Looking for answers

PULLMAN – The first day of fall football practice at every university is accompanied by questions. It’s just the nature of the four-years-of-eligibility limit that goes with college athletics.

But when a new coach takes over a program, those questions multiply. And Washington State, which officially begins fall practice Tuesday, is no exception.

New Cougars coach Paul Wulff, who succeeds Bill Doba after the latter was shown the door following a 30-29, five-year record, has already faced an off-season full of questions, many of them non-football related.

So many, in fact, he’s more than ready for practice to start.

“I’m glad,” Wulff said when asked recently if he was happy to see the off-season end. “But we had so many parts of the program we needed to implement, we also needed the time to implement those things. The time has been very valuable to us … but it is nice to have this initial phase behind us.”

When Wulff and his staff welcome the players to Rogers Field on Tuesday, they’ll have more questions to resolve than probably any other Pac-10 team. They’ll have just 23 practice days to do it before the season opener Aug. 30 in Seattle against Big 12 opponent Oklahoma State.

Here are the 10 most pertinent:

Who will be the

quarterback?

With Alex Brink gone to the Houston Texans after four record-breaking years, this is probably interrogatory No. 1.

Will it be three-year backup Gary Rogers, a 6-foot-6 physical specimen who spent spring practice showing he could run the team, or left-hander Kevin Lopina, who transferred from Kansas State two years ago and also showed skills in the spring as the top backup?

“Gary, because of his history at WSU, is our clear-cut No. 1,” Wulff said, “but that doesn’t mean that a No. 2 or anyone else can’t catch up.”

Whoever wins the battle – or if they share the time – returning All-Pac-10 wide receiver Brandon Gibson feels the Cougars are in good hands.

“We all believe in Gary,” he said, “but if anything happens to where the coaches feel that Kevin should get a shot, then we have full faith in Kevin as well.”

How is the

receiving corps

shaping up?

Gibson is a great anchor, having led the Pac-10 last year in receiving yards (1,180) and finishing second in receptions per game (6.09) and receiving touchdowns (nine). But with graduation of WSU’s all-time reception leader Michael Bumpus (195 career catches, 70 ahead of Gibson), Charles Dillon and tight end Jed Collins, others will have to step up.

Gibson thinks they will, especially sophomores Jeshua Anderson, the NCAA 400-meter hurdles champion who averaged 31 yards on his 12 catches in 2007, and Daniel Blackledge, who had one reception last season for 21 yards.

“He’s such a talented individual and athlete, whatever he puts his mind to he can do,” Gibson said of Anderson. “He’s going to make the offense go. He’s the last piece of the puzzle.

“Daniel has been reaching and trying to learn from the minute he stepped on campus. And Jeshua, he’s so athletically gifted … he’s going to come to camp and we’re going to drop our jaws because he’s such an incredible athlete.

“Those two, I would say they are better than me coming out of their freshman year.”

Will the hurry-up

offense be ready

by the end of the month?

Wulff wanted to make clear the new-look Cougars won’t be running a spread offense, per se.

“We’ll be under center,” he said, “but in the shotgun … too. We’ll be extremely multiple in what we do, but hopefully give the illusion of a lot of different things.”

The idea of the Cougars’ no-huddle look is to dictate tempo to the defense, something Oregon and Arizona did well last season.

“The tempo of the game puts a lot of pressure on your defense,” UA coach Mike Stoops said. “It doesn’t give you time to really decipher down and distance, formation, all the things you use as an advantage defensively gets taken away when people are attacking you, constantly attacking you.”

Though the tempo of the offense can cause problems for defenses, it also takes time for offensive players to become familiar with it, especially in a coaching-transition year. Still, Gibson feels the Cougars will become comfortable quickly.

“It’s been a smooth transition,” he said. “The offense tries to find the best way to get people the ball and it allows players to move easily.”

How is

Dwight Tardy?

WSU’s leading returning rusher – he ran for 676 yards on 143 carries before tearing his left ACL on the final play of a 214-yard effort against UCLA – has recovered quickly. So quickly, in fact, Wulff said he’s cleared and ready for fall camp.

Returning backup Chris Ivory, who ran for 313 yards last season, also has bounced back from a series of nagging injuries and academic problems and is 100 percent heading into this week.

How will

off-season

problems affect

the team?

Wulff’s off-season kicked off with the NCAA limiting WSU’s football scholarships in response to the school’s low Academic Progress Rate score.

But that was only a prelude. A number of players expected to contribute this season, including defensive end Andy Mattingly, defensive tackle Andy Roof and safety Xavier Hicks, had run-ins with the police and Wulff had to deal with those incidents. The players have fulfilled team disciplinary obligations, according to Wulff, and have been cleared to practice.

Roof, however, is still waiting for a final ruling from the Office of Student Conduct on his status as a student. If nothing changes before Tuesday, he will open practice with the team.

The problems have kept Wulff from focusing completely on the season ahead, and he’s decried the external distractions more than once.

“I assumed there would be issues and we would deal with them as they come, which we have done,” Wulff said. “But, yeah, there were a few more things than probably we thought.”

Who will

step up at

defensive tackle?

Roof, moved over from the offensive line where he started two seasons ago, is expected to help here – if he’s around. But the two starters are expected to be A’i Ahmu (6-foot, 292 pounds), who had 22 tackles last year, and Matt Eichelberger (6-4, 317), who emerged as a passable run-stopper last season.

Still, this is the Cougars’ thinnest position and one the staff recruited to improve. Junior college defensive linemen Josh Luapo (6-foot, 295), Bernard Wolfgramm (6-3, 270) and Jessy Sanchez (6-2, 265) will be given looks, though the latter two are listed as ends.

How will the

Cougars get

pressure on

the quarterback?

Last year, for the first year in recent memory, WSU lacked a defensive end that was able to get upfield consistently. To pressure the passer, the Cougs reverted to blitzes, allowing linebacker Mattingly to finish the season with a team-high eight sacks, despite not starting until just before the season’s halfway point. Yet those blitzes left WSU vulnerable, a vulnerability Oregon and Oregon State, to name the most effective, exploited ruthlessly.

Wulff believes moving Mattingly (6-4, 241) to defensive end – he came out of Mead High three years ago as a safety – and the return, for a sixth year, of starter Matt Mullennix (6-6, 258), will help. Also, Wulff said at Pac-10 media day he felt Kevin Kooyman (6-6, 242) had made impressive strides since spring.

Which new players

will emerge?

The defensive linemen, Luapo, Wolfgramm and Sanchez, will have the best shot, though Wulff would like to redshirt as many of them as possible. Two junior college safeties, Myron Beck and Easton Johnson, along with freshman cornerback Kevin Frank, may also win playing time.

On the offensive side of the ball, highly touted running back Chantz Staden may find his road blocked by Tardy and Ivory but is also capable of helping as a receiver. Former star recruit Michael Willis seems to have put his academic problems behind him – he was ineligible last season – and had an impressive spring at wide receiver.

“He’s been waiting to get his time to shine for a while and he’s going to show people he’s ready to play,” Gibson said of Willis.

Who will

be the kicker?

Wade Penner handled the kickoffs last season and spent the spring as the top bet to replace Romeen Abdollmohammadi at the position. But junior college transfer Patrick Rooney, who handled kickoffs at El Camino College in El Segundo, Calif., during the 2006 season, pushed Penner throughout camp.

Then another transfer, Nico Grasu from Moorpark College in California, showed up. The sophomore was the All-Western States Conference Pacific Division first-team kicker last season, scoring 62 points, and converted 9 of his 11 field-goal attempts. He also averaged 58.6 yards per kickoff attempt. He’s listed as the co-No. 1 kicker – with Penner – on the depth chart.

But no matter which player steps up and wins the job, the Cougars will go into the season counting on a kicker who has yet to convert a four-year college field goal.

Will everyone

buy in?

Expect the answer to be yes. Those who haven’t, including tight end Trevor Mooney, receiver Greg Walker and defensive end Asly Jean-Jacques, have already left the team.

The rest will be on the field Tuesday for the first practice.

“A lot of us wanted to see how far we could push ourselves,” Gibson said. “We just want to compete, make each other better, that’s the main goal. Fights in practice happen, people yelling and screaming at each other, that’s going to happen.

“We’re just here to take it stride by stride.”