-- Stefanie Loh of the Seattle Times is reporting that Washington State has completed a home-and-home agreement with Central Michigan. The Cougars will play at CMU first, traveling to Mount Pleasant, Michigan, on Sept. 14, 2019. The Chippewas will complete the return visit on Sept. 4, 2021.

The agreement gives WSU a full nonconference schedule in 2019. If you remember, Mike Leach's first game at WSU was at BYU in 2012. The Cougars (from Provo) were supposed to make a return trip in 2013, but that got pushed back to Oct. 12, 2019. WSU will also host Northern Colorado, on Sept. 7, 2019, in exchange for a reported-payout of $500,000.

-- The second bit of news comes courtesy of Adam Gorney, who works for Rivals.com and is reporting that three-star defensive end Mason Vinyard has committed to WSU:
 

#Wazzu has landed a pledge from three-star Mason Vinyard from La Mesa (Calif.) Helix. Huge steal, great at SC camp pic.twitter.com/do1UTNi6Bg

— Adam Gorney (@adamgorney) September 1, 2015

 

Vinyard will likely play Rush linebacker at WSU and claims scholarship offers from San Diego State and San Jose State, as well as WSU. Below we have his highlight film. He's playing tight end in the first few clips.

-- Last but not least, we have some practice notes to pass along.

Shortly after the start of Tuesday's practice defensive coordinator Alex Grinch implored his unit to "play 1,000 miles-per-hour!" I didn't see anybody going that fast – the campus cops who keep bugging me about practice being closed would probably have given them a ticket – but Grinch was probably still pleased with the way the defense responded.

But practices are pendulums, and the defense's good day was matched by an offensive performance that, shall we say, led to a lot of up-downs.

-- The first play after Grinch's entreaty was actually a touchdown. The Cougars were doing a run-game drill and Alijah Lee scored from 10-yards out on a cutback against the first-team defense. The next play went better for the defense as Ivan McLennan dropped Lee for a five-yard loss.

-- Cornerback Treshon Broughton practiced for the first time and was in pads. The junior college transfer had to finish up a summer school class so he was a late arrival, but it looks like he'll be ready to go. Broughton was on scout team during practice.

-- Dom Williams didn't seem limited at all. The limited players I saw were T.J. Fehoko, Suli Hameed and Amosa Sakaria.

--The wide receivers generally won their battles against the defensive backs in the one-on-one drill, although Kirkland Parker had a nice recovery to break up a deep pass to Dom Williams that could have maybe had a little more zip. Marcellus Pippins broke up a quick slant to Daniel Lilienthal in the end zone.

-- On the other side of the field the defensive and offensive front-sevens were going at it. The second and third string offensive lines had rough days, but Gerard Wicks was able to make some chicken salad, cutting through to the second level and popping Taylor Taliulu, the only remaining defender between the running back and the end zone.

-- Erik Powell and Quentin Breshears were the kickers during a kick coverage drill. Powell got better distance.

-- During a good-versus-good team period Luke Falk had a pass over the middle intercepted by Frankie Luvu, but responded well, throwing a 32-yard touchdown pass to Gabe Marks, who was covered by Isaac Dotson.

Unfortunately for the offense, that first pick was a harbinger of things to come. Later in practice Falk and Peyton Bender led the regular offense on one practice field and Tyler Hilinski led the scouts on the other. I nearly got whiplash watching the interceptions pile up as the respective defenses collected three in about 30 seconds. Colton Teglovic, Shalom Luani and Calvin Green were the defensive playmakers, and Parker got his own interception off a scout team quarterback a few plays later. Dotson got one, too. Needless to say, the above sequence led to some up-downs.

-- Another poor series for the offense that gave way to some conditioning work: During a good-versus-good team period Falk was sacked, had a pass to Kyrin Priester dropped, handed the ball off to Keith Harrington who was tackled by Peyton Pelluer behind the line of scrimmage, and scrambled for little or no gain.

-- Oh, Charleston White also intercepted a scout team quarterback's pass.

-- I did have some fun watching the quarterbacks practice throwing passes at a garbage can placed the far corner of the end zone from about the 12-yard line. Falk was the most consistently accurate, never getting a football in the can but almost always hitting it. Hilinksi was the most random, landing two in the garbage can but also having several bad misses, while Bender was somewhere in between.

Walk-on quarterback Matt Jimison got the walk-off, however, completing his one and only attempt.

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