The most
important offensive stat for 2018 Cougs
5 Coug
walk ons make way to the promised land, earn scholies
Cougfan.com
May 19, 2018
IT’S THE
DREAM for every walk-on college football player – earning a scholarship. Five
Cougar walk ons have realized that dream, including a quarterback, nose tackle,
linebacker, wide receiver and long snapper.
QB Trey
Tinsley, NT Taylor Comfort, LB Dillon Sherman, WR Brandon Arconado and long
snapper Kyle Celli are now on scholie, running backs coach Eric Mele tweeted.
Tinsley, a
6-3, 210-pound fourth-year junior out of Lake Forest, Calif., ended spring
drills as the leading starting candidate at quarterback. Tinsley, who served as
holder last year, was WSU’s most accurate QB all spring, a trait Mike Leach
prizes.
Comfort, a
6-0, 280-pound fifth-year senior out of Sultan, Wash., was the surprise of the
spring on defense, with d-line coach Jeff Phelps saying he felt “really strong”
about Comfort as a starter at spring’s end.
Sherman, a
6-1, 220-pound third-year sophomore out of Mission Viejo, Calif., has been a
rising presence who is versatile enough to play WILL or MIKE. He quickly became
a valuable, trusted special teamer last season and is now doing the same in the
tackle box.
Arconado,
a 5-11, 185-pound fourth-year junior our of Chino Hills, Calif., put together a
solid spring session. He saw action in 11 games last season, nabbed his first
TD reception and developed a reputation as an excellent blocker.
Celli, a
6-1, 230-pound fifth-year senior out of Seattle, was superb last season in
starting all 13 games and was again uber-consistent this spring. As a bonus,
Celli often flies down the field after the snap on punt coverage. He had five
tackles during the 2017 campaign.
WSU HAS
PRODUCED some highly notable walk ons over the years. You may have heard of a
guy named Luke Falk. Three others went on to earn first-team All-American
honors: kicker Drew Dunning in 2003, kicker Jason Hanson in 1989 and 1991, and
center Geoff Reece in 1974.
WSU's 1998
Rose Bowl team featured five starters whose careers began as walk ons: Cory
Withrow, Rian Lindell, Lee Harrison, Todd Nelson and Shawn Tims. Withrow and
Lindell went on to long NFL careers.
Many more
Cougar notables began their careers at Washington State as walk ons, including
Don Sweet, Gavin Hedrick, Tim Davey, Kyle Basler, Mawuli Davis, Scott Lunde,
Tomasi Kongaika, Mike Shelford, Josh Duin, Brian Danaher and Ken Grandberry.
…………….
WSU
Cougars Athletics
The
Possible Impacts of legalized wagering
Sports
betting is about to become even more mainstream
By PJ
Kendall
Coug
Center/May 20, 2018, 6:20am PDT
Good
morning. I can think of few people who are more happy this week than Brent
Musburger and Al Michaels. For years, sports commentators treated in-game
gambling references like the Taliban treats, well, just about everything.
Michaels and Musburger were the only two guys who enjoyed weaving the betting
aspect of a particular game into their telecasts. Well this week gambling
became much more mainstream, as the US Supreme Court struck down a 26 year-old
law that banned sports betting. Hallelujah.
Drilling down
further, what impact could this have on college athletics, the Pac-12 and WSU?
Well, let’s just say there’s a lot more money to be made, and we all know WSU
is a bit lacking when it comes to revenue. The first major impact could be in
terms of eyeballs, which are critical when it comes to rights deals.
This could
actually mean those #Pac12AfterDark games finally become an advantage for the
conference! After a full day of losing, those games present the last chance to
win it all back for the day. There is no doubt that people who otherwise may
have a passing interest in Pac-12 football will find themselves tuning in a lot
more.
Taking
this to the Nth degree, can you imagine a world in which live betting is
allowed inside the stadium? Sure, the wifi and cellular networks would require
a lot more bandwidth, but imagine the possibility of, say, Northern Quest
Casino providing an app that lets fans in attendance (or anywhere for that
matter) place in-game wagers. Hell, maybe a place like Northern Quest can put
its name on Martin Stadium for a handsome fee.
The
conference could also take it upon itself, and inject a gambling section into
its Pac-12 app. Pregame lines, halftime lines, first half over/unders, prop
bets, the possibilities are endless! Of course, Larry and the gang would
probably take all of the profits and hire a bunch more grossly-overpaid
do-nothing executives. He seems quite adept at that.
Jon Wilner
wrote about the possibilities as well, and consulted sports law analytics
expert Ryan Rodenburg. Rodenburg had several thoughts.
Imagine
each conference collecting one percent of the total handle (the so-called
integrity fee) on football games in states throughout its footprint.
According
to Rodenburg, New Jersey estimated the annual handle on sports wagers could be
$10 million. California would dwarf that.
Let’s
assume that California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona and Colorado eventually
legalize sports wagering - let’s keep Utah out of the discussion for now - and
that the annual handle (the amount wagered) across the Pac-12 footprint is $50
billion. Then let’s estimate 20 percent of that total is bet on college sports:
$10 billion per year.
Finally,
let’s imagine the Pac-12...were to cut integrity fee deals comparable to those
of the NBA, MLB and NFL. That translates to $100 million annually for the
conference. And it could be larger.
The
possibilities are endless, and any additional revenue stream that comes
available to WSU Athletics is essential to their longterm success. Let’s hope
legal wagering in Washington, and throughout the country, comes to pass sooner
than later.
Mike Leach
Must have
been a slow news week in Spokane, as many words were spent trying to figure out
what Mike Leach is doing in Southeast Asia. I’d be able to follow the coach’s
voyage via Twitter, but apparently he blocked me at some point for reasons I
will never know (I had one interaction with him ever on Twitter, and it was
quite positive).
………………
Shawn
Vestal: The Mikes do Southeast Asia, one tweet at a time
Fri., May
18, 2018, 6 a.m.
By Shawn
Vestal, Spokane Spokesman-Review
(See photo
of Coach Learch and Sen. Sen. Baumgartner. Posted on Twitter by the senator.)
Call it
Mike and Mike’s Excellent Adventure: A Twitter Bromance.
The
senator – Michael Baumgartner – and the football coach – Mike Leach – are
traveling Southeast Asia, meeting and greeting and tweeting. Here they are
meeting with the Cambodian prime minister. There they are visiting the
“Meat-Shaped Stone” in a Taiwanese museum. Here they are visiting a Costco in
Taipei. There they are talking about beef exports and “dairy production
collaboration.”
Here they
are at Angkor Wat.
There they
are in a boat on the Mekong River.
The Mikes
are posting lots of happy thumbs-ups in casual selfies. Lots of stiff, posed
photographs in a line of suits, including two other Washington state lawmakers.
Lots of interactions with “Friendly People!”
Since the
first Southeast Asian tweet landed on May 7, Baumgartner has been hitting
social media harder than if Jay Inslee had vetoed a tax cut. Leach, a less
frequent but more diverse Tweeter than his pal, has been gobbling up the
“likes” for his post about the Meat-shaped Stone, a piece of jasper carved to
resemble a hunk of dongpo pork at the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
“The
fascinating thing is The Meat Shaped Stone has a respect in Taiwan that reminds
me of the Mona Lisa,” Leach wrote. “There was a big crowd around it the whole
time. I liked it but I am trying to understand its magnitude.”
Leach, a
man who can attract attention for the way he blows on a cup of coffee to cool
it down, has gotten a lot of attention for the trip and the Meat-shaped Stone
in particular; his Twitter post about it is gathering hundreds of new “likes”
by the day, topping 1,200 Thursday.
What,
exactly, brings the senator and the coach to Southeast Asia? Who paid and why?
Who were they representing?
The state?
Costco? Coug Nation?
A lot of
people are curious; few seem to know. WSU officials say it’s not a university
trip, and that Leach paid his own way. Senate Republican Caucus communications
staffers have said they didn’t have any information, but that it wasn’t a
state-paid trip. The head of the Washington State Beef Commission said she
hadn’t heard of the trip, and a representative of state dairy organizations
said the same. Contacted by text this week, Baumgartner, who has announced
he’ll leave the Senate to run for county treasurer, said an interview wouldn’t
be possible until his return.
A campaign
spending report filed by another lawmaker along for the trip, Sen. Doug
Ericksen of Ferndale, who recently turned down a Trump administration
appointment to the EPA in part because it would have required him to commute
regularly to Seattle, indicates he paid nearly $1,400 on airfare for the trip
out of surplus campaign funds for a “Trade Mission to Cambodia.”
There’s
nothing necessarily untoward or even unusual about lawmakers making such a trip
– depending on who paid and why – though the inclusion of Leach seems atypical.
One might also wonder about the propriety of buddying up with the Cambodian
prime minister Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge leader who has held power for more
than 30 years. He’s known for imprisoning political opponents, suppressing
journalists and demonizing the United States. International observers say Sen
has become increasingly authoritarian, and they express deep suspicions about
the fairness of upcoming elections.
A single
report from the Cambodian government-run “news site” Fresh News (whose motto is
translated into English as “Breaking News on Your Hand”) details remarks made
by Ericksen at a news conference, where he was reported to have said “the
political situation is Cambodia is very good.”
The piece,
in addition to getting Ericksen’s title wrong, is written in the stilted,
complaint tones of propaganda: “The U.S. Senator … said he would suggest in the
U.S. should not interfere in the Cambodian affairs, and that he supported Prime
Minister Hun Sen that Cambodia should not allow foreign countries to interfere
in her affairs, since it is the position of Cambodian people.”
Baumgartner
described their journey in a post as a “great trip to Cambodia to promote
friendship and trade with Washington State.” He said they were looking for ways
to boost Washington exports, and Leach came to talk educational partnership
between Cambodia and WSU. He referred to “productive meetings over several
days” with Cambodian officials.
Along with
playing tourist in a cool part of the world.
There was
the aforementioned museum trip and photo of the Meat-Shaped Stone. Baumgartner
tweeted about Ming vases. Later, he posted a photo of himself and Leach sharing
drinks with a couple of prominent Cougs: Adam Chen, the CEO of HSBC Bank
Taiwan, and Ben Hsiang, general manager of Swilling Henkel Ltd. Hashtag:
“BigTime.”
Not long
after came the retweet from WSU President Kirk Schulz: “Cougs are everywhere!”
They are!
In one photo, Leach sits in a boat on the Mekong River, dubbed the Pirate of
the Mekong by Baumgartner. In another he shares a beer with locals. In another
he browses the night market in Taipei.
“Cambodia
is fantastically interesting. Friendly people. Great interest in WSU higher ed.
Everyone should visit. Pol Pol and Killing Fields sobering. Angkor Wat next,”
Leach tweeted May 9.
In the
photos that followed from Angkor Wat, the ancient temple complex, Baumgartner
called it “going #TombRaider” with Leach.
And the
tweets roll on…
Nobody
back home seems to know what’s going on. But the Mikes are having an excellent
time.
…………
Ninth-Inning
Rally Held Off By No. 3 Stanford
From WSU
Sports Info
STANFORD,
Calif. – Washington State brought the tying run on deck after scoring six runs
in the ninth inning but No. 3 Stanford held on for a 9-6 victory at Sunken
Diamond Saturday afternoon 5/19/2018 .
WSU
(15-30-1, 7-18-1 Pac-12) received two-hit games from Andres Alvarez, Dillon
Plew and Brody Barnum. Blake Clanton had a three-run triple as part of a
six-run ninth inning for the Cougars who saw the game’s final out made after
Barnum singled to right field to drive in a run. On the play, the ball was
bobbled by the rightfielder and Barnum tried to move up to second but was
thrown out on the play. Stanford used 16 hits and pair of three-run innings in
the second and fourth to claim the second game of the series and improve to
42-8 overall and 20-6 in conference play.
In the
first inning, Stanford used a leadoff double and a couple hits to push a run
across. Sunitsch ended a bases-loaded threat with a strikeout and foul out to
Dillon Plew at third base.
In the
second inning, the Cardinal took advantage of a couple miscues by WSU and
pushed three runs across on four hits for a 4-0 lead. In the fourth, Stanford
pushed the lead to 7-0 with a three-run homer. A pair of RBI-hits in the sixth
inning pushed the lead to 9-0.
In the
ninth, pinch-hitter Brody Barnum drove a ball deep to right centerfield for a
double and he moved to third on a Stanford error on the play. Barnum later
scored on Wyatt Segle’s RBI-groundout. WSU added another run on a James Rudkin
bases-loaded walk, Clanton followed with a three-run triple to centerfield and
Ryan Ramsower followed with a walk before Barnum singled in a run but was
thrown out at second.
INSIDE THE
BOX SCORE
Scotty
Sunitsch made career appearance No. 84, tying Ryan Walker for 3rd-most in WSU
history
Sunitsch
worked 4.1 innings, allowed 7 runs on 10 hits and struck out 5
Blake
Clanton drew a walk to leadoff the 2nd inning, extending his on-base streak to
11 games
Andres
Alvarez recorded his team-leading 15th double of the season
COMING UP
The series
wraps up Sunday 5/20/2018 at noon on the Pac-12 Network.
Live
stats:
http://www.sidearmstats.com/stanford/baseball/
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