News for CougGroup 12/26/2019 (Boxing Day)

Arco’s surprise: Receiver has made a career of ‘throwing people off.’ But Arconado had to work extra hard to throw off Dad.

By DALE GRUMMERT, Lewiston Trib 12/26/2019  

PHOENIX — About the time Brandon Arconado was beginning high school in Southern California, his father lost his job in the movie industry.

For 16 years, Mike Arconado had been a precision mechanic for Technicolor film lab, tasked with the high-pressure job of maintaining a machine that developed a thousand feet of 35-millimeter film every minute. He worked on movies directed by Clint Eastwood and others.

Then the film industry went digital, slowly at first and later with all its might. Mike Arconado’s precious machine became dispensable and his department was virtually eliminated. He spent two years trying fruitlessly to find other work in Hollywood before deciding to switch careers.

Brandon Arconado, a senior inside receiver whose precise route-running has become one of the Washington State football team’s primary assets this season, wasn’t thinking specifically of his father’s spell of misfortune when he began steering his scholastic pursuits toward management information systems — in other words, when he plunged headlong into the digital world.

Looking back, though, he thinks it might have profoundly influenced his thinking. And although he never really surprised his father with his overachieving success on the football field, he recently found a way to floor him — through his academics.

Arconado will conclude his singular college career when the Cougars (6-6) play No. 24 Air Force (10-2) in the Cheez-It Bowl at 7:15 p.m. PST on Friday at Chase Field in Phoenix.

He spent a year at a junior college, accepted a walk-on offer from Wazzu, bided his time and caught four passes in 2017. He started talking about transferring to a smaller school to wrangle more playing time, and coaches promptly ponied up a scholarship to keep him on board. Even then, he failed to crack the eight-man receiver rotation last season and didn’t make a single catch.

All that time, however, he was polishing his technique and quietly deepening his resolve. Now, as a senior, he’s putting it all on display. Despite missing the equivalent of 3½ games with injuries, he leads the Cougars in receiving yards and needs only 68 more in the bowl game to reach 1,000 for the year. His 67 catches rank only third on the team, but many of them have been drive-savers.

Is it dazzling speed and athleticism at work here? No, it’s something more ineffable.

“There’s just something about Arco,  that he just does different than everybody else, and it throws you off,” WSU cornerback George Hicks III said recently. “You won’t really see it on film or anything like that. But once you get out there on the field, you’re like, ‘Damn, he’s doing something that’s throwing you off in the route.’ He’s a helluva player — good route-runner, strong hands, he does everything.”

It could be that Arconado “throws you off” partly with unfailing humility and a kind of lulling vocal monotone. He never seems to be trying to impress you, but over time he does anyway. He plays football with an exactitude that’s almost certainly informed by his studiousness, both on the field and in the realm of video scouting work.

“Of all the (receivers) we played last game, he’s probably the slowest,” WSU coach Mike Leach declared after Arconado’s 109-yard day against Colorado in October. “And Arconado had the biggest impact of any receiver in that game. Which goes to show you, a guy who will do exactly what you tell him to do, be exactly where you want him to be, exactly when you want him to be there —  and has a sense of what’s going on — can flat-out outplay people. And that’s how important that is. The more athletic the guy who can do that, the better. But you’re better off with a guy who’s precise and consistent than just somebody who’s athletic.”

None of this has surprised Mike Arconado, who has watched his son patiently impress people his whole life — first in soccer and later when his mother finally let him play football as a freshman in high school.

“He has such a great outlook on things,” the elder Arconado said by phone from his home in Chino Hills, Calif. “There aren’t too many things that deter him when he’s really looking toward his goal. In my years (as an athlete), I would let things bother me, but his determination is great. Is it a surprise? From a fatherly view, it’s really not a surprise. ”

Work ethic, he said, is thoroughly ingrained in the family. His own father, of Filipino descent, claimed to be the fastest pineapple-picker on the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i. Brandon’s rich ethnic mix also draws on the Cajun heritage of his mother, Deanna, a bartender and server.

This legacy of diligence was something Mike Arconado embraced in 2011 when, thanks to the digital revolution in film, he found himself unemployed, with a wife and three children to support. Many movie directors, including Eastwood, still adored the rich color of traditional film stock, as opposed to digital, but that couldn’t stop the march of time.

“It was an exciting gig,” Mike Arconado said of his former career, “but I got laid off because the division closed, and that’s when things began to spiral and that’s when we went into some hard times with the family. I tried to find something in the industry. There were editors, but it was a union job, so there were people ahead of me. I tried to work as a stage hand. I tried to work as a laborer or something, just so I stay in and keep the medical benefits for the kids and stuff. It just didn’t happen.”

He eventually landed a job in retail and later began to specialize in managing underperforming stores. He and Deanna regained their financial equilibrium and reached a milestone when their eldest child, Samantha, earned a four-year college degree. Brandon matched that accomplishment last spring, securing a bachelor’s degree in finance, and is now working on a master’s.

Inherent in his academic career is a determination to view finance through a digital prism, and he believes he subconsciously moved in that direction as a result of the adversity that struck his father.

“He had a good job, a pretty steady job, but film going digital forced him out of the business,” he said. “Everything is moving toward more digital technology. I don’t want to be caught in something that’s going to be outdated by the time I’m ready to find a job and get on with my life. From a career standpoint, I want to do something in technology that’s going to be around for a while.

“But that’s where I learned my work ethic,” he said. “From my dad.”

About two weeks ago, Mike Arconado received a text from his wife, a screen shot of the first unit of this year’s Academic All-America team in NCAA Division I football, as chosen by sports-information directors. It was a disorienting sight.

Mike did some research and some math, hoping to gauge how many college students play football at various levels of competition. Many thousands, he concluded. And there on his cellphone, listed among the top 25 student-athletes competing in the top tier of the game, was the name of Brandon Arconado.

“Are you kidding me?” he said.

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Leach OK with shorter bowl trip

By DALE GRUMMERT, Tribune of Lewiston,26 December 2019

GILBERT, Ariz. — Compared with previous years, the Washington State football team is spending about 48 fewer hours at its bowl site in anticipation of the game.

That wasn’t Mike Leach’s decision. But he approves.

“I think it’s worked out really well,” the coach said Wednesday after the Cougars’ second practice at Campo Verde High in Gilbert, southeast of Phoenix. “I was kind of curious about it. I’ve talked to teams that have done it. Shoot, the longest I ever stayed was 10 days. And at the end I thought that was too long.”

Washington State plays Air Force at 7:15 p.m. Pacific (8:15 Mountain) on Friday in the Cheez-It Bowl at Chase Field in Phoenix.

The Cougars, who are playing in a bowl for the fifth straight year, generally arrive about five days before the game. This year it was three.

The reason, an official said, was financial. The school is trying to reduce a significant deficit in its athletic budget.

“I agreed with everything as it unfolded,” Leach said. “They said, ‘What do your think of it?’ I said, ‘It sounds good.’”

As it happens, the bowl arranged relatively few official team activities. The Cougars will participate in a “community outreach” session today but otherwise have been on their own. Leach said players have spent much of their time in a “gigantic game room” at their hotel.

Also unusual is the large security presence at the Cougars’ practice site. Several officers were on hand for both practices so far, and half a dozen of them whiled their time Wednesday by making distinctive use of the Campo Verde athletic facilities, playing a form of baseball with a tennis ball on a basketball court.

One of them later said the security presence wasn’t unusual for a bowl in Phoenix.

The Cheez-It Bowl these days is being run in conjunction with the Fiesta Bowl, which will pit Ohio State and Clemson on Saturday at nearby Glendale Ariz.

“It’s the same organization that runs both bowls,” said Mike Nealy, who serves as executive director for both. “I think you’ll find that, as a team coming here and playing in either bowl, we treat them the same way. You might think the Cheez-It Bowl isn’t at the level of the Fiesta Bowl. And of course it isn’t at the competitive level. But we treat them the same way.”

This isn’t the first time the games have been staged on successive days, but Nealy acknowledged the challenge of such an arrangement.

“We have a major parade on Saturday morning between the two games,” he said. “And so all three of our events in 24 hours is going to be pretty much our limit. But we have great volunteers and yellow jackets (bowl officials). We’re 3,000 people strong on the volunteer side.”

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ANALYSIS

Just one more non- conference  test on tap for Cougar men basketball

With Pac-12 play looming, WSU, Smith still trying to sort out their rotation

By Colton Clark, Lewiston Tribune

It’s back to a hard truth for the Cougars: Pac-12 play is looming, and they surely wish they had more time.

Above all, the Washington State men’s basketball team is still ferreting out its rotation with one nonconference game to go.

“Pretty important position where we’ve been spotty — availability,” Cougs coach Kyle Smith said before his team took a break for the holidays. WSU returns to the Beasley Coliseum hardwood at 5 p.m. Sunday against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

“One of your best abilities is availability.”

Wazzu (8-4) will most likely enter its league opener with middling depth in the backcourt and a to-be-determined minutes spread.

Smith said Texas State transfer point guard Jaylen Shead will at least miss the Cougars’ games next week against the L.A. schools with a reaggravated hip injury, originally sustained when he took a rough tumble during a Nov. 17 win over Idaho State.

Shead, a senior who’s dictated offensive tempo well but hasn’t quite found a scoring touch, has missed two games this season. His per-game averages stand at 3.5 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.9 assists.

“That hip has been chronic. Just shutting him down (for a couple of weeks) is probably the best,” Smith said. “It’s been a yeoman effort in trying to play injured. At some point, you just gotta make a decision. He’s a tough kid, not gonna use that as an out.”

In Shead’s stead, Smith must divvy up minutes at the point between Jervae Robinson — a capable defender but spotty shooter — and Isaac Bonton, also a shooting guard, and also a player who’s been nicked up.

Really, Shead is the lone natural point guard who’s prepared enough to play 25-plus minutes each night. Smith is trying to expedite freshman point guard Ryan Rapp’s development to pick up the inevitable slack. Rapp has also dealt with an injury since the preseason.

But should he stay consistent, Bonton might make a competent floor general.

Bonton was enthusiastic about the prospect of more playing time at point guard — he’d done it often and well in junior college, and he’d relish the chance to prove he’s capable.

“That was a knock on my game to start (my career),” Bonton said.

The Casper College (Wyo.) transfer seemed to snap out of his month-long offensive funk with a well-rounded outing against Incarnate Word on Dec. 21. He chalked up 19 points, 12 rebounds and six assists. The majority of his minutes came at the 1 spot.

Despite his five giveaways, Bonton deftly paced an offense that was at its most well-rounded of the year. Maybe his finest contributions came on penetration plays, when he drew attention to open opportunities for teammates, and doled out quick dishes.

“We’d seen that in practice,” Smith said of Bonton, who began his career at Montana State. “There’s an adjustment for a JC guy. He’s really aggressive. He had a rough start and I said, ‘Just keep playing, make sure you’re guarding. If we’re guarding, we’re OK.’

“He’s getting better. He’ll see more things. He can do it.”

Wazzu is hoping its renewed defensive gusto under Smith, coupled with steady production from another player or two, can make it competitive on all fronts in the Pac-12.

It’s why Smith’s been so adamant about prepping Rapp and Seattleite frosh Noah Williams, who’s come along nicely on defense. Also of note is the bump in springy forward-turned-guard Marvin Cannon’s playing time.

Earlier this season, his minutes floated around the mid-teens, but have climbed into the 20s as Smith searches for some kind of offensive continuity.

The 6-foot-7 Cannon adds another dimension, scoring-wise. Thanks to his length, he’s a tough defensive assignment inside. Cannon has played safe ball and flourished in transition, putting up 19 points in the past two games on 75 percent from the floor.

“We’ve been kinda chopping away the last three weeks or so (on offense),” Smith said. “Trust me, it’s been a focus. The goal was to get the competitive spirit on (the defensive) end of the floor. We’re definitely transitioning.”

THE RUNDOWN — The Cougars know they’ll probably be trotting out a big lineup with Shead injured, which could be good news: The paint is where they’ve become markedly more comfortable, restructuring passably the last month after Colorado State transfer big man Deion James announced he’d likely miss the year with a heart issue.

The frontcourt isn’t as sizable as one would hope, and sometimes toils on the glass, but its rotation is becoming sound.

Lanky Slovenia-born sophomore Aljaz Kunc is steadily refining his game, especially as a spot-up 3-point sharpshooter from the corners. Montana transfer Tony Miller, albeit undersized, is one of WSU’s most efficient scorers (6.4 ppg on 66.7 percent) and a stout defenseman. Senior forward Jeff Pollard has morphed into one of WSU’s most dependable players. Pollard averages 10 points and five boards per game, and shoots 52 percent.

“I love that guy. I think he’s good every night,” Smith said of Pollard, who nearly left the program after former coach Ernie Kent was fired in the spring. “He really anchors our defense. He’s smart. He’s always covering stuff up. He’s a good rebounder, dependable rebounder, and he blocks out every time.”

But WSU needs help on the back end from someone who isn’t named CJ Elleby, the star sophomore small forward who’ll take the ball up even more now.

He’s third in the league at 19.9 points per game, but has taken more 3s than anyone in the Pac-12 (74) and is shooting 29 percent from afar. WSU is last in the conference in long-ball percentage (40.8).

Rushed 3s have contributed to the Cougs’ offensive tempo rating. WSU is 58th in the country in possessions per 40 minutes (72), which indicates:

The Cougs are scoring a lot in transition, their offensive M.O.

When the offense is set up, their shots are quick, and maybe not ideal looks.

Recently, they’re committing turnovers early in the shot clock.

“Hopefully,” Smith said, “we get in a little rhythm and play consistently.”

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:::Alert: News for CougGroup will attend WSU vs. Air Force Cheez-It Bowl in Phoenix. But, because of that, there will be no News for CougGroup email reports about Dec. 27-29. However, during that time there will be postings (especially photos) at News for CougGroup Facebook page of things related to the game. Go, Cougs!:::

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News for CougGroup 12/25/2019

 A Finley couple showed their niece how to succeed. Now the WSU grad is helping others

By Cameron Probert, Tri-City Herald Dec 25, 2019

Richland, Wash. -- Akanna Poor really wanted to go college.

When she was in high school, Poor spent the time she wasn’t working as a restaurant hostess studying in the classroom. She was driven to learn and earned good grades.

“It was never a surprise that I wanted to go to college,” she said. “I just didn’t know how I was going to make that happen.”

But it wasn’t until her aunt and uncle, Janelle and Rich Westberg of Finley, offered to help her that she had any hope of getting into classes.

Now, the recent WSU Tri-Cities graduate decided to give back to others in the hope of helping other first-generation college students make the transition from high school diploma to college degree.

She hopes her $500 gift to the WSU Tri-Cities MOSIAC Center can make the same difference in another student’s life.

Along with offering workshops on social issues and a library on equity and diversity topics, the center also provides counseling and other help for first-generation students.

Her donation is the first for the recently created center. University officials are working on setting up a fund so others can donate, as well.

“I picked the MOSIAC Center because I knew they were going to invest and be a resource for students who may not have the support, just as my aunt and uncle did for me,” she said.

Struggled to find a way

While Poor wanted to go to college, she didn’t know how to apply for financial aid or sign up for classes. And no one around her knew how to help her.

So as she approached high school graduation in Indiana, she applied and was accepted into colleges, but she was lost on what to do next or how to apply for financial aid.

“I had a hard time at home and I was working a lot and it culminated in me on a deep downward spiral,” she said. “It’s nearly impossible to sign up for classes when you don’t know which classes you should be taking. ... It was so overwhelming at first.”

Her aunt offered Poor a way to move forward. If Poor moved to the Tri-Cities, they could help her find her way through signing up for college.

They helped all of their children start college and valued the idea of a higher education.

Poor saved up enough money to pay for her first two months rent and moved the 2,000 miles to share an apartment with her cousin. She worked for four months and started taking classes at Columbia Basin College.

She said without them believing in her, she probably wouldn’t have made it. She was so afraid of failure she started crying and walked out during an English test.

Her aunt talked her back into the classroom to finish the exam.

“They convinced me that am I capable of doing this. That is a lot of what they helped me through,” she said.

They also helped her get her driver’s license and her first car.

Poor ended up transferring to WSU Tri-Cities in Richland and finished her classes for a social science degree this semester. Now, she is taking some time before deciding what her next move will be.

During her college career, she helped organize trips to the Legislature and helped draft a school policy manual dealing with Title IX rules on sex discrimination.

A special presentation

When Poor was ready to make the donation to the MOSIAC Center, she asked for help from the Chancellor Sandra Haynes in writing a letter to her aunt and uncle.

The letter detailed the ways the Westbergs supported her, and how the donation was a way to pass on that impact to future generations.

“They cried when I gave it to them,” she said. “They loved it. They thought it was great and were super proud of me, which means so much to me. It was both my Christmas and graduation gift to them.”

Poor is still considering whether she wants to attend law school, but also she wants to have a career that empowers women.

“My aunt and uncle gave me such a gift — it is an example that I have established for my future kids,” she said. “I want to continue to give back in the way that they do for so many.”

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:::Alert: News for CougGroup will attend WSU vs. Air Force Cheez-It Bowl in Phoenix. But, because of that, there will be no News for CougGroup email reports about Dec. 26-29. However, during that time there will be postings (especially photos) at News for CougGroup Facebook page of things related to the game. Go, Cougs!:::

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Sports > WSU football

FOOTBALL Best of the Mountain West: Looking back at Washington State’s five best games against the conference this decade

UPDATED: Tue., Dec. 24, 2019

By Dan Thompson for The Spokesman-Review

Even when Washington State tries to take a break from the Mountain West, the Cougars just can’t seem to get away.

Most years, a date with an MWC team is set from the start. Washington State has scheduled regular-season games against at least one team from the conference in seven of the last nine seasons.

But in each of those other two, the Cougars have ended up with a bowl-game date against an MWC squad. The first was in the 2013 New Mexico Bowl against Colorado State (more on that later) and now this year when the Cougars play Air Force in the Cheez-It Bowl on Friday.

Ten times this decade the Cougars have played a Mountain West team, winning six times. Here is a look back at five of those games:

2011: San Diego State 42, Washington State 24

Though the Cougars finished the 2011 season at 4-8, a showing that ended Paul Wulff’s tenure in Pullman, they arrived in San Diego in mid-September with a 2-0 record and a high-scoring offense.

The game had been arranged by Jim Sterk, WSU’s former athletic director who was in his second year in the same position at San Diego State.

Marquess Wilson set a sophomore record that still stands with 236 receiving yards against the Aztecs, including an 80-yard score on WSU’s first offensive play and a 78-yard score two plays into its opening possession of the second half. That second score gave WSU at 24-14 lead. Wilson finished with 236 yards, then the fifth-highest single-game total in WSU history.

Then the Aztecs took over.

The Cougars gained just 96 yards on their final six drives. The Aztecs gained 317 and scored four unanswered touchdowns during that span. Future NFL running back Ronnie Hillman gained 191 yards on 32 carries and scored four times.

WSU senior Marshall Lobbestael completed 20 of 42 attempts for 368 yards, three scores and two second-half interceptions.

2018: Washington State 41, Wyoming 19

Gardner Minshew was still an unknown when he took the field in Laramie, but he led the Cougars to a field goal and a touchdown on his first two drives. While the Cowboys recaptured the lead before halftime, Minshew and the offense recovered.

The Cougars scored the game’s final 28 points, and a 14-yard touchdown on Max Borghi’s first collegiate carry clinched the game midway through the fourth quarter.

Minshew finished with 319 yards on 38 of 57 attempts. Washington State’s defense held Wyoming to just 206 yards of offense.

2016: Boise State 31, Washington State 28

The Cougars headed to Boise with hopes of rebounding after a season-opening loss to Eastern Washington. They eventually did turn around their season, but not before losing to the Broncos for the first time in program history.

Led by quarterback Brett Rypien, a Shadle Park High graduate, the Broncos scored the game’s first two touchdowns. Early miscues cost the Cougars: A Luke Falk interception on the game’s first drive and a missed field goal in the second quarter squandered scoring opportunities.

Boise State led 17-7 at half and 31-14 early in the fourth quarter before the Washington State offense – and defense – kicked into gear.

Falk, then a junior, attempted 71 passes, the third-most in his career, and completed 55 for 480 yards. He found Jamal Morrow on fourth down for a 14-yard touchdown. After a Shalom Luani interception, he hit Gabe Marks for a 33-yard touchdown on the next play that drew the Cougars within a field goal (31-28) with 4:17 left.

WSU’s Charleston White picked off Rypien in the end zone with 53 seconds to go. But starting from its own 20-yard line, the Cougars offense only gained 25 yards, and the comeback fell short. WSU won its next eight games, then lost its final three.

2013: Colorado State 48, Washington State 45

WSU’s first bowl game under Mike Leach proved to be unforgettable, though surely not for the reason the Cougars would have liked.

The Cougars led the Rams by as many as 22 points. With 9:35 left in the fourth quarter, Connor Halliday hit Isiah Myers for a 22-yard touchdown, stretching WSU’s lead back to 45-30. It was Halliday’s sixth touchdown pass of the game, setting a WSU bowl record. No one else has thrown more than two against an MWC team.

After that score, the Cougars fumbled away what looked like a certain victory.

The Rams’ comeback started with a nine-play, 72-yard touchdown drive to make it 45-37 with 2:52 left. The Rams kicked off, and the Cougars took over at their 18. The Cougars got a first down and the Rams exhausted their timeouts.

But on a second-and-10 play with 1:51 left, Jeremiah Laufasa fumbled, and the Rams recovered at the Cougars’ 33-yard line.

Colorado State scored a touchdown. After initially being ruled short of the end zone, the Rams’ game-tying, 2-point conversion was ruled successful. The game was tied at 45 and looked destined for overtime.

But Teondray Caldwell fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and Jared Roberts hit a 41-yard field goal with 3 seconds left that gave the Rams a 48-45 win.

The loss sunk the Cougars’ record to 6-7, extending their streak of losing seasons to seven.

2017: Washington State 47, Boise State 44 (3 OT)

Almost certainly the Cougars’ most memorable game of the decade against a Mountain West team came in the rematch with Boise State, this time in Pullman, where sophomore Tyler Hilinski led one of the great comebacks in school history.

Falk, a senior at the time, had one of his poorest statistical showings of his career, completing 24 of 34 passes for 193 yards, though that was enough to break Halliday’s record for career passing yards. It was one of only three times in his final 36 games that Falk failed to throw a touchdown pass.

Falk left the game after fumbling early in the fourth quarter, a fumble that Boise State returned for a touchdown and a 31-10 lead.

After that, though, the Cougars shined. Hilinski led an eight-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to pull within two scores. Peyton Pelluer intercepted a pass and returned it for a 36-yard touchdown with 5:51 left to make the score 31-24, the defense’s second touchdown of the game.

The Cougars’ defense forced a three-and-out, but their offense stalled and also had to punt the ball away. Erik Powell’s short punt hit a Boise State player, and Dillon Sherman recovered the ball inside the Boise State 25.

Hilinski found Jamal Morrow for a 6-yard touchdown in the left flat with 1:44 left, and the score was tied at 31.

After trading scores in the first two overtimes, Boise State settled for a field goal in the third overtime. Hilinski again had an answer, hitting Morrow for a 22-yard winning score.

Hilinski finished with 240 yards, a career-high three touchdowns and one interception on 25 of 33 attempts.

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Leach thinks wishbone would work in NFL

By Dale Grummert, of the Lewiston Tribune Dec 25, 2019

PHOENIX — When Mike Leach agreed to co-teach an extracurricular seminar on football strategy and insurgency warfare last spring at Washington State, he formulated an essay question that prospective students needed to answer as part of their audition.

“Is the wishbone a potentially viable offense for the NFL?”

There was no right or wrong response. But Leach himself would answer in the affirmative.

That’s one reason the Cougars coach is expecting a big challenge when his team plays in the Cheez-It Bowl against No. 24 Air Force (10-2), which runs a triple-option offense derived from the wishbone. The ESPN vehicle on Friday will start at 7:15 p.m. PST at Chase Field in Phoenix.

The Cougars (6-6) arrived on their charter plane to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Tuesday, three days after Air Force hit town, and they practiced that evening about 25 miles southeast of the airport, at Campo Verde High School in Gilbert, Ariz.

A stretch of pleasant weather had given way to rain and drizzle earlier in the day, and cornerback Marcus Strong gave onlookers at the airport a scare when he slipped on one of the top steps of the plane’s damp airstair. He landed on his backside but checked his fall by clutching the handrail, and was later said to be fine.

For years, Leach has expressed his admiration for the triple-option rushing attack, which employs three running backs who work in concert with the quarterback to attack the defense in unpredictably aggressive ways.

In terms of run-pass ratio, it’s the polar opposite of the Air Raid offense that Leach and Hal Mumme co-authored three decades ago and that Leach is still employing in its purest form. But in terms of philosophy, Leach insists the approaches are similar. Both teams Friday will try to spread the field and keep the defense guessing by distributing the ball to as many skill players as possible.

Even at the college level, the wishbone and similar attacks aren’t as popular as they were a few decades ago. They’re used primarily by the military academies, which employ them partly to overcome a disparity in talent — a goal often ascribed to the Air Raid as well. In any case, one of the prime assets of both offenses is their distinctiveness. Opposing defenses aren’t accustomed to such tactics.

The unfamiliarity factor is one reason Leach thinks the triple-option would work at the next level, despite the fact that many observers would answer “No” to his question about the viability of the wishbone in the NFL. Among other factors, they would cite the league’s shallower rosters and inability to absorb multiple injuries. Leach acknowledges the wishbone can be tough on quarterbacks. 

“I think it would work in the NFL,” he said recently in Pullman. “I think it would be very difficult for teams to prepare for a triple-option team. I do think you go through some quarterbacks, and you’d have to make sure your quarterbacks can run. However, you can get some great options quarterbacks because there’s not a big value on them in regard to the NFL. You’d definitely have the pick of guys that would have that skill set, and honestly it wouldn’t be very expensive to draft them — if you even had to draft them.

“It’s not if they get injured, it’s when they get injured,” he said. “You’d better have another guy that’s able to do that sort of thing. I don’t think you’d want to have quarterbacks where it’s mixed, where you’ve got the dropback guy and the option guy. I think you want all three of them to be option guys. And yeah, I do think it would work.”

Hence a theme of Friday’s game. Because each offense uses unusual schemes, each defense will be trying to adapt on the fly. The Falcons rank third in the nation in rushing yards, and the Cougars average 60 more passing yards than any other team in the country.

“Both offenses are quite explosive,” Leach said at a news conference Tuesday at the airport. “Then, of course, they (the Falcons) do such a good job rushing the football. Both defenses are going to try to get the offenses off the field, so I do think how each defense responds is kind of the key.”

News for CougGroup 12/24/2019

With 2 years left at Wazzu, Mazza isn’t content with being a Groza Award finalist

By DALE GRUMMERT, Lewiston Trib

PHOENIX — As sophomore placekicker Blake Mazza addressed Washington State beat writers a few days after participating in the College Football Awards ceremony in Atlanta earlier this month, he seemed to wear a certain glow from the experience. And a certain gratitude.

As one of three finalists for the Lou Groza Award that eventually went to Georgia’s Rodrigo Blankenship, Mazza was quick to credit his long snapper, his holder, his special teams coach. All that was to be expected.

The wild card was this: He credited the Cougars’ midseason moratorium on social media for all players and coaches.

When head coach Mike Leach imposed the ban in late September, he seemed to think certain players were being distracted by flattering or critical comments and media stories on Twitter and other services.

For Mazza, a Texan whose sociable nature is patent, the peril was different. It lay in the national social-media network of placekickers, especially as his streak of successful field-goal attempts to start the season grew longer and longer.

“I think a lot of (kickers) know guys in the conference or around the country who they’re competing against,” Mazza said. “For kickers, it’s like, ‘OK, this guy went 5-for-5. That means I need to go 6-for-6.’ Stuff like that. For me, it was awesome not to see the other guys posting about the kicks they made. Me, it wasn’t looking up media articles about myself, but really comparing myself to others. So not having social media definitely allowed me to focus on myself and each kick, one at a time.”

Which he obviously did. He went 18-for-18 before finally going wide-right on a 48-yard attempt in the second quarter of the Cougars’ wild 54-53 win Nov. 23 against Oregon State. Included in that streak were conversions from 51, 50, 47 and 45 yards, plus eight others in the 30s.

Heading into the Cheez-It Bowl here against Air Force at 7:15 p.m. Pacific on Friday (ESPN), Mazza is 20-for-21 in field goals this season and 30-for-36 in his Cougar career. Unless he misses a couple of times against the Falcons, he’ll break the school record for single-season conversion percentage, set in 2013 when Andrew Furney went 14-for-16.

For a 5-foot-9 kicker, Mazza has a large personality, a fact that helped him carve out a small subplot in the WSU episode of “24/7 College Football” that aired on HBO in October.

He’s one of several Cougars who proudly claim an Italian heritage, a group that includes quarterback Anthony Gordon, running back Max Borghi and assistant coaches Eric Mele and Roc Bellantoni.

“It’s up in the north part of the mountains — Calabria, Italy,” Mazza said of his family’s roots on his father’s side. His nicknames on the team, he noted, range from “Maserati” to “Mazda.”

Accomplished kickers are a sub-theme here this week. Air Force’s Jake Koehnke is 12-for-12 in field goals this year, with a long of 57 yards, and was a semifinalist for the same Lou Groza Award for which Mazza was a finalist.

On top of that, Pat McAfee, who has parlayed his NFL kicking exploits into a career as a flamboyant TV analyst, has been designated by bowl officials as “Master of Cheez,” tasked with overseeing a series of promotional stunts. Mazza, who has attended a number of camps featuring McAfee, won’t pass up a chance to interact with him.

“I promise you we will make it happen,” he said.

Whether the social media ban helped or not, Mazza thinks his focus during the regular season remained unbroken, even on that solitary field-goal miss against the Beavers.

“Honestly, it wasn’t going through my head,” he said of the streak.

He described his mindset at the time as this: “One kick at a time. I mean, shoot, I’m going to miss at some point in my career, whether it’s a year later, professionally. Whatever it is, I’m not going to just continue to make kicks. So after that 48-yarder I missed, you know what? It’s just something you rebound from. It’s cool. If anything, it helped me. It gave me a breather. It was like a reset — you don’t have to feel the pressure.”

Mazza’s perfect start to the season extended to his point-after attempts, of which he converted his first 41. The streak ended bizarrely when he missed twice in a win against Stanford, with one attempt getting blocked at the line of scrimmage and another getting foiled by a high snap resulting in a straight but short kick.

Otherwise, snapper Tyler Williams and holder Oscar Draguicevich III (who doubles as the Cougars’ skillful punter) have been money.

“I think our operation — from me, Tyler Williams and Oscar — I think we’re the best operation in the (Pac-12) conference if not the country,” Mazza said. “Our field-goal O-line, from our wingers to the whole line, is the best in the country.”

Most of them will be around for a while. Draguicevich is a junior, Williams a second-year freshman. Special teams coach Matt Brock will head into his third season at the school next year. For those and other reasons, Mazza isn’t content with being a Groza Award finalist as a sophomore.

“It would be naive for me to say that I didn’t look at this award as something like, ‘You’re one of the top kickers in the country.’ That would be lying,” he said. “Every kid coming out of high school knows they want to be up for that. Obviously, I want to win it now.”

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News for CougGroup 12/23/2019

Fight, fight, fight for Washington State!

Win the victory!

Win the day for Crimson and Gray!

Best in the West,

we know you'll all do your best,

so On, on, on, on! Fight to the end!

Honor and Glory you must win!

So Fight, fight, fight for Washington State

and victory!

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WSU Coach Mike Leach on former UW Coach Chris Petersen: ‘I hope he takes notes’

WSU coach didn’t read rival’s mind, but challenge of coaching is no secret

By Dale Grummert, Lewiston Trib Dec 23, 2019

PHOENIX — Washington State football coach Mike Leach denies peering into his rival’s soul during warmups for the Nov. 29 Apple Cup.

As he does so, however, he wears the bemused look of someone who’d just predicted Appalachian State’s upset of Michigan in 2007.

Leach’s curious pregame remark to Chris Petersen, followed three days later by Petersen’s stunning resignation as Washington coach, served as another reminder of the steepening challenges of spearheading a Power Five football program these days.

A day after his announcement Dec. 2, Petersen drew laughter from reporters by relaying an exchange with his inscrutable adversary before Washington’s 31-13 win at Seattle in the Apple Cup. 

“How much longer you going to do this?” the WSU coach said.

Petersen, who routinely describes Leach as insightful even while routinely defeating him, didn’t specify what he told the other. But his thought was, “Oh my God, this guy is a mind reader too. I hope we have a good plan today because this guy is on us.”

A few days later in Pullman, Leach was asked if he’d had a premonition of Petersen’s career move.

“That’s a good question,” he said, pondering a moment. “I don’t know. I was just kind of curious, so I asked him. He thought I read minds. But no, I just asked him. Under the best of circumstances, seasons are taxing, and I threw it out there. Two days later he retired, and I hope he has a happy retirement.”

The 2019 regular season wasn’t the best of circumstances for either coach.

Leach needed to win back-to-back home games in November to extend to five the Cougars’ streak of bowl berths. They’ll take a 6-6 record into the Cheez-It Bowl against Air Force at 7:15 p.m. Friday (ESPN) here at Chase Field.

Petersen, coming off three consecutive Pac-12 North titles, watched his team, especially his offense, languish at key times before finishing on a high note, stifling WSU in the Apple Cup before drilling Boise State 38-7 on Saturday in the Las Vegas Bowl.

In handing the UW reins to defensive leader Jimmy Lake, Petersen, 55, spoke not only of a needed spark for the program but a personal need to “recharge.”

“Fourteen years is a lot of years (in) this position,” he said of his head-coaching stints at Boise State and Washington. “And it comes with a lot of frustration and anxiety and stress. And some of the excitement and positivity and optimism has got to be pushed away.  That’s never a way to live your life. I pay close attention to that.”

He said in recent months he’d been impressed by the Confucius quote, “We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one.”

Leach, 58, generally doesn’t reference Eastern philosophers, but his remarks often echo their thoughts, especially on the importance of living in the moment. He was asked if he’d contemplated stepping away from the game.

“There are ups and downs,” he said, “but you’re consumed by it, so you keep grinding away. It’s a constant series of corrections, and you just stay immersed in it.

“You’ve got to be careful. I think sometimes — and I think we all experience this — wins are a relief and losses are kind of torturous. But the biggest thing is to lock in on the day-to-day improvement, the small things and the people you get to work with.”

He and his intrastate rival the past six years had entered the coaching profession from opposite directions. Petersen, the son of a coach, said his lifelong immersion in the game is one reason he wants to come up for air. In announcing his resignation as coach, he said he plans to serve in an advisory role for the Huskies.

Leach, on the other hand, never played college football and was on the cusp of a law career when he decided to follow his heart and plunge headlong into a game that always had intrigued him. In the meantime, he had developed a broad range of other interests.

Petersen, too, has found a way to maintain an intellectual balance. Hence the basis for his friendship with Leach. So the Wazzu boss doesn’t seem to be referring to Petersen when he speaks of the perils that often await coaches who step away.

“Coaches retire typically quite poorly,” he said. “It sounds good because there’s a relief — you get rid of the pressure. But you’ve got to make sure you fill your life with other things to do. I think where it’s difficult on some people is if there’s not other activities and goals, because it’s all been football. If all of a sudden you erase it, you’d better generate some new stuff, otherwise you go back to football. That’s all you’ve got. You want to have a diversity of interests that are going to keep you occupied and keep you excited.”

As for Petersen, “I hope he takes notes,” Leach said. “When I retire, maybe he can coach me up.”

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Washington State football mailbag from Spokane S-R : Discussing the potential of another four-year QB starter, estimating Air Force’s rushing total in the Cheez-It Bowl and talking DC candidates

By Theo Lawson S-R of Spokane/Inland Empire  23 Dec 2019

This mailbag probably won’t be the most exciting thing you unwrap this week, and if it is, let’s hope the Cougars at least salvage your holiday with a win over Air Force in the Cheez-It Bowl this Friday.

In the final mailbag of WSU’s football season, the calendar year and the decade, we discuss four-year quarterback starters at WSU and if the Cougars will have another, we estimate how many yards Air Force will rush for at Chase Field in Phoenix and we talk briefly about the defensive coordinator situation in Pullman, offering a few names who might fill the void once bowl season is over.

How likely that we will ever see another four-year quarterback starter under coach Leach at WSU?

– Jennifer D.

I know fans have been yearning for this and, nothing against Gardner Minshew and Anthony Gordon, whose individual stories and record-setting seasons were nothing short of marvelous, but I wouldn’t mind covering another four-year starter either. Only once have WSU fans had a chance to watch a quarterback spend four years developing in the Air Raid – through live game reps, that is – and if Luke Falk was able to set the Pac-12 career passing record in only 43 games, it might be fascinating to see what someone would do with 50 games or more.

Given that, I’m inclined to say no. Here are my four reasons:

1. Falk is the exception and not the rule. Obviously, he doesn’t become a four-year starter at WSU if not for Connor Halliday’s gruesome injury against USC in 2014 and it seems there would have to be some extenuating circumstances for a redshirt freshman to start for Mike Leach in the Air Raid, let alone a true freshman. So, credit to Falk. Even as a redshirt freshman former walk-on, he played well beyond his years and never looked the part of a young backup who was only playing because of emergency. Leach’s playbook isn’t complicated but it obviously takes time for quarterbacks to grasp it, learn to make the right checks at the line of scrimmage and build rapport with 6-8 different wide receivers who are generally used in the offense. Cammon Cooper and Gunner Cruz aren’t short on raw talent or ability, but the fact that Leach doesn’t seem remotely prepared to give either the keys to the offense right now – “I think at that position we’ve got to improve quite a lot,” he said last week – makes me think the learning curve is pretty substantial.

2. Another four-year starter under Leach means four more Leach years at WSU. That is, if Jayden de Laura comes in and wins the job this fall. If he doesn’t, Leach would need to stay at least five more years for this to happen. I’m not sure Leach is ready to leave the game just yet and this last month has reaffirmed he’s also not ready to leave the Cougars. But I’d put the odds at better than 50 percent that he’s either coaching elsewhere or retired by the time the 2024 football season rolls around. Leach would be 63 by then and I’ve always assumed he won’t be someone who plans to coach until his death. There’s too many countries to visit, too many television documentaries to be watched and too many books to be read.

3. IF a true freshman/redshirt freshman is equipped with the tools to win the job right away, what are the chances they’ll stick around long enough to spent their senior season in Pullman? Falk was a non-scholarship player with almost no exposure who didn’t start until midway through his redshirt freshman year, and he had legitimate NFL Draft stock by the end of his junior year. Some would still contest he should’ve taken his chances and left a year early. If someone with Cruz’s natural ability, or de Laura’s pedigree, wins the starting job, they’d almost surely jump onto the national radar by the midway point of their first season if not earlier. Plus, when you consider the buzz WSU’s last two starters – both seniors – received, imagine the intrigue of a freshman under Leach leading the country in passing yards.

4. And finally, the dreaded “i” word. The Cougars have been fortunate to avoid quarterback injuries these last two seasons and that’s in large part to offensive lines that seem to get better and better every year under the tandem of Leach and Mason Miller. But you also have to wonder how feasible it is that a QB can stay healthy all four years. Halliday had a season-ending injury and Falk missed his second Apple Cup, then dealt with a nagging wrist injury for the entirety of his senior year, forcing him to sit out the Holiday Bowl. Minshew and Gordon never missed a game because of injury, or even a snap, and it’s been pivotal to WSU’s offensive success in 2018 and ’19, but after watching a variety of Pac-12 teams deal with QB injuries this season, it’s also fair to wonder how long the Cougars can keep that up.

How many yards rushing for Air Force?

– Ray L.

The Cheez-It Bowl pits the Mountain West’s top rushing offense, Air Force at 292.6 yards per game, against the Pac-12’s 11th-best rushing defense, Washington State at 170 yards per game allowed.

The Falcons have logged 50-plus rushing attempts in 10 of their 12 games this season. The Cougars haven’t seen that type of commitment to the run game since their week-two test against Northern Colorado, which came out of a blowout loss with 54 rushing attempts and 216 rushing yards.

Air Force has rushed for fewer than 200 yards on two occasions this season, but it happened against two of the country’s stronger run defenses: Wyoming, which is sixth in the country at 99.4 ypg allowed and Navy, which is No. 16 at just 110.8 ypg allowed and obviously benefits from seeing the triple option nearly every day in practice.

The Cougars allowed six rushing yards against Stanford in one of their top defensive games this year, though the Cardinal only ran the ball 10 times. Meanwhile, Oregon turned the Oct. 26 game in Eugene into a track meet and rolled up 307 rushing yards – and on just 47 attempts for an average of 6.5 yards per attempt.

Three-hundred yards is a hefty number, but not for Air Force, which has rushing efforts of 423 yards (Colgate), 384 yards (San Jose State), 340 yards (Fresno State), 353 yards (Hawaii), 448 yards (Utah State) and 328 yards (Army).

I suspect the Cougars, too, will be part of that club by the time Friday’s game is over. My final answer? 323 yards.

Who would you say the front runners for defensive coordinator are? Jim Leavitt seemed to be mentioned a lot and there hasn’t been many other names talked about besides him.

– Caleb H.

I imagine once the season is over I’ll take a closer look at this and compile a full list of potential candidates – that is, unless Leach jumps the gun and makes his hire before we can publish. I do get the sense the Cougars will have their guy sometime in January and I’m sure Leach already has a small group of names in mind – a list he most likely started forming within hours of Tracy Claeys’ announcement.

Leavitt, who I did think was a legitimate candidate for this job, is now off the table having opted to join Willie Taggart at Florida Atlantic, which seems even riskier than joining Leach in Pullman based on Taggart’s recent stints in Eugene and Tallahassee – one of those more prosperous than the other, but neither very successful at all.

At his second media availability in Pullman since the Cheez-It Bowl pairing was announced, I asked Leach if he’d be considering in-house candidates. “Oh yeah, always,” he said. “Yeah.” The Cougars just signed an entire class of high school players, including eight defensive prospects, with the current staff and pitched the current defensive schemes in living rooms all across America. For the sake of continuity – not only for futurure Cougars but current ones, too – perhaps it makes sense to retain the defensive coordinator tandem of Roc Bellatoni and Darcel McBath.

I still think Leach will go outside the program for his DC, though, and it seems like the recommended path for a team that didn’t improve much – and regressed in some areas – after the early two-game stretch against UCLA and Utah.

It isn’t inconceivable that Leach would phone one of his former position coaches. Joe Salave’a and Ken Wilson were successful at Oregon this year and the Cougars have missed their recruiting chops – most notably Salavea’s ability to recruit defensive linemen from the Polynesian islands.

Wilson said when he left earlier this year he wants to rise up the coaching ranks and his familiarity with the town and university where he spent six years could make Pullman a suitable place for him to take his first DC job. I’ll also throw Oklahoma’s Roy Manning in this same pot. Manning was another excellent recruiter who’d be an enticing DC prospect if for no other reason than because he might be the most energetic DC in America. But, like Wilson and Salave’a, he’d have to leave an outstanding situation where he’s at for what some would consider an iffy one in Pullman.

Years back, when the Cougars were looking to replace Mike Breske, eventually hiring Grinch, my predecessor at the Spokesman floated a few names, including that of Todd Orlando. The former Texas/Houston/Utah State/FIU/UConn DC also come up as a potential candidate a few times within the last three weeks since being fired by the Longhorns and he’s familiar with WSU safeties coach Kendrick Shavers, who worked under Orlando in Logan.

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WSU football

Ready or not, Air Force and its vaunted triple option are coming for Washington State in Cheez-It Bowl

UPDATED: Sun., Dec. 22, 2019

By Theo Lawson of Spokesman-Review  

PULLMAN – Most of his teammates have seen nothing like it, but Justus Rogers already has a pretty good beat on the unconventional offense Washington State is up against this week when it faces Air Force in the Cheez-It Bowl.

The middle linebacker doesn’t claim to have an expert-level understanding of the triple option, but the run-heavy offense also isn’t a foreign language to him.

Much of the ideology behind the triple option is similar to the offense Rogers ran in high school at 3A juggernaut Bellevue, where the “wing-T” has been an institution for more than a decade.

It would’ve been helpful for Rogers to see the offense in practice every day as a linebacker. Even better, he got to know it as Bellevue’s quarterback, leading the Wolverines to a 24-3 record in his two seasons as a starter and multiple appearances in the Washington State 3A title game.

“It has some similarities and some differences as well, but they just rely on playing downhill,” Rogers said. “Air Force is one of the top rushing offenses in the country, so we just have to make sure we read our keys and stay disciplined.”

But it’s been four years since Rogers last wore a Bellevue uniform and he’s only one of 11 defensive starters who’ll be required to do their part when the Cougars take on the Falcons on Friday at Chase Field in Phoenix.

For all the challenges that come with defending the triple option – Air Force’s variation of it is also known as the “flexbone” – the most important one is the probably the least complicated.

Well, in theory.

“Everybody’s got to do their job, because you have to have all the space on the field covered as well as the personnel,” Cougars coach Mike Leach said. “It’s the ultimate in executing your job.”

The Falcons average 57.1 rushing attempts per game and 292.5 yards per game, which puts them third nationally behind only two other service academies who employ an identical offensive strategy: Navy at 363.7 ypg and Army at 297.2 ypg.

The diversity of the triple option is not necessarily in a traditional balance between run plays and pass plays, but in the variety of ways the Falcons can move the ball 10 yards on the ground.

“Just having good eyes, discipline, all those good things,” said cornerback George Hicks III, asked what the Cougars can do to counter the triple option. “Fundamentals. It’s going to be a big fundamentals game.”

Quarterback Donald Hammond III has rushed for 491 yards and 11 touchdowns this season, and if the Cougars choose to focus on his other weapons in the backfield, the next thing they see could be his blue No. 5 trotting into the end zone.

In many ways, defending the triple option is a numbers game. Since Air Force employs its quarterback as a runner, and because the system relies on reading defensive movement rather than blocking it, the Falcons have an extra-man advantage that allows them to carve out bigger holes or put two players on the opponent’s stud defensive lineman or linebacker.

And, if WSU does hunker down and throw multiple bodies at Hammond, he’s liable to flip the ball to running back Kadin Remsburg, a small, swift junior who’s spent this season busting through big holes and slipping through small creases to the tune of 872 yards and seven touchdowns.

Even if the Cougars do have a handle on both the QB run and pitch, it still doesn’t mean they’ve stymied the triple option. The fullback dive is the third fundamental play out of Troy Calhoun’s offense. It’s often used to keep defenses honest, but equally potent if it’s not accounted for.

Air Force’s fullbacks, Timothy Jackson and Taven Birdow, add another 1,576 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns to the Falcons’ absurd rushing totals.

WSU’s defensive linemen figure to be much more involved on Friday than the linebackers, and the linebackers much more than the defensive backs, so in the trenches, nose tackle Dallas Hobbs said the key to playing well is “just making sure we’re staying extra low and just doing our job.”

Hobbs added: “Because there’s going to be a lot of moving parts I feel like and we’ve just got to hunker down that middle and spill it more.”

Another peculiarity when it comes to the Falcons are the offensive linemen, who aren’t intimidating on paper and average just 6-foot-3 and 280 pounds. But they’re quicker than most the Cougars see and utilize cut-blocking to open running paths for the tailbacks, fullbacks and quarterback.

“You just have to stay more aware of your surroundings I feel like, and you just have to keep moving your feet because you don’t want to be planted in there and have someone come from this side and this side,” Hobbs said. “So just being more aware and keeping your feet moving.”

The Cougars have had various running backs and receivers shuffling in and out of practice as their scout team quarterback, though it’s usually been true freshman slot receiver Billy Pospisil imitating Hammond.

A few of WSU’s offensive players, who won’t have to deal with the triple option headache, have offered their thoughts on Air Force’s unique system since the bowl pairing was announced.

“I watched bits of that Navy-Army game,” quarterback Anthony Gordon said. “It’s pretty crazy, it moves quick. You’ve got to keep your eyes on the right spot and all that. I’m confident our defense is going to come out and play hard and play well against them.”

Gordon and the Air Raid have to do their part, as well. The Falcons have lost the time of possession battle just twice this season. They keep the ball 33 minutes on average, which underlines the importance of being efficient on offense and avoiding turnovers.

“We’ve just got to be crucial about every time the offense gets the ball we need to score,” said WSU running back Max Borghi, who was familiar with Air Force while growing up in the state of Colorado and turned down an offer to play for the Falcons as a tailback. “Obviously when they run it, they eat up the whole clock. So every drive’s going to be important so we’ve just got to do our best out there and make plays.”

Leach has long been fascinated with the triple option, and the WSU coach stated a few weeks ago he’d experiment with Calhoun’s offense if he wasn’t so entrenched in his own Air Raid system. While Leach said teaching the triple option would be “quite an overhaul,” noting “you can’t just switch it back and forth,” he also said “throughout my career I’ve tried to learn as much from it as I can.”

When Leach taught an “Insurgent Warfare & Football Strategy” course in Pullman last spring, one of the preliminary application questions was, “Is the wishbone (a system that derives from the triple option family) a viable offense for the NFL? Why/why not?”

Leach agreed with approximately 50 percent of students who theorized it could work at the next level.

“I think it would be very difficult for teams to prepare for a triple-option team,” he said. “I do think you’d go through some quarterbacks and you’d have to make sure all your quarterbacks can run. … I don’t think you’d want to have quarterbacks where it’s mixed, where you’ve got the drop-back guy and the option guy. I think you want all three of them to be option guys.

“And yeah I do think it would work.”

Just as long as it doesn’t five days from now.

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