[Quack Attack]

Cougars end camp on an ugly note


RYAN DIVISH
Published: August 23rd, 2008 01:00 AM




PULLMAN – Paul Wulff pushed back the bill of his Washington State visor and flashed a reluctant smile. It says something for his discipline to be able to make such an effort following what had to be one of the most disappointing performances the new Cougars coach had seen from his team.

“It was OK,” Wulff said. “Some good, some bad, it seems like I’ve said that all camp.” Well, that’s partially true. But really Wulff was adding a little crimson tint to his assessment because the bad seemed to far outweigh the good. That’s something most coaches don’t want to see in their final scrimmage of fall camp, with the first game a week away when the Cougars take on Oklahoma State on Auig. 30 at Qwest Field. “Well, we have a week to get better and have more consistent of the good,” Wulff said. But how much work can be done?
On a day the No. 1 units squared off against the No. 2 units, it was the No. 2s which seemed to have the better showing.

WSU’s first team offense, led by senior quarterback Gary Rogers, seemed sluggish and a little off.
Its first series – the second of the scrimmage – was a mixture of nice plays and silly mistakes. An illegal formation penalty and an 8-yard sack offset a nice 21-yard pass play from Rogers to tight end Tony Thompson.
The inconsistency continued. On third down and 17, Rogers hit true freshman Jared Karstetter with a nice pass up the seam for 19 yards and a first down. But the series ended when Rogers’ pass over the middle floated and was picked off by Easton Johnson.

“We came out a little slow,” Rogers admitted.
It wasn’t just in the results, but in the pace and tempo. With the no-huddle system Wulff likes to run, a quick tempo works best. But that wasn’t happening early.
“There were some times out there we tried to slow it down and it actually worked against us,” Wulff said. “We’re used to going at a faster pace. Today when we got in that slower tempo we didn’t perform quite as well.”

The first-team offense’s inconsistency continued for much of the scrimmage. Rogers did complete another 25-yard pass to Ben Woodard, but was also picked off two more times. On the ground, it was even worse as the first-team unit – without banged-up Dwight Tardy and Chris Ivory – only had one run longer than 9 yards.
“The turnovers, we can’t have them,” Rogers admitted.
Meanwhile, the No. 1 defense going against the No. 2 offense fared only marginally better.

With starting linebackers Greg Trent and Cory Evans held out, the Cougars’ first-string defense was susceptible to routes underneath. No. 2 quarterback Kevin Lopina was able to connect with receivers on short routes to keep the chains moving.

Lopina was able to engineer the first scoring drive. Given a short field – starting at the opponents’ 25 – Lopina found Woodard over the middle for a 21-yard gain. Three plays later, he hit Thompson on a short route and the big tight end was able to muscle into the front corner of the end zone.

The other touchdown came at the end of the scrimmage during the two-minute drill period. With the tempo up and the Cougars calling plays from the line, Rogers completed five straight passes – including his first to Brandon Gibson – moving the offense 50 yards to the 15-yard-line. After a timeout, Rogers decided to go to the team’s best player, lofting a pretty pass to the end zone and hitting Gibson on the fade route for a touchdown.

“I was really happy with that last drive,” said Rogers, who was 6-for-6 in pass attempts on the drive to finish the day 11-of-17 for 140 yards. It would have been a way for the Cougars to end the scrimmage on a positive note. Instead, Wulff continued auditions for a kicker, and they were a disaster. The trio of Wade Penner, Nico Grasu and Patrick Rooney did little to build confidence. The three kickers took turns from five different spots on the field with far from ideal results. Of the 15 attempts, five found their way through the uprights. Penner hit from 42 yards twice, but missed three and had a miss from 36 yards earlier in the scrimmage to go 2-for-6. Grasu also made his two from 42 and the earlier kick of 36 to finish his day 3-for-6. Rooney made one of his six kicks, leaving the trio 6-for-18.

When asked what he would like to see from the kickers this week, Wulff responded, “A lot more than what we’ve seen. If we can’t get some consistency there, we’re going to have to go for it on fourth down a lot.”