WSU spring football: Graham Harrell imparts knowledge to Cougars’ QBs and receivers

PULLMAN – You can make the quarterback an outside receivers coach, but you can’t get the outside receivers coach to stop teaching the quarterbacks.

Or something like that.

Graham Harrell was Mike Leach’s quarterback for an 11-win Texas Tech team and beat No. 1 Texas in Lubbock to finish No. 4 in the 2008 Heisman voting, and then won a Super Bowl ring while playing behind Aaron Rodgers for the Green Bay Packers.

While the outside receivers are Harrell’s purview in his first spring as an assistant coach, the Cougars also want him to impart the lessons gained through those experiences to Washington State’s quarterbacks.

“I bought in completely to the way Coach Leach does things when I played and it helped me a lot,” Harrell said. “And because of that, now that I’m here, I’m speaking the same lingo he’s speaking and sometimes it helps to hear it from a different mouth.

“Because I have played in this offense and played quarterback in this offense, I think that helps me with receivers because I can teach them full concepts and teach them what the quarterback is seeing,” Harrell added. “But with the quarterbacks, it helps because I’ve stood where they’ve stood and seen what they’re seeing.”

For example, much has been made of the potential for the Cougars to run the ball more often than last season when WSU was last in the conference with just 243 rushing attempts, 133 fewer than the next lowest team.

With two starting-caliber backs returning in Jamal Morrow and Gerard Wicks, and with the potential emergence of Keith Harrington as a change-of-pace option, the Cougars are experimenting with different ways to get the running backs more involved. Taking some snaps under center each game, for instance.

Sort of like Harrell’s senior year at TTU, when the Red Raiders ran the ball nearly six more times per game and had two backs each finish with more than 700 rushing yards. Although Harrell threw the ball 70 fewer times than his junior season, his yards per attempt went up, as did his pass-efficiency rating.

“No question there’s been an emphasis on understanding what a good run box is and getting into good run boxes,” Harrell said. “I’ve talked to them about that, Coach Leach talks to them about that, everyone has. You have to understand it helps the pass game because people have to respect the run more, and more important than anything, it’s going to help the win percentage.”

Of course, Harrell can’t take any time away from the outside receivers, a group that is replacing both of last year’s starters. So, Harrell works with quarterbacks Luke Falk and Peyton Bender when WSU does special teams drills.

While Harrell is no longer in quarterbacks meetings like he was last year as an offensive analyst – now he has his own meeting room to run – he still watches film with the quarterbacks on occasion.

“He’s always up in his office if you need to watch film with him,” Bender said. “I use him a lot for that, I’ll go in there if I have a few questions about how to run the offense, what plays are good in what looks. He ran it almost to perfection in college so he’s a great reference to help us learn about the offense.”

Notes

The Cougars have primarily run a nickel defense with Darius Lemora taking over as the fifth starting defensive back. … Kache Palacio appears entrenched at Rush linebacker, similar to last year’s Buck linebacker except the Rush seldom puts his hand on the ground. … The Cougars are expected to hold their first scrimmage of the spring at the conclusion of Saturday’s 9:30 a.m. practice. … On Friday the Cougars will hold a women’s clinic at 5 p.m. where participants can meet the football staff, watch film and go through drills. The cost is $50 per person.