Halliday the man during light Thursday practice
COUGARS
FROM PULLMAN -- It was a standard Thursday for Washington State, with the Cougars covering some special teams work, finishing up their scout work for the week, then watching the scout-team players put on pads and scrimmage for a little while to wrap things up. We have notes. Read on.
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There's no reason to think Connor Halliday won't start at quarterback on Saturday. The sophomore from Spokane took starter's reps during the scout-team session as Jeff Tuel watched. What interests me now, then, is whether Tuel is healthy enough to back up Halliday if necessary, or if he's still being held out as a precaution. We may never know, of course, but Tuel seemed to move and throw well enough this week in practice to believe he could play if needed. Hard to judge, though.
... There isn't a whole lot else to report from a personnel standpoint. Dan Spitz was absent once again, was was the presumably injured Rickey Galvin. Destiny Vaeao is still working out on the side with a group of presumably injured players that includes Darren Markle and Henry Eaddy.
... I've been asked some questions about who's standing out during the Thursday Night Football scrimmages, so I'll pass along a few more notes than usual on that. Kristoff Williams had his best day of practice in a long while tonight. He fumbled early during the scrimmage and performed some up-downs as penance. But he redeemed himself in a big way, first going over the middle to snag a pass from Austin Apodaca to set up a first down in the red zone, then hauling in a corner fade from Apodaca for a touchdown. Williams made another nice catch on the next possession, too, drawing plenty of encouragement from the starters who chose to stick around and watch the action. ... Daniel McDonald made a couple of nice catches, too, including one over the middle that was thrown behind him a tad. ... Feddie Davey seems to lay a big hit or two each Thursday. Tonight was no different.
Christian Caple can be reached at christianc@spokesman.com. Twitter: @ChristianCaple