Apparently, it really will be Tuel time - as soon as this weekend (oh, and Lobbestael will start)
by Jeff Nusser on Sep 15, 2009 12:31 PM PDT
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PrintThis just in from Paul Wulff's Tuesday teleconference with reporters, via Grippi:
Coach Paul Wulff just dropped a big bomb on the Pac-10 conference call. Marshall Lobbestael will start this week and the Cougars are getting Jeff Tuel ready to play. He said Kevin Lopina has had 11 starts at WSU and now it's time to see what Lobbestael can do as a starter. "We do not have a solidified starting quarterback and we're still trying to find one," Wulff said. He also said he feels Tuel's future is bright and it's time to get him ready. He also said Tuel "will play" this year. We'll have more later.
Cougfan went one step further.
The Wazzu head man said he will burn the redshirt of Tuel and get him ready to play -- as early as this weekend at home against SMU.
What the heck is going on over there? First of all, what in the world did Lopina show on film that was so horrible that the coaching staff would effectively decide to bench him after letting him lead virtually the entire game against Hawaii? I know he threw two interceptions (and should have had another), but what did they see that led them to believe Lobbestael would be better? Or maybe, they just felt the way I did, that they didn't give Lobbestael a fair shot to win the job by bringing him in as the second guy. Either way, this seems like awful odd timing.
And what the heck is with reversing field on Tuel? This flies in the face of everything Wulff has said about wanting to build this program. Although, I will allow that he said he would put the guys on the field that will give the team the best chance to win. Maybe he feels like that's Tuel.
All of this absolutely smacks of desperation. My guess is that Wulff is starting to feel some pretty significant heat behind closed doors -- there is really no other explanation for this. I absolutely stand by my previous post that playing Tuel this year is a mistake; given our plethora of other problems, even if Tuel is much better than Lopina and Lobbestael, I don't see how it puts the Cougs in a better position to win.
But, as one Husky commenter said on a post yesterday -- from experience -- desperate coaches do desperate things.
This sure seems like a desperate move.
FYI: As we did last week, we should be getting the full audio of Wulff's presser from the WSU SID this afternoon or evening. We'll pass it along as soon as we have it.
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I’m sure the next coach would rather have an extra year of Tuel.
by Craig Powers on Sep 15, 2009 12:41 PM PDT up reply actions
That seat must be getting hot.
Seems like it would make more sense to burn the redshirt of Washington, Carpenter, or Barrington to shore up a thin position in a very weak secondary. What are they letting Jim Moore call the shots now? As unimpressive as the QB’s have been, the defense makes them look all world. This is a total desperation move. The seat must be even hotter than we imagined. Maybe a “big” donor offered to buy out the contract?
http://wsufoundation.wsu.edu/giving/enteramount.asp?Fund=Martin%20Stadium%20Project
We'll look back on this in a few years and wonder
what could’ve been if Tuel had one more year.
by J.J. FeKl on Sep 15, 2009 12:39 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs
Oh, and speaking of predictions
I also kind of nailed how the two-qb thing would turn out, too …
Although I never would have predicted Tuel.
Nuss
You are just that good!
Did Doba do Bumpus a disservice because he could have been here last year getting one of year of college experience and being that much better so that the Seahawks don’t waive him this year. I hate playing what if but wth….
Yeah, sorry to say but it looks like Wulff is panicking. Maybe I’m completely clueless on this – for all I know, Tuel is a special enough talent that he’s significantly better already than Lopina and Lobbestael – but this really smacks of desperation, and as you said, flies in the face of how Wulff seemed to be building this program.
I’ll reiterate what I said yesterday – I think one of the ways WSU can compete against the more talented teams in the Pac-10 is to aggressively redshirt their freshmen classes. Given how more and more teams are following USC’s lead and playing talented true frosh (look at how many freshmen Sark is playing at the UW), I think WSU could find a competitive edge by ensuring their guys all have 5 years on campus. I think WSU is better off trading a year of an 18 year old true freshman for a year of a 22 year old 5th year senior.
Its not like a QB upgrade is going to help us anyway!
To me, this shows that the staff sees this season as lost. The fact that this move comes THIS week, against SMU, the only team we won’t be double-digit dogs against, can only be explained by mounting internal pressure against Wulff. Otherwise, you’d try as hard as you could to win this game before going into rebuilding mode.
Exactly...
Furthermore, even if Tuel really is the second coming of Bledsoe or Leaf or whatever (he isn’t), wouldn’t Wulff have already played him?
This move makes NO sense whatsoever. Burning the redshirt of a potentially major future contributor who needs to develop physically and mentally before stepping one foot onto the field should not be done just to give us a different look in the one game that we might be able to win under better than ideal conditions just to save the job of a coach on the hotseat.
The only way this would help is if they played him on defense and special teams.
by HDCoug on Sep 15, 2009 1:04 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs
Slightly unrelated but
I may have consumed one too many beers by this point, however, did I see Montgomery in at safety late in the 4th quarter?
Throwing spaghetti against the wall
After the loss last week it seems (to this impartial observer) that Wulff and the coaching staff are now just trying anything at all just to see what might work.
Had the Cougs beat Hawai’i, this would never have come up. But at this point the coaches have run out of ideas or plans and are running blind. The worst part isn’t burning the redshirt year for this kid – because if it turns out he has the skills he could actually win some games for you. The worst part is that it really does seem as if the coaches have flat out given up. And that sucks. Trust me, as a long suffering Cal fan I’ve seen this before with Joe Kapp, Keith Gilbertson, and Tom Holmoe.
On the bright side, things really can only get better. Right?
Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.
You know, I am not that mad...
I understand why everyone else is upset about this, but really I am not that mad about it. We never know about the future anyways, who is to say that Tuel wouldn’t be really good and have left after after his Sophomore year for the NFL if he stayed on redshirt. Also, look how well UCLA’s plan has worked out with their redshirt QB, he now has a broken jaw and will be out 3-4 weeks or longer.
This does look like a completely desperate move by Wulff, but he also probably see’s how USC and Michigan among others are doing with true freshmen and figured why not. Also, at the same time he see’s what he has is really not doing much and they are just plain boring and painful to watch. I think Wulff realizes he needs to beat SMU or his job is in serious jeopardy because there is not a game after SMU we probably will win, and probably thinks Tuel gives us the best chance of winning, as he is the most talented QB we have. However, as also been said…..our defense and secondary is more the problem then our QB, but whatever, this might work also – but if not, at least Wulff will be fired after the year for sure.
GO COUGS!!!
Mad isn't the word I would use
Hard to be mad at a coach who’s trying to win games. I just don’t think it’s the right decision for Tuel’s future, or the program’s. But time will tell.
I guess the way I look at it is this: If the plan was to burn the redshirt, don’t burn it 1/4 the way into a lost season.
Man, happy day!!!
Going to espn.com and right when it opens what do I see…….THE UW HUSKIES!!!!
That is gross, just what I want to see after this weekend, ESPN putting UW on the front page and talking about them maybe beating USC.
Is it basketball season yet?
(sorry I know this is off topic, but yea…..had to say something I guess)
If he is the best QB...
…just play the kid. We are not talking about the NFL here, lots of Frosh QB’s have done just fine in Pac-10 play. The thing that bugs me is, if you are going to play Tuel you should give him Hawaii and SMU full time before he gets killed vs. USC. To think he can just play part time for a game and then handle USC (which IS the NFL) is just looking to get hurt.
I’ll also add that we pulled Tuel with a really bad season…so we should be able to get another Tuel level player if we win some ball games.
Just when people are starting to turn of Wulff
He announces this. Wow. Unless Tuel leads us to 2-3 wins the rest of the way, bad movie. Guess what? He won’t. If he does I will eat crow.
I am really getting fed up when we are 7 point dogs to SMU at home!
If anyone was going to lead us to 2-3 wins
it would be Tuel. I wish he would’ve been pulled off the redshirt earlier (that is, if we were going to use him at all) but I now have one more reason to look forward to Saturday. Tuel will likely start for the next four years which would give our current recruit Halladay 2 years of practice and would play as a redshirt sophomore. I agree that this is a desperate move though.
I agree Tuel is probably the better quarterback
But Wulff is not decisive. If he is as good as everyone says, then start him from the beginning. Don’t let our first 2 games (that were reasonable win opportunities) go by and then name a new starter for our most winnable game and then say Tuel will play too. It doesn’t make sense.
I am fed up not with trying to win but for Wulff being indecisive and burning a year for Tuel when we are too bad to win anyway. And we should never be too bad to win two years in a row. I don’t care how empty the cupboard was.
fox sports - top ten ncaa football coaches on the hot seat
Paul W ranked number 5.
But do you think starting will make a difference?
Both times he’s come into the game, the team was trailing and started to just fling the ball around.
It will be interesting to say the least...
But I just don’t see Lobbestael sticking through for a complete game. Reasons why – 1) his mobility seems to still be limited from the injury. 2) I think I’m the only who sees it this way, but I get the feeling that the offensive line doesn’t want to block for him. Maybe they are not very good at pass blocking and every time Lobbestael is brought in they chuck it every down; or maybe its because we are down 2 TDs by the time he’s in and the offensive line has already packed it in.
I think the Tuel redshirt burning is more about the odds that Lobbestael will not finish a game and Lopina, for whatever reason, has been written off by Wulff.
If Lobbestael can get pass protection, I have a little more faith that he will be successful; but I think the signs all point to Tuel right about now.
by LeaveItToWeaver on Sep 15, 2009 9:02 PM PDT up reply actions
Start him
I love this move. First, Lopina on the filed gives us no significant advantage thus playing him over Lobbestael is a waste. If you think you can build your program around Tuel; from everyone’s reaction they believe we can, playing Lobbestael would be a waste. I had very little expectations with this season. My only expectations were we would improve in all aspects of the game while building for the future. If that is the case why not throw Tuel out there if he is going to be our cornerstone for the next 3-4 years. It gives him the only experience he really needs. What exactly his he learning from watching Lopina and Lobbestael? Second, unlike the professional game where the learning curve is so high; in the college game once you get it—-you get it. The games around the country show there is no longer any significant advantage to starting a 5th-year senior over a Freshmen QB, if they’ve talent let them use it. Third, someone already mentioned this but by burning Tuel redshirt you are adding second year of "projected" playing time to Connor Halliday, which helps with building for the future. Finally, does the name Jason Gesser ring a bell? Mike Price decided to play a young talented QB and baptize him by fire; that turned out pretty well for WSU. Let the kid play. Frankly he would learn more on the field then being mentored by Kevin Lopina.
Agreed.
Also, under Tuel the no-huddle offense looked a lot faster than what i’ve seen out of Lopina or Lobster. Tuel is no Barkley but he definitely has skill and talent. He’ll take some beatings this year, but think about next year when he’s a sophomore? At least his first game will be at home.
You said youself why it isn't a good idea to put him out there.
Very little expectations for this season. What is he learning watching Lopina and Lobbastael? The playbook. He is also building muscle so that his body is better to able handle the punishment and Pac 10 season will hold.
You say “once you get it, you get it.” What does that exactly mean and do you have any evidence to support it. Plus, wouldn’t you rather have Tuel get “it” and still have his full eligibility left? “Games around the country show there isn’t any advantage to playing a 5th year senior over a true freshman.” What does that mean. What are these “games” around the country you speak of? How much more improved could the team be with a true freshman at backup quarterback?
Finally, why yes Jason Gesser does ring a bell! Did you happen to take a glance at Jason Gesser’s bio before you posted that? He redshirted. Mike Price gave him his “baptism by fire” as a backup quarterback during his redshirt freshman year. That example holds very little weight. If Jason Gesser would have played during his true freshman year he would have been gone come 2002’s Rose Bowl run.
by Craig Powers on Sep 15, 2009 5:24 PM PDT up reply actions
He's not starting so saying he needs to be lights out is less than educated...
Is he young? Yeah. Is he green as hell, wet behind the ears, etc? yeah. However, he’s the kind of guy that can get moving and make things happen when a play gets busted. He’s going to take some shots, and he’s going to throw some picks, but overall he is going to be a spark that this team sorely needs. I’m all for redshirting and building depth, and I have advocated for keeping the redshirt on, but as it is now this team needs something to inspire some hope and to fire guys up, and if this kid can come in and motivate through being gutsy, then this is the year he can build his leadership credentials and get ready to lead the team in full next year.
Next year there are guys that are redshirting now, that will contribute heavily to making this team better, faster, and stronger. Read the article about the 10 recruits over at Cougfan and look at the numbers for the guys in last years class a bit. There are 7 or 8 guys that are going to be coming up after RS years that have size and athleticism in the 6’4" and bigger range that are built, like Wulff wants, to run his system. There are entire other groups of guys that are smaller, but faster, that will have packed on muscle and can help around the rest of the team, especially in the secondary and at linebacker, backing up those big guys that are going to see time in the trenches. Next year is the big progress youth movement year that will likely make or break Wulff at WSU. Getting Tuel in there now and getting him out there to make plays and give these guys someone to believe in, even in this terrible season is just setting up further cohesiveness between now and then when this team really starts to take shape the way Wulff is hoping it will. I’m not going to say this is the best move ever, far from it, but it is something that can well pay dividends next year and help to give us a fighting chance at vast improvement moving forward. Remember, the lines will be in the system for another year by then, guys like Luapo and Wolfgramm will have gotten up to speed with the Pac-10 game vs. JC and will be improved, and there will be some steps taken and depth in place to really start looking like a real football program then. Right now the best we can do is hope that Lobster is able to start well and that Tuel sees enough action to get experience without getting killed as he gets ready to become the number 1 next year. Hope, pray, and cheer for the Cougs, they’re gonna need all the help they can get the rest of the way.
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