The Cougars will need their starting nickelback when they face arguably the country's top passer this weekend.

So it's a good thing for them that Isaac Dotson was at practice for the first time in almost two weeks on Tuesday. While it was a no-contact practice for Dotson, the nickelback did run with the ones against the scout team late in practice so its appears the Cougars are going to do everything they can to get him ready for Saturday's game.

It was a pretty normal Tuesday practice for Washington State, meaning it was mostly drill work. There was palpable energy from the first team defense, which seemed to move a little faster today than it usually does.  That speed showed up with takeaways against the scout team, with Darrien Molton intercepting a pass, Marcellus Pippins getting his hands on two and Parker Henry reeling in one of his own.

That said, I do think the recent transfers of scholarship quarterbacks Austin Apodaca and Tyler Bruggman has hurt the defense because the scout team simply doesn't have the quarterbacks to give them a great look in practice.

That's nothing against Matt Jimison, Christian Jorgenson and Connor Ennis, each of whom do yeomen's jobs learning new playbooks every week and coming to practice ready to compete against a starting Pac-12 defense.

But the Cougars only have three scholarship quarterbacks and none of them are upperclassmen. Tyler Hilinski is coming along well, but in terms of accuracy and arm strength he is far and away WSU's best scout team QB. If those guys don't transfer and Hilinski is just one of a couple or more QBs that the coaches thought were worth scholarship offers who are throwing passes against WSU's starting defense on a daily basis, it would make the defense a lot more honest.

 

The ball hangs so much on deep passes thrown by the walk-ons that the defensive backs and linebackers are almost always able to catch up to it, so they are rarely punished for missteps. That can't help them improve and it wouldn't be the case of WSU hadn't suffered an abnormal amount of QB attrition.

Anyway, that's just something I've been noticing in practice and it's almost certain to get fixed. The Cougars won't continue to carry just three scholarship QBs and, with all three presumably returning next year, the scout offense should be much more consistent in the passing game going forward.

Speaking of the scholarship guys, Peyton Bender played very well when I watched the practice field with the first and second team offense. He had struggled the last couple weeks, but was hitting his marks today, including a 50-yard touchdown pass to Dom Williams who ran a beautiful post route. Bender did throw a pass that Calvin Green should have intercepted, but the converted safety dropped it after breaking well on the ball. I think Bender underestimated Green's speed, and I think Green is playing faster as he begins to feel more settled on defense.

Luke Falk also threw the ball well on Tuesday, throwing a bomb to Gabe Marks who caught it with his fingertips in the end zone.

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