Freshman
All-American transfers to WSU
McDougle
won't play for Cougars this season, has three years of eligibility remaining
By DYLAN
GREENE, Evergreen
May 17,
2018
West
Virginia University Freshman All-American defensive tackle Lamonte McDougle
signed a letter intent Wednesday to transfer to WSU.
McDougle
won’t be eligible to step on the field for the Cougars until 2019, but he will
have three years of eligibility left when he does.
McDougle
played in all 13 games for the Mountaineers last season, tallying 23 tackles,
two sacks, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.
WSU
offered McDougle a scholarship out of high school and West Virginia prevented
him from transferring to several schools including all the teams within the
Big-12 Conference, according to The Spokesman-Review.
McDougle’s
father, Stockar, played offensive lineman at University of Oklahoma in 1999
while current WSU Head Coach Mike Leach was the offensive coordinator and
quarterbacks coach for the Sooners, possibly playing a role in McDougle’s
decision to come to the Palouse.
This story
has been changed to reflect that McDougle signed a letter of intent on
Wednesday not Tuesday.
::::::::::::::
COUG WSU
FOOTBALL
West
Virginia Freshman All-American Lamonte McDougle announces transfer to
Washington State
UPDATED:
Wed., May 16, 2018, 9:40 p.m.
Spokesman-Review/By
Theo Lawson
PULLMAN –
A Big 12 defensive tackle who nabbed Freshman All-American honors last season
has decided to spend the remainder of his college career at Washington State.
Lamonte
McDougle, a high-profile transfer from West Virginia, signed a letter of intent
with Mike Leach and the Cougars Wednesday. McDougle played in all 13 games for
the Mountaineers in 2017 and won’t be eligible to play for WSU this fall, but
will have three years remaining when his eligibility clock restarts in 2019.
The
5-foot-10, 295-pound defensive tackle didn’t take long to become one of the Big
12’s most productive run-pluggers as a college rookie. McDougle finished the
year with 23 tackles, including four tackles for loss, had two sacks, one
forced fumble and one fumble recovery.
The
Mountaineers, who went 7-6 and lost to Utah in the Heart of Dallas Bowl last
season, restricted McDougle from transferring to a handful of schools, including
every Big 12 program and 10 future nonconference opponents, including Florida
State, Tennessee and Missouri.
McDougle
carries some strong football lineage. His father, Stockar, played offensive
line at Oklahoma in 1999 while Leach was the Sooners’ offensive coordinator and
quarterbacks coach – perhaps one reason Lamonte decided to move cross-country
and finish up his college career in Pullman. The Cougars also offered McDougle
out of high school.
He spoke
highly of his recruiting visit to WSU, which came in April the same weekend the
Cougars were holding their third spring scrimmage.
Originally
from Pompano Beach, Florida, McDougle prepped at Deerfield Beach High School
and registered 47 unassisted tackles, 31 assisted tackles, 23 tackles for loss
and 14 sacks as a senior. Deerfield Beach posted a 10-3 record in 2016.
McDougle
earned a three-star rating from every major recruiting service and received
offers from Arkansas, Purdue, Penn State, Cincinnati, Kentucky, Minnesota,
Syracuse and UCF, along with WSU.
Stockar
McDougle was drafted by the Detroit Lions in 2000 and played with three clubs
in seven NFL seasons, starting in 56 of the 81 games in which he appeared.
Lamonte’s uncle, Jerome, played at Miami and spent time in the NFL with the
Philadelphia Eagles. Jerome and Stockar host the annual McDougle Bowl – a
rivalry football game between Deerfield Beach and Blanche Ely. The game’s MVP
receives a $1,000 academic scholarship from the McDougle Family Foundation.
……………
Vet Med
students decry raise in tuition
Non-residents
will pay over $60,000 a year after increase
By IAN
SMAY, Evergreen May 17, 2018
The recent
tuition increases approved by the WSU Board of Regents at their May meeting
will affect students in various departments of the university.
The
College of Veterinary Medicine received a 7 percent increase for both resident
and non-resident students for the 2018-19 academic year.
The
request brought in front of the Board by the CVM stated that “…the College of
Veterinary Medicine is struggling to keep pace with needed investments in
educational programs,” and the school is struggling to keep up with rising
costs, stemming from areas like salary and equipment costs.
“Almost
everything we use to teach with, including people’s time, is subject to
inflation at a time when the public in terms of state government is not
investing as strongly in higher education as it used to,” CVM Dean Bryan
Slinker said.
This 7
percent increase raises tuition for resident students by a little over a
thousand dollars, bringing their total to $24,994. However, non-resident
students saw an increase of almost $4,000, bringing their total to $60,550.
This widens the gap between to the two, with non-residents paying about $35,000
more than their resident counterparts.
Slinker
said non-residents will always be asked to pay more due to them not paying into
state taxes, which helps subsidize non-resident tuition.
Some
non-resident students are able to pay resident tuition by coming from a state
that is a member of either the Washington-Idaho-Montana-Utah Regional Program
(WIMU) or the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE), both
of which allow their students to receive resident tuition.
Sarah
Beard, a CVM student, said the students aren’t upset over the increase, but of
how it is implemented.
“I
understand that tuition needs to increase and that’s not what we were upset
about,” Beard said. “It’s that it’s unfairly disproportionate for us
out-of-state students.”
Beard also
said students were frustrated because they had only been warned of the tuition
increase proposal a few days before the meeting, a fact confirmed by Slinker.
Some
students in the program spend two years in Washington and two years in Logan,
Utah for their degree.
The
students that spend their whole time at WSU or start here are able to get
resident tuition after one year, even if they are non-residents their first
year. But the students that begin in Utah cannot apply for resident tuition at
any point, Slinker said.
Non-resident
students receive a tuition waiver for $8,600, but with this increase covering
almost half of the waiver, Beard said the waiver loses value.
“With the
increase of 7 percent, the waiver is smaller … and less helpful each time
tuition increases,” she said.
Slinker
said while tuition has increased in recent years, it still covers less than
half the cost of education.
Students
want the school to look at ways to ease the burden on non-resident students
when they increase tuition, Beard said.
She said
some ideas include allowing all students to pay the same tuition with
non-residents paying an extra flat fee and only implementing tuition increases
on incoming classes to avoid raising costs on people who are already a year or
more into the program.
Beard also
said the tuition increases have caused some students to stop recommending the
program to others.
“Talking
to other classmates, it’s not a program they would recommend to anyone anymore
because the cost is increasing very erratically and at a huge percentage,” she
said.
While
Slinker said WSU’s program costs less than most around the country, he does not
foresee tuition increases ending soon.
“Odds are
yes,” Slinker said of future tuition increases. “How much [is] totally unknown
at this point.”
::::::::::::::::::
City of
Pullman takes feedback on building plans
Concerns
ranged from placement of elevator to layout of departments
By IAN
SMAY, Evergreen
May 17,
2018
Officials
from the City of Pullman and Design West Architects listened to feedback from
citizens last week regarding plans for a new city hall and recreation center.
Concerns
from attendees of the meeting ranged from the placement of an elevator in the
building, which City Supervisor Adam Lincoln said the City of Pullman purchased
from Encounter Ministries for $3.5 million, to parking and accessibility for
the elderly.
“I would
guess that seniors and soon-to-be seniors are probably the majority of the
actual voters,” Pullman Ward 3 council member Brandon Chapman said. “I would
certainly love to see that those desires that they have be taken care of.”
Many
community members, as well as Design West’s Ned Warnick, believe the new senior
center could attract people from surrounding communities to Pullman.
The new
city hall, which Pullman voters passed in February, will house all of the
services in the current city hall building, including the senior center. The
new complex will also house a recreation center for community programs.
The
recreation center will be built in the area currently used as a gymnasium in
the Encounter Ministries building, which Warnick said will mostly stay the
same.
As for the
elevator, a shaft already exists in the building. However, if a third story is
created in the main city hall building the elevator may not serve this top
floor, requiring the city to replicate the services on an elevator accessible
level.
When it
comes to layout for the various departments housed in city hall, Warnick said
planners want to layout the building in a wagon-wheel style design, where
people can begin at a center area and move out towards the different
departments.
One
concern raised with the layout of different city departments within the
building as it sits now is openness between rooms.
“I feel
like if everyone is sectioned off like that, how is that good for flow,” a
community member said.
Overall,
the renovation of the old Encounter Ministries building for the new city hall
and recreation center areas adds up to $8.3 million of the $10 million bond
approved in February as City of Pullman Proposition No. 1, Lincoln said.
………………..
WSU
FOOTBALL
12 for 12:
A dozen Pac-12 players Washington State ducked in 2017 because of injury
By Theo
Lawson S-R of Spokane/Inland Empire
UPDATED:
Wed., May 16, 2018, 9:14 p.m.
Injuries
pummeled the Pac-12 Conference in 2018 and it’s safe to wonder if the league
would have put on a slightly better show during bowl season had a few key players
avoided the long-term ailments that kept them off the field the majority of the
year.
The Pac-12
was so injury-prone that one columnist managed to successfully compile an
all-injury team, filling out nearly every spot on the field with a player who’d
seen his season truncated. The group, highlighted by players such as Oregon QB
Justin Herbert, Washington OL Trey Adams and Washington State LB Peyton
Pelluer, could have given Alabama a run for its money.
The
Cougars, like everyone else in the Pac-12, missed out on some of the
conference’s top talent in 2017. Here’s a dozen of those players they’ll have
to see this fall.
Justin
Herbert, QB, Oregon – In many way-too-early NFL Draft projections, Herbert is
being pegged as the top quarterback prospect for 2019. The Oregon junior has
done plenty of damage in two seasons as the Ducks’ starter, but the Cougars
have managed to dodge him not once, but twice. It wasn’t until the week after a
2016 game at Martin Stadium that Herbert won the starting job. The first game
he missed in 2017 after suffering a collarbone injury happened to be a 33-10
WSU rout in Eugene.
Trey
Adams, OL, Washington – A 41-14 loss to Washington in the Apple Cup was hard to
swallow as is. Then you factor in the crop of players – on both sides of the
ball – the Huskies were missing because of injury. Adams, an imposing left
tackle at 6-foot-8, 327 pounds was named first-team All-America by the Football
Writers Association of America in 2016 but didn’t suit up for the Huskies in
2017 after Oct. 14. He could have gone pro, but much to the chagrin of WSU and
eight other Pac-12 opponents, he’s back for one final round of college ball.
Demetris
Robertson, WR, Cal – As other wide receivers developed throughout the season,
Robertson’s absence wasn’t quite as noticeable. Then again, the Golden Bears
missed out on bowl eligibility by one game and lost three games by three points
or loss, so you wonder what could have been had the former freshman
All-American stayed healthy.
Chico
McClatcher, WR, Washington – Perhaps it didn’t show, but the Huskies were
ultrathin at receiver by the time they met up with the Cougars. McClatcher and
two other top pass-catchers had already sustained season-ending injuries. But
without Dante Pettis, McClatcher, a flashy, versatile junior, expects to be
more of a focal point for UW in 2018.
Porter
Gustin, LB, USC – A wave of injuries hit the Trojans right before their trip to
Pullman. On the defensive side, the most notable absence was Gustin, a
punishing edge-rusher who was shut down after suffering an early-season toe
injury. A former five-star recruit and All-Pac-12 honorable mention linebacker,
Gustin, if healthy, could work his way into the first round of NFL mock drafts
this season.
Hunter
Bryant, TE, Washington – Bryant missed four games at the end of the season but
still ranked second on the Huskies’ catch chart with 22 receptions and earned
ESPN Freshman All-American honors. The Cougars should see plenty of him this
fall.
Patrick
Laird, RB, Cal – After missing his only game of the season against the Cougars,
Laird, a former walk-on and Burlsworth Trophy semifinalist, gashed his next
five opponents for 727 rushing yards and four touchdowns.
Chase
Hansen, S, Utah – The former All-Pac-12 honorable mention safety passed on a
chance to turn pro early and returns as one of the league’s most savvy
defenders.
Toa
Lobendahn, OL, USC – Not since 2014 has Lobendahn completed a full season
without injury. While his health continues to be a major question mark,
Lobendahn has shown the ability to play all three spots on the O-line, though
the Trojans will ask him their former Freshman All-American to anchor the
center position.
Alijah
Holder, Stanford – On the day Luke Falk became the Pac-12’s career passing
yards leader, Stanford could have used one of its lockdown corners, who
sustained a season-ending leg injury the week prior against Oregon State.
Dillon
Mitchell, WR, Oregon – Oregon’s passing game was barely at half-strength when
the Cougars visited. Not only were the Ducks without Herbert, they were also
missing his top receiver. Mitchell caught 21 passes for 287 yards in his final
three games last year.
Marquise
Blair, S, Utah – Blair established himself as one of the Pac-12’s most physical
safeties through nine games, amassing 48 tackles and three tackles for loss
before a lower-leg injury derailed the rest of his rookie season at Utah.
:::::::::::
Luke Falk
is right at home with the Titans.
By Jeff
Collier Coug Center
May 2, 2018, 4:53am PDT
Fans of
the Washington State Cougars have known for a while that Luke Falk is a very
private person. He keeps his public presence to a minimum, never had a (public)
social media account and, even when he did talk to the media, preferred to keep
it to football.
Today, the
fans in Nashville learned just how private he is.
“I really
only have my Instagram. I think my fiance likes when i post pictures sometimes,
that helps her out. I’m really only close with the people I’m close with... I’m
not into Twitter, I think it’s a pretty negative arena, so i stay off of it,”
Falk said on Nashville’s 104.5 The Zone. The guys on “The Midday 180” talked
with the Titans’ 6th round draft pick about everything from social media to his
Tom Brady fandom.
“I admire
what [Brady] does. I try to take what I can and model my game after what he’s
doing,” Falk told the radio show. Falk is a big fan of Brady’s, and it’s only
fitting that the two were taken with the same pick of the draft, number 199.
Falk
downplayed coincidence of him sharing a draft number with his idol. He expected
to go higher, but is happy to get a shot.
“I’m just
happy to be drafted,” Falk told the show. “For a while there it was looking a
little shakey. I’m grateful for the Titans to pick me up ... I think we were
expecting to go in the 2nd, maybe the 4th at the latest ... The coaches and the
organization took a shot at me and I’m going to prove them right.”
Falk
didn’t just open up about the draft process, he (and really anyone associated
with WSU) also talked about his injury situation for the first time since
suffering a broken wrist.
“I played
11 games with it. You just had to change up what you do... I tried to hand it
off with one hand, when you took some hits, you had to fall on your shoulder
rather than brace yourself with your hand.” Falk tried to play in the Holiday
Bowl, but decided on surgery after three specialists advised that path.
As for his
chances to make it in the pros as a system quarterback?
“I think
I’m a franchise quarterback and I can play ball.”
Falk also
touches on his experience with Leach, how he visualizes play calls and more.
Listen to
the complete interview:
#
