THE AFTERNOON PAPER: Another DB escapes the law

Isn't it nice to hear that rather than being locked up for transgressions with the law, members of our secondary are being exonerated?

On the heels of LeAndre Daniels and Tyree Toomer having charges dropped against them, Grippi is reporting that felony burglary charges have been dropped against cornerback Tyrone Aire Justin, clearing the way for him to start this fall.

I mean, it sure would be nice if they'd not get arrested in the first place, and "exonerated" might be too strong of a word given that the prosecutor dropped the charges because he didn't think he could get a conviction -- and Justin agreed to go state's evidence against former teammates Romeo Pellum and Kevin Frank -- but still ... baby steps, people. Baby steps.

My guess is that Paul Wulff knew this could be coming, given the lack of overt disciplinary action against Justin and the fact that he was listed as a starter on the fall outlook before this news came down. And color me as one who is excited -- I thought Justin showed moments of brilliance last year, as he seems to have the right frame (especially those long arms) and athleticism for cornerback. He seemed to make some really dumb mistakes at times, and he's still too light to be very effective in run support, but the tools are there to be a good cover guy. He's a guy I'm looking at to improve a lot this year.

In other football news ...

• Grippi is really ramping up his football coverage. First, there's this early look heading into the opening of camp, which focuses on the quarterback battle. Also of note in that story is that Louis Bland has been slow to recover from the knee injury he suffered in spring ball, and likely won't be ready for the beginning of the year.
  
  I've said it before and I'll say it again: Spring football is stupid. Work on conditioning, work on strength, but for the love of pete -- does hitting each other for three weeks in March (with generally 1/2 to 2/3 of your full squad) really make you that much better in September? Instead, we've got a starting linebacker who won't be ready by Stanford, and there were numerous other players (most notably Andy Mattingly) who suffered injuries that prevented them from full-scale strength and conditioning training the rest of the offseason. To me, the risk is simply not worth the minimal reward.
• Nice story out of Sacramento on Wulff, although it pretty much rehashes a lot of what was written about him when he got the job a year and a half ago with an update of last season's troubles, which seem to fit poetically in with Wulff's challenging life.
• If you didn't get enough of Pac-10 media day on Thursday, Grippi rounded up all the relevant WSU links from yesterday. Additionally, here are the quotes straight from the coaches' and players' mouths.
• If you're an old enough Coug, you'll remember Cory Withrow from the 1997 Rose Bowl team. The Seahawks signed him yesterday to replace the injured/released/retired Mike Wahle. I'll be rooting hard for him to make that opening day roster. The NFL didn't think a whole lot of Withrow out of college (he was undrafted), but he's put together a nice journeyman career.
• Lastly, Ted Miller blames Bill Doba for WSU's demise. Well, not in so many words, but ... yeah, it was Dobs's fault. (Scroll down to find it.)

That's about it for today. Oh, except for this:

C'mon, football! I don't care that you're not going to be very good ... I'm way ready to get started!