WSU Vs. Eastern Washington: Jeff Tuel Is This Week's Most Important Person

Last week, Michael talked about how Mike Leach was the week's most important person. Usually he'll be the one to talk about the upcoming most important person of the week, but this is not a usual week for Mr. Preston. This past weekend, he wed his longtime girlfriend Sammy, and the newlyweds are honeymooning in Paris before coming back in time for the Coug game in Las Vegas. I think I speak for everyone when I say, I hate you.

Since the Man With The Golden Throat won't be here to drop knowledge on you, the Man With The Golden Pants will have to fill in. I'll do my best not to screw everything up, but no promises. I do have stories about Nintendo 64, though, so I suppose I could just talk about that. I could also talk about Jeff Tuel's haircut, because hahahaha Jeff Tuel's haircut. Seriously. A combination of Adam Banks and "Sunshine" Ronnie Bass.

Jeff Tuel was a large reason the offense looked horrible last week at BYU, but he wasn't the only reason. The line didn't block particularly well, and receivers weren't getting open. Regardless of all that, Tuel looked timid. A senior QB needs to command the offense a bit better than he did, but seeing as how it was his first ever game in the Air Raid, after basically being out all of last year, I can give him a bit of a pass.

The reason Tuel is this week's most important player is because now is the time when he needs to put up those gaudy video game numbers. Against FCS opponent Eastern Washington, the Cougars are expected to win handily. While no one should ever expect a cakewalk against an FCS team (hi Montana State!), the Cougs should still win this game. I expect Tuel to look a lot more polished than he was against a very good BYU defense.

Tuel will set the tone for the rest of the team. If Tuel doesn't come out with some Nusser level swagger, we could be in for a long game. If he hits Marquess Wilson for a long TD early in the game, we could be looking at Simming the Season-type numbers for the senior signal caller.

I could have talked about members of the defense or the offensive line, but let's be honest here: the QB is the most important position on the field, and if Tuel has another game like he did last week, we're in for a season of black-outs and damaged livers. I don't think that one game was really indicative of anything, but I'd still like to see him put up big numbers against an inferior opponent.

I'm honestly not worried about Jeff Tuel. However, he is this week's most important player if for no other reason than, ohmygod stop talking about a damn quarterback controversy, please.