Give the guy a scythe
COUGARS
I'm starting to feel a little like the grim reporter. After talking with Jeshua Anderson on Thursday and highlighting his improved play in my story, the junior wide receiver goes down with a hamstring injury Friday. He's out for a few days at least. And guess who I was going to feature on the blog Friday? Freshman running back Carl Winston, who seemed to be an easy choice as the most surprising recruit. Except Winston suffered a concussion and will also miss practice for a while. So from now on I'm only writing about Cougar fans who give me a hard time. See how you like pulling a groin muscle reading SportsLink, OhioCoug733. Click the link and read the usual morning post. If you dare.
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• Washington State: Pretty slack day but that shouldn't last with the scrimmage coming up this afternoon. We looked at the re-emergence of the no-huddle in our S-R story this morning (a short version of the story also ran in the Seattle Times). And correspondent Josh Wright wrote about the re-emergence of a former Cougar, DeMaundray Woolridge, at Idaho in his piece. It's been so long since Woolridge has played, he was at WSU before I started the beat. And I feel like I've been here for an eon.
• Around the Pac-10: ESPN.com's Ted Miller polled the coaches around the Pac-10 and got their choices for the practice player of the first week. ... Washington: In an effort to strengthen their running game, the Huskies have moved a former safety back to running back, as the Times Bob Condotta explains. And Tacoma's Todd Milles delves into the practice lives of special teams players. Oregon State: Good news for Beaver fans. The Quizz is back and feeling fine. ... Oregon: Like the Cougars, the Ducks hold a scrimmage today. Unlike the Cougars, the Ducks' scrimmage will be a long one. ... Cal: Hey, a story on the Bears. It's about replacing the starting linebacker corps. Ya, all of them. Stanford: We'll maybe there is just one Bay Area team, because that's about all the coverage I can find each day. ... USC: Linebackers seem to be a big deal this morning. The Trojans' new group is getting its shot. ...UCLA: After last season's debacle – the offensive line struggled all year – coach Rick Neuheisel used his considerable recruiting talents on the big guys up front. It seems to have worked pretty well. ... Arizona State: Another position change to write about. ... Arizona: The Wildcats have been hit by a string of injuries, none more important than the loss of all-everything tight end Rob Gronkowski for an undetermined amount of time. But there are more. Four starters in fact. So their backups are getting some ink.
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• That's what we are able to share this morning. We'll be back for sure after the scrimmage. We'll have our scrimmage report, our scrimmage story for the paper and a special added attraction. Until then …