- On the heels of Washington State's dominating victory over the UW in the Apple Cup, three Cougs earned Pac-12 Player of the Week honors.
Jayden De Laura was named the Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Week after completing 27-of-32 passes for 245 yards while rushing for another 31 yards in the win over Washington. De Laura set a WSU Apple Cup record with an 84.3% completion percentage, the fourth-best completion percentage in WSU single-game history.
Nickel back Armani Marsh was named the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week after making five tackles and two interceptions including WSU's first Apple Cup pick-6 since Eric Frampton accomplished the feat in 2006. Marsh was the first Cougar with two interceptions in an Apple Cup since Lamont Thompson had three interceptions in 1997.
Kicker Dean Janikowski was named the Pac-12 Special Teams Player of the Week after matching a WSU Apple Cup record with four made field goals in the win over Washington. Janikowski tallied 16 points after hitting all PAT and connected on 4-of-5 field attempts, hitting from 31, 25, a career-long 41 and 39 to match Drew Dunning's Apple Cup record he did twice (2002, 2003).
- Washington State volleyball is dancing once again in 2021. For the sixth consecutive season, Wazzu has earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament as announced Sunday evening. WSU heads to Waco, Texas to take part in the Baylor regional hosted by the 5-seed, Baylor Bears. The Cougs are one of just 17 teams to qualify for the last six NCAA Tournaments after earning their spot in the 2021 championships.
The Cougs will take on Northern Colorado in the opening round of the tournament, Thursday, December 2 with the second round taking place a day later on Dec. 3. The regional semifinals are Thursday, Dec. 9, and the regional finals are on Dec. 11. The national semifinals are Thursday, Dec. 16, with the 2021 national championship on Dec. 18. Championship weekend will take place in Columbus, Ohio at Nationwide Arena.
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New Wazzu head coach Jake Dickert offered some positive comments about one of the guys on defense who played with his hat on fire the entire Apple Cup. That's something WSU fans have come to take for granted this season. Here's what Dickert had to say about Armani, along with some Apple Cup notes thrown in for good measure:
https://247sports.com/college/washington-state/Article/Jake-Dickert-says-Armani-Marshs-Apple-Cup-football-heroics-all-part-of-All-Pac-12-worthy-season-176361904/ -
Bowl Season is not only upon us, the selections will be announced this coming Sunday once the final rankings are posted. There will be plenty of speculation leading up to official announcements. If you want to gain a little insight into the selection process, Jeff Nusser of Coug Center put together a nice primer:
https://www.cougcenter.com/wsu-cougars-football/2021/11/28/22806524/2021-pac-12-bowl-selection-process-explained-rose-alamo-las-vegas-los-angeles-sun-holiday
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 ...
