Thursday would have been a great day for the Washington State defense, if only the receivers had cooperated.

See, the WSU defenders made a bunch of really good plays during today's practice, big hits, interceptions, etc. The offense never really got into a rhythm, but it wasn't a total mismatch thanks to a number of explosive plays by the WSU receivers, and one running back that's making a strong case for more carries next fall.

Here is the blow-by-blow...

-- First, here are the players that were limited or unable to practice: River Cracraft, Robert Barber, Ngalu Tapa, Nate DeRider, Brett Bartolone and Frankie Luvu.

-- I spent quite a bit of time watching the secondary today (more on that in tomorrow's paper) and a few things stood out. First, it's clear that Taylor Taliulu, Isaac Dotson and Sulaiman Hameed are the top three safeties, especially since Darius Lemora is now the full-time starting nickel back. Dotson and Hameed, both sophomores, are each more athletic than Taliulu, but Taliulu has done the best so far of learning Grinch's defense and all the new terminology and signals, etc.

That's important because the safeties are tasked with setting the defense before each snap, with the field safety (strong safety) aligning the defenders on the side with a lot grass and the boundary safety (free safety) setting up his teammates that are close to the sideline.

While the Cougars spend a lot of their time in nickel, the nickelback's responsibilities are actually pretty similar to those of the Sam linebacker he replaced, so it's not like the coverage duties of the safeties have actually changed very much.

Defensive coordinator Alex Grinch says he's been pleased with how well the starters have been able to pick up the new terminology and assignments.

"Those top guys have done pretty well," Grinch said. "They really have, and it's a whole new language for them."

One defensive back that played pretty well on Thursday was Colton Teglovic, a walk-on, who has emerged as the backup nickelback. Teglovic broke up the first pass of the team period, a dart from Peyton Bender, and also knocked one of Falk's passes away later in the practice. Coach Mike Leach had some good things to say about Teglovic at the end of the day.

"He's always been a guy that hustles around, runs hard, kind of just a blue collar guy," Leach said. "He did good last year, too."

-- One defensive lineman that is getting a long look from the coaches is junior college transfer Jeremiah Mitchell. He looks a little bigger than the 260-pounds he's listed at, and plays like a bigger guy. The Cougars did a running drill that got pretty violent and Mitchell did a nice job of getting off his block and bringing down the running backs as they passed the linemen.

Running back Gerard Wicks also looked really good in that drill. Wicks, who is up to 219-pounds now, embarrassed the defense on his first run, bouncing off three or four tacklers and shoving his way into the secondary. But the highlight of the drill was when he sprung around the line and into the secondary, where he was met head on by Hameed. The safety developed a reputation for laying blows as a freshman last season, but was no match for Wicks, who outweighs him by 30 pounds, appearing to fly backwards as the two collided.

-- When I saw that freshman linebacker Chandler Leniu was up to 255 pounds already, I assumed he might be outgrowing the position. But he still moves pretty well and had an athletic pass breakup on Thursday.

-- Luke Falk didn't have his best day at quarterback, missing a couple throws during the skeleton drill and taking a pair of sacks during the team period. I had Falk finishing the team period 6 of 11 with no scores and the offense did up-downs afterwards as the defense won, 26-20. The period was mostly good-on-good, although the second unit did check in for a few plays.

Peyton Bender started off poorly, throwing an interception to Kyle Newsom early during the skeleton drill, but responded well, finding D.J. Thompson for a 30-yard touchdown over the middle of the defense that drew quite a bit of fire from the defensive coaches. He had another touchdown on a short pass to Gabe Marks, whose gentle hip feint threw off Teglovic and gave him a clear path to the end zone. Bender threw a third touchdown to running back Jamal Morrow, who was wide open on a wheel route.

Bender, throwing mostly against the second unit but occasionally the first, finished the team period 9 of 15, with a deep touchdown to Daniel Lilienthal on a post route.

"He's got a good combination of size and speed and it comes together, because he can play faster than he is," said Leach when asked about the receiver. "There was a flash of that when he ran for a touchdown where he really played fast and we've got to get him comfortable to where he plays at that speed every snap."

Bender also found Marks for an 18-yard touchdown during the team period.

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