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There was big news for WSU football yesterday. Not surprisingly, Miami pulled out of their commitment to play the Cougs in the Sun Bowl this coming Friday morning at 9am. The Hurricanes announced their team was in Covid-19 protocols and would not travel to El Paso until the day before the game. When their AD became concerned about the status of players and a headcount of those available to play, the cord was pulled citing safety for their student-athletes. It is disappointing for the fan base of both teams that this obvious decision couldn't have been made before yesterday, Sunday. All hope is not vanquished for the possibility of the Sun Bowl being played as scheduled. The bowl committee will be manning the phones to see if a replacement team can be found at this very late stage. There is one team that makes a lot of sense. SMU was scheduled to play in the canceled Fenway Bowl. They are already in Texas and put in some practice to get their players in shape. Because of other bowl cancellations, two other teams could be called up at this eleventh hour. Those would be East Carolina and Memphis. East Carolina would have a fun storyline for the game. You may recall a guy who transferred from the Pirates to Pullman with one year of eligibility left. Initially, the player was headed to Tuscaloosa but a phone call from Coach Mike Leach convinced Gardner Minshew to take a run at leading the nation in passing. The rest of that story is packed with Cougar lore. Memphis would be a worthy opponent for Wazzu. They were favored to win the Hawaii Bowl...up until Hawaii pulled out for Covid-19 reasons. However, Tiger Coach Ryan Silverfield is on record saying their season is likely over. The team is in Hawaii and has waivers from the school to stay there over the holidays. Time will tell how this one plays out.
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For now, the Cougar football team is in El Paso and will be waiting to hear today whether or not they will have a chance to play the Sun Bowl contest this coming Friday. Here's a link with details on the Cougs events thusfar:
https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/sports/college/sunbowl/2021/12/26/washington-state-arrives-el-paso-tony-tiger-sun-bowl/9017096002/ -
Here's another intriguing option for the Sun Bowl committee to consider as a replacement for Miami. Stephen F. Austin State University (8-4) has gone on record saying they would jump at the chance to play in the Sun Bowl. What is so interesting about this possibility. The opponent for the Lumberjacks in their season finale, which they lost in double overtime, was none other than the Incarnate Word Cardinals (10-3). Eric Morris was the Cards head coach for that game. He now lives in Pullman and has joined the Jake Dickert staff as offensive coordinator. Morris would certainly have a good knowledge base to develop a game plan for the Cougs on short notice. For now, we'll just have to wait and see what the Sun Bowl committee comes up with.
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 ...
