We've pretty much started limiting The Morning Paper -- your look at Cougar news around the Internet -- to just game days (our stats were telling us people were rarely using it by clicking through the links during the week), but I still like to pull it out on heavy news days. Yesterday was one of those.
Here's the best of what I found regarding Cougs and their quarterback, ahem, situation:
- Vince Grippi had a fantastic take last night at the end of his practice recap. If you haven't read it, you should. My favorite thing about him -- besides the absolutely insane amount of information he pounds out at the computer screen each night -- is the way he walks the delicate line between objective analysis and personal opinion. He'll never come right out and say what he thinks, but he doesn't hesitate to let you know what he's seen and let you draw your own conclusions.
Case in point: In the post, he includes a lengthy quote from Mike Stoops of Arizona, who knows a thing or two about enduring the slings and arrows that go along with rebuilding a program. Interesting. He also includes these thoughts:
"One other thing. Talking with some of the players, I’ve heard over and over about Marshall Lobbestael and Jeff Tuel and the extra hours they spend in the film room, doing everything they possibly can to get ready for the upcoming game. That’s earned their peers’ respect." - Bud Withers has this column for The Seattle Times, although there's not exactly a ton of insight there.
- Grippi also has his generic QB change story -- with quotes from the press conference, which you can listen to in its entirety here -- as do The Seattle Times and The News Tribune.
- Cougfan.com has a pair of stories, one that says there were four factors driving the quarterback change and one that says Lobbestael wants to play better and is happy for Tuel. That's about all I can tell you about them, because they're subscription only.
- The WSU Football Blog has the excellent radio show recap. Sounds like he basically repeated most of the stuff he said in his press conference, but it's a worthwhile read nonetheless.
- Ian Furness had Jim Walden on his radio show yesterday, and he's got a message for all of you who think Paul Wulff should be fired: "YOU'RE NOT A REAL COUG!" His words, not mine. Audio here.