The first scrimmage of WSU football spring practice is taking place as I write this, but since you're obviously not there, I figured I'd pass along a couple of items of note from this morning.
First, our defensive line took another huge blow yesterday. If you've been following Toby Turpin's academic issues from the beginning, you could infer from the reports that it didn't look good. Well, it isn't good, says Grippi:
(D)efensive tackle Toby Turpin had been dismissed from WSU by the Student Conduct Board, we learned this morning. The 6-foot-5, 301-pound Turpin, who started six games last season and made a career-high 28 tackles despite being suspended for the final two games for an undisclosed violation of team rules, was slated to compete for a starting spot. Turpin, from Los Alamitos, Calif., was dismissed from WSU for an academic infraction, according to sources with knowledge of the situation. We'll try to get comment from Wulff today.
Although we can probably guess what the infraction was based on who was involved with the decision, we're not going to speculate publicly. All I know is this is a big dang deal. At this rate, it might not matter at all how improved the offense is -- between the loss of Turpin and Bernard Wolfgramm's chronically tender back, there just might not be enough beef in the middle to stop anyone and keep offensive linemen off our linebackers.
On a brighter note, Paul Wulff is happy with his team's progress.
Paul Wulff after spring practice (via WSUCougarAthletics)
That's it for this morning. We'll be back when the reports from today's scrimmage are in.