WSU’s 1st Unified Sports Field Day Sunday
From Pullman
Radio News
Washington
State University will host its first Unified Sports Field Day on Sunday.
The field day is for people with disabilities. They will compete
alongside people without disabilities. The event is from 1:00 to 3:00 in
Smith Gym.
:::::
WSU FOOTBALL
A Photo (not seen here) shows GAGE GUBRUD, new Washington
State University Cougar QB from McMinnville, Ore., with last year's from
Brandon, Miss., Gardner Minshew.
Remember the Alamo? You had to remind him
As Cougars open spring ball, DB Strong says he’s ‘getting
past’ his not-quite TD in last year’s bowl game
--By Dale Grummert, Lewiston Tribune in the Moscow Pullman
Daily News April 5, 2019
For Marcus Strong, the best moment of his college football
career was finished before it really happened.
As every Washington State football fan knows, Strong is the
cornerback who intercepted an Iowa State pass in the first quarter of the Alamo
Bowl last December and returned it 71 yards for an apparent touchdown — only to
have the TD negated by a taunting call.
True, as he had approached the goal line, he had
gratuitously extended the football in front of his body, as so many showboating
NFL players, down through the decades, have done in such situations. And true,
he simultaneously turned his head to the left, as if to taunt someone.
But whom did he see when he turned? It wasn’t the two Iowa
State players, including quarterback Brock Purdy, who were chasing him. They
were directly behind him. The person he saw was an official, Strong said
Thursday, following the Cougars’ latest session of spring drills at Martin
Stadium. And the official was pulling out his flag.
“Ah, man, I messed up,” he remembers thinking, before he had
even crossed the goal line.
Still, the worst was yet to come.
Like the vast majority of fans at the Alamodome that evening
at San Antonio, Texas, Strong didn’t know about the NCAA rule, adopted in 2010,
that allows officials to rule a play dead from the moment the ostensible
taunting begins, thereby negating any touchdown that might ensue. He figured
the penalty would be assessed on a subsequent play.
But no, he was ruled down at the 5-yard line, and the
15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct backed the Cougars to the 20, the
score still tied at zero apiece.
The play should have been a proud moment for Strong, an
undersized junior corner in 2018 who, during preseason workouts, had lost his
starter’s job to Sean Harper Jr., then regained it when Harper suffered an
injury in Game 6. Iowa State was threatening to score when Strong expertly read
a slant route and stepped in front of 6-foot-6 star receiver Hakeem Butler –
who is 9 inches taller – to steal the pass.
Instead, the moment of would-be glory is something Strong is
“getting past.” Fans still remind him of it.
“I’m definitely proud of that play, but I’m trying to get it
out of my head and move forward to next year,” he said, “because like a bad
play can mess you up, a good play can mess you up too.”
Plenty of supporters have helped him in that regard, starting
with legendary retired cornerback and showboater Deion Sanders, who watched the
play on TV and promptly tweeted, “Marcus Strong u ain’t do nothing wrong my
brother. The way u look back after u outran everyone? #Truth WASHINGTON
STATE!!!!!!!!”
Besides, after the penalty WSU scored anyway, when slotback
Renard Bell broke free over the middle and caught a third-down, 22-yard
touchdown pass from Gardner Minshew. That pointed the Cougars toward a 28-26
win.
To this day, Strong sometimes says to Bell, “Thanks for
making that up to me.”
Bell’s reply?
“Thanks for the touchdown.”
FILLING HOLES – Minshew, the departing quarterback who
returned to Pullman this week for Pro Day on Wednesday, attended practice
Thursday as the Cougars continued to seek his successor.
Trey Tinsley and Anthony Gordon appear to be running 1-2 on
the QB depth chart, just as they did last spring before Minshew’s arrival. Gage
Gubrud, the graduate transfer from Eastern Washington who sustained a lower-leg
injury during winter conditioning, is suiting up and doing some throwing but
not playing an active role.
Walk-on John Bledsoe also directed the offense during a
segment of team period, scoring a climactic touchdown on a short keeper.
Liam Ryan, who started at left guard last season, is manning
the left-tackle spot vacated by the stellar Andre Dillard, while Robert
Valencia steps in at guard.
With the Cougars severely short-handed at running back this
spring, little-used 225-pound fullback Clay Markoff is seeing significant
action.
TEAM AWARDS – Unsurprisingly, Minshew took home team 2018
MVP honors Wednesday night at the Cougars’ annual awards banquet at Martin
Stadium. Dillard and running back James Williams shared the Offensive MVP
award, while safety Jalen Thompson was named Defensive MVP and Tristan Brock
landed the same honor for special teams.
The Mike Utley Award for the top offensive lineman went to
center Fred Mauigoa, and the Leon Bender Award for defensive linemen to Logan
Tago.
In awards given to players who best exemplify the traits of
certain Cougar luminaries, nickelback Hunter Dale was given the Tim Petek
Award, nose tackle Taylor Comfort was presented the Randal Simmons Award,
running back Keith Harrington won the Laurie Niemi Award for courage and other
intangibles, Nick Begg took the Frank Butler Award, and cornerback Darrien
Molton claimed the Fred Bohler Award for inspiration.
Captain’s Awards went to receiver Kyle Sweet for offense and
linebacker Peyton Pelluer for defense. Inside receiver Brandon Arconado was
given the Cougar Academic Excellence Award, while outside receiver Brandon Gray
and linebacker Hank Pladson were declared Scout Team Players of the Year.
#
WSU COUGAR BASEBALL
Cougars carrying momentum into road series with Cal
Following win over Zags, baseball team hunts for its first
Pac-12 victory of the season
--By Stephan Wiebe Moscow Pullman Daily News April 5, 2019
In a baseball conference with four teams ranked in the top
seven in the NCAA, including No. 1 Stanford and No. 2 UCLA, wins can be hard to
come by.
The Cougars are hunting for their first Pac-12 Conference
win this weekend in a three-game series at Cal (14-11, 2-4 Pac-12), starting at
7 p.m. Friday in Berkeley, Calif.
Washington State (7-20, 0-6) is hoping to ride the momentum
of Tuesday’s 12-10 win over Gonzaga, which snapped a 12-game losing streak.
Against the Zags, seven Cougars tallied hits, including
three each by senior shortstop Andres Alvarez and freshman third baseman Kodie
Kolden, a Lake City product. The two combined for a pair of home runs and eight
RBI.
“I thought (our offense) was really good,” Kolden said. “I
think it will really help us this weekend against Cal … if we can get that
hot.”
So far, the Cougs have faced Stanford and No. 7 Arizona
State in conference play, and were swept by both.
Cal doesn’t pose the same daunting ranking as those two
squads, but it does boast the 2018 Pac-12 Player of the Year in Andrew Vaughn.
The junior infielder is second in the conference with nine
home runs this season. Last year, he was the league batting champion (.402
average) and tied Cal’s single-season home run record with 23.
Teams can’t be happy to see Vaughn’s still in the league, and
the Cougs will need to limit his damage if they’re going to snag a series win.
WSU coach Marty Lees said freshman Brandon White (2-3, 5.14
ERA) will get the first start. The Cougs’ offensive leaders are Alvarez (.312
average, 15 runs, eight doubles) and outfielder Collin Montez (.304, 31 hits,
eight doubles).
WSU’s undoing this season has been a lack of turning hits
into runs. WSU is fifth in the conference with 205 hits, but 11th — dead-last —
in runs with 113.
That wasn’t the case against the Zags as WSU turned 11 hits
into 12 runs.
“We need to build off of it,” WSU coach Marty Lees said. “We
haven’t been playing very well and we’ve all been frustrated, we’ve all been
down.
“But what I like about this group is they’ve stayed together
and they will continue to stay together. They’re a very tight group, they don’t
like losing, we’ve made some mistakes, hopefully we’ve learned from them as we
go into Cal.”
::::::::::::::::::
VINCE GRIPPI OF SPOKANE S-R SAYS
“WSU: When I was asked last winter to describe one player on
last year’s Washington State football team that could play a much-bigger role
in this fall’s success, my mind immediately went to Lamonte McDougle. The
former freshman All-American defensive lineman was redshirting after a transfer
from West Virginia. But everyone was saying he was wreaking havoc during
practice. He’s eligible now and Theo Lawson wants you to know all about him. …’
THEO LAWSON OF SPOKANE S-R WRITES
WSU football: After
redshirt season, former freshman All-American Lamonte McDougle ready to wreak
havoc at WSU
UPDATED: Thu., April 4, 2019, 10:54 p.m.
By Theo Lawson S-R of
Spokane
PULLMAN – Even if there won’t be any kind of tangible reward
waiting for them on Saturday, redshirting football players are required to put
forth the same effort and log the same hours as their nonredshirting teammates.
And perpetually hearing their time will come doesn’t always
provide the solace that it should.
Welcome to the past eight months of Lamonte McDougle’s life.
McDougle used a redshirt season in 2018 and played the
waiting game that came with it, watching Washington State’s historic 11-win
campaign from the sideline – and on his television set when the Cougars were on
the road.
That can be an arduous period for any college football
player – most of whom require a redshirt because they need the time to mature
physically, or because an upperclassman with more experience has their position
locked up for the time being.
And then there’s McDougle, whose redshirt was of the
NCAA-mandated variety after transferring from West Virginia.
“It sucked, but I just had to stay focused and keeping my
mind on why I came here and my goals,” McDougle said Thursday after Washington
State’s seventh spring practice, during his first formal interview as a Cougar
football player. “And that’s kept me grounded.”
McDougle played so well his rookie season with the
Mountaineers that ESPN.com selected the defensive lineman to its Freshman
All-American team. He appeared in all 13 games, made 23 tackles, recorded four
tackles for loss, had one sack, forced one fumble and recovered another.
The accolades and numbers should have been encouraging
signals for McDougle’s sophomore season, but he felt restricted by the
Mountaineers’ defensive schemes, which usually required him to take up space
and didn’t offer much freedom to rush the passer.
On March 30, 2018, McDougle announced on Twitter that West
Virginia had granted him permission to transfer. The Mountaineers wouldn’t
allow him to move within the Big 12, and a list of WVU’s future nonconference
foes were off-limits.
There was a good fit in the Pac-12, though.
“What initially made me leave West Virginia was I wasn’t
really liking the formation we ran,” McDougle said. “It was a three-man front,
and it was more of me just clogging up the middle, and I wanted to come
somewhere where I could make more plays, and (WSU) was the best fit for me.”
The defensive tackle carried an offer from the Cougars from
his days at Deerfield Beach High School in Florida, and leaving the East Coast
for a remote college town in the Inland Northwest didn’t feel uncomfortable,
because of McDougle’s prior relationship with WSU coach Mike Leach. His father,
Stockar McDougle, played on Oklahoma’s offensive line in the late 1990s when
Leach was an offensive coordinator for the Sooners.
“It’s always been like family here to me,” McDougle said,
“so that was major in the decision.”
After spending one season as the headliner of WSU’s
defensive scout team, McDougle looks to have the best odds of replacing Taylor
Comfort at nose tackle. The Cougars knew he’d be an impact player on the
defensive line in 2019, so McDougle occasionally got looks with the first team
last year – and he regularly dominated O-line vs. D-line drills.
“He’s real quick in small spaces,” Leach said. “He’s got
long arms for a guy his build. He’s got great leverage and he’s strong.”
Two of McDougle’s teammates – in separate interviews – had
similar descriptions of the 6-foot, 295-pound defensive lineman following a practice
earlier this week.
“Lamonte’s a beast,” WSU right tackle Abraham Lucas said.
“You look at him, you’re kind of like, ‘OK, he’s short.’ Guy’s a freaking tank.
He’s really strong, he’s got good hands. Definitely one of the more stronger,
difficult guys to block – but it only makes us better.”
“He’s a beast,” linebacker Justus Rogers echoed. “He makes a
lot of good plays you don’t expect sometimes. If he’s double-teamed, he’ll just
casually spin out of it and make the play. He has really good instincts.”
McDougle is still learning Tracy Claeys’ system – one that
puts a premium on speed and defensive line stemming/shifting – and Leach said
while he’s “awfully tough to stop,” McDougle still “needs to push himself a
little when he runs out of gas.”
All things that should come in time.
“I’m just honing in back on the basics,” McDougle said.
“It’s nothing too crazy, just fundamentals and getting used to playing back in
a speed stance, and I’m just learning.”
At least he knows he’s at the right place, even if it did
take two tries.
Think McDougle loves being a Cougar? The tips of his hair
are now colored crimson, and he’s taken a special liking to the tight-knit
student community in Pullman.
“It’s similar in a lot of ways, but I feel like it’s closer
here,” he said, comparing WSU to WVU. “People are definitely friendlier here,
and Greek Row’s pretty cool, and I like that. The students are pretty cool
here.”
#
