, even if our defense is poor. Some years, we'll field a decent defense and win 7-9 games. Some may call that an underachieving attitude, but if we can reach that level, I'll be satisfied.