From Pullman -- The Washington State football team took Saturday off, but was back at it for a full practice on Sunday. The first team defense struggled, as scout team quarterbacks Tyler Bruggman and Luke Falk found a number of receivers behind the secondary, drawing the ire of defensive coordinator Mike Breske. The defense got one back, however, when Falk led receiver Robert Lewis right into safety Anthony Carpenter, who blew up the diminutive receiver with a forearm shot.

The first team offense had some success as well. Both Connor Halliday and backup quarterback Austin Apodaca missed only a pair of passes and WSU's receivers made some nice catches and were consistently running crisp routes.

After practice we talked to coach Mike Leach and linebackers coach Ken Wilson. Highlights from those interviews after the jump.

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Coach Mike Leach:

(Have the players adjusted to the practice schedule well?)

Yeah, pretty good. We had some days on the front end so that made it easier, of course [ASU] had the same thing.

(Have you ever played on Halloween before?)

I think I have twice.

(Are any of the young guys standing out during Thursday Night Football?)

It bounces around. Feddie Davey typically looks really good, Ivan McLennan looks good, Jamal Morrow looks good. No. 85 (John Thompson) looks good, last week the offensive line looked good. Robert Lewis looked good the other day, Isaac Dotson looks good. Hundeby looks good, too.

(Are you excited about the young linebackers?)

I think guys are doing good, I think it's the best group of young guys we've had.

Linebacker Coach Ken Wilson:

(How did you guys practice today?)

We played good for a Sunday-Tuesday. We're ahead of schedule, we're ahead for game-planning. I'm sure they are, too. You get the bye week -- we've had a chance to rest, get some guys some rest and we've got ahead of the game plan so we're in good shape.

(How are they acclimating to the strange schedule)

It's been good because it's not a long bye week. The next one will be a little different. This one, because it's a Thursday game coming off a Saturday isn't a true bye. It's short enough that they've stayed focused and we didn't have to come out and run them and kick them in the butt all day.

(How are the young guys looking during Thursday Night Football?)

I'm really excited about [Nathan] DeRider and [Nathan] Hundeby right now. They're out there getting better, it's hard for me to see them any time but Thursday night because they're not in my meetings, they don't come to my stuff they're always down here. They've both traveled to games and been on the sidelines with me and I've got high hopes for those guys. If we can get Feddie [Davey] 100 percent healthy -- he's running faster now -- when he's healthy he's a horse out there so we've just got to get him playing that way all the time.

 

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