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Cougar punter Nick Haberer has been selected as an NCAA freshman All-American. Haberer had an outstanding season punting 52 times for 2,225 yards, averaging 42.8 yards-per-punt with 14 punts inside the 20 and five of 50+yards including a long of 60. The young man from Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia is the first Wazzu football player to earn FOTY honors since Jalen Thompson and James "Boobie" Williams accomplished the feat. If you watched the Rams vs. Cardinals Wild Card Playoff game Monday night, you probably heard Thompson's name quite a bit as a starter on Arizona's defense in their secondary. Williams got a couple of looks by NFL teams as an undrafted free agent but didn't catch on with anyone.
Haberer was one of the bright spots for Cougar special teams play last season. His duties included holding for field goal attempts by Dean Janikowski. -
For the second time this year, Washington State Men's Basketball freshman Mouhamed Gueye took home Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honors for the week ending January 16 as announced by the conference office Monday afternoon. Gueye previously earned his first award for the week of November 21. He becomes the first Coug to win multiple Freshman of the Week awards since the creation of the honor in 2019-20. Gueye tallied a double-double against Stanford by scoring 16-points and hauling in 11-rebounds. He nearly matched that feat a couple of days later against Cal when he scored nine points and grabbed eight rebounds.
Clearly, Gueye, the highest-ranked recruit since Michael Thompson came to Pullman, is coming into his own as the season progresses. Early in the year, he struggled by getting into foul trouble, something common with freshmen. Lately, his defense has improved and he's much more aggressive at the offensive end of the court. -
If you remembered to set your DVR to record WSU men's hoops this coming Thursday at Oregon, well, cancel your scheduled recording. The game with the Ducks has been postponed due to Covid-19 protocols for Wazzu. Since this was a conference game, it's likely to be rescheduled to a future date that is mutually agreeable.
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Here's a link to a nice article put together by Scott Hansen of the Seattle Times on Gabe Marks' post-football goals and aspirations:
https://www.union-bulletin.com/sports/college_sports/washington_state_university/former-wsu-star-receiver-gabe-marks-wants-to-help-football-players-with-their-mental-health/article_5358496d-c0d8-5e7c-9fad-c98863cf240b.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 ...
