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First up on this day before Thanksgiving is a story on the departure of a Cougar football player. Halid Djibril was a safety who came into this season with expectations to be a big-time contributor. Unfortunately, things didn't go that way. Losing another safety from the WSU roster is significant because that leaves the team rather thin at the position. It becomes a concern because without a head coach, recruiting becomes dicey. Incoming student-athletes want to know who their coach is going to be. That's who they commit to. Without a head coach, all assistant coaches are wondering where they will be working next season. Colton Clark turns in a nice piece on Djibril.
https://www.nbcrightnow.com/sports/washington_state_university/washington-state-safety-halid-djibril-enters-ncaa-transfer-portal/article_0212f44c-43a5-51d6-a627-a69e05d23c78.html -
Cougar Nation lost a great guy this week. Derek Sparks was an outstanding person on a number of levels, including the gridiron. Here's a quick look at the Sparks story:
https://www.khq.com/sports/washington_state_university/former-washington-state-standout-derek-sparks-dies-after-battle-with-cancer/article_5602c56e-0cf8-5a6e-94f1-6b02125569fb.html -
Braulio Perez turns in an excellent backstory on an unheralded player who made a significant impact in the last Apple Cup Wazzu won. It's definitely a good read:
https://247sports.com/college/washington-state/LongFormArticle/Logan-Mayes-forgotten-hero-of-WSUs-last-Apple-Cup-win-relishes-that-2012-moment-167439100/#167439100_1 -
Staying with Apple Cup hype, here's a fun story penned by Colton Clark that contains a bit of irony. Clark doesn't mention the backstory on the Apple Cup countdown clocks. Those were installed by former WSU head coach Nick Rolovich. Rolovich sensed early on that the way to win over recruits, donors, and fans was to lead the Cougs to Apple Cup wins. Great idea/plan. Too bad Rolo won't be involved in a game he valued highly to build a football program. Though he didn't come out and specifically say so, Rolo felt that former Coach Mike Leach didn't understand the gravity of winning a game that meant more than bragging rights to WSU. If the Cougar football program is to flourish, it must take care of business year in and year out by winning Apple Cups. Here's the link to Clark's story:
https://www.nbcrightnow.com/sports/washington_state_university/weve-been-looking-at-that-clock-for-a-whole-year-composed-washington-state-awaiting-chance/article_8b0e4591-0ade-562b-8a19-b9dbb161d735.html
Go Cougs!!!
- It seems fitting to put together a list of coaches who branch off of the Mike Leach coaching tree. Perspective on his football genius can easily be determined by a cursory glance:
Dave Aranda/Baylor head coach – Graduate assistant coach under Leach from 2000-02 at Texas Tech
Neal Brown/West Virginia head coach – Played under Leach in 1998 when Leach was offensive coordinator at Kentucky
Sonny Cumbie/Louisiana Tech head coach – Played under Leach at Texas Tech from 2000-03 and later served as a graduate assistant coach under Leach
Sonny Dykes/TCU head coach – Coached wide receivers and later was the co-offensive coordinator at Texas Tech under Leach from 2000-06
Josh Heupel/Tennessee head coach – Played under Leach at Oklahoma in 1999 when Leach was the offensive coordinator for the Sooners
Dana Holgorsen/Houston head coach – Coached alongside Leach as assistants at Valdosta State from 1993-95, then served as a wide receivers coach and offensive coordinator under Leach from ...
- The news of former WSU Coach Mike Leach passing at the young age of 61 is very, very sad. I had the pleasure of writing about the Cougs when Leach was at the helm. To say that he was a unique person doesn't begin to describe the multi-faceted dimension of the man.
In terms of coaching football, Leach led his teams in a way that had most other coaches scratching their heads. His offensive creativity gave a multitude of defensive coordinators ulcers. To say that his techniques for molding student-athletes into football players were unusual would be accurate. Making guys run sprints in a sand pit named "Leach Beach" is a prime example. Crazy as that sounds, his players had fewer ankle injuries over the course of the season than any team in football. Only Mike Leach could get players to hit the beach. And if you look at the coaching tree that branches out from Leach, you'd find a myriad of men who owe him for their start in the profession.
When you examine the way Leach represented the schools ...
- Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, so Wazzu's loss yesterday to UNLV by a score of 74-70 was just that, a loss. However, there were plenty of reasons to applaud both the performance and the progress the Cougs are making over the past few games. Let's get the bad observation out of the way. WSU turned the ball over a ridiculous 22 times. No one is going to beat many teams with such wreckless play, especially against a team that posted a 9-0 record going into the contest. Some of those errors might be attributed to Coach Kyle Smith going with a different lineup almost every game because of player injuries. Facts are facts and when there isn't a steady lineup, players struggle to play team ball. On the bright side, Wazzu shot a respectable 54.2% from the field, coupled with a very nice 56.5% from behind the arc. On defense, WSU held UNLV to just 30.4% from behind the arc and 50.9% overall. The Cougs outrebounded the Rebels by a margin of 33-20. Despite being down by ...
