Players and coaches spending more time together during the summer

The week of Father’s Day isn't the time of year that you expect to hear much buzz around WSU Athletics.  The Athletic Department took advantage of silence to make a splash and unveil the new Football Operations Building to the press, coaches and players during the week. Thanks to new NCAA regulations, players and coaches will be convening in the FOB sooner than later in the ready-to-go weight room and individual position film rooms.

A new rule passed last Fall by the NCAA Board of Directors permits football coaches to hold up to eight hours of mandatory workouts a week for eight weeks during the summer. WSU Coach Mike Leach has been a proponent of mandatory summer sessions for quite some time citing the advantage of being able to check-in on players. Many see the mandated practices as a step to help universities cutback on off-field instances during the summer months. The stipulations of the rule mandates that players take summer courses and remain in good academic standing in order to participate..

Coaches in both the Men's and Women's Basketball have been able to mandate such practices for the past two years. Ernie Kent seems to be liking the rule change that happened during his coaching hiatus. He announced that he would be using the time to acclimate his players to the faster pace game he wants to implement here at WSU.

Looking forward to the start of summer school. Get our players in practice & implement the speed game. Run. Run. Run. #GoCougs #TheProcess

— Ernie Kent (@CoachKentWSU) June 7, 2014

The allowance of limited contact with players wasn't all take for the coaches. The Board of Directors also tightened restrictions on the time that they can spend on recruiting by enforcing new dead weeks that coaches cannot have contact with recruits. The Board's intent is very clear: they want coaches to spend more time with what they have on campus and less time trying to get athletes on campus.

The recent rule change meshes well with the current situations of both the Football team and the Men's Basketball team since they are both going through times of transition. Football coaches will be able to help players make a transition to a new facility and routines that come with it. Kent will be able to introduce his style of play to his players sooner than he could have in the past.

BASEBALL

No news was the news yesterday for the WSU Baseball. Fifteen Pac-12 players were drafted from the third to tenth round of the MLB Draft and none of them were Cougars. Several Cougs are likely to be called on Saturday and will have to make a decision whether to turn to pro or use their remaining college eligibility.

FOOTBALL

A former high school assistant coach of Jalen Canty voiced his disappointment the prized recruits inability to pass a freshman qualifying test for that would have allowed him to play football at WSU. Canty is now headed to Casper College to play basketball at the junior college level.

Washington State loses one of its top football recruits | Cougar Football | The Seattle Times

Jacob Thorpe took advantage of the downtime to reflect on the Cougars opening week loss last season at the hands of Auburn. Thorpe notes how the narrow victory by the Tigers eventually allowed it to push its way to the National Championship Game. He recalls how the Cougs still felt they let the game get away despite the positive showing of progress.

Friday Flashback: Auburn - SportsLink - Spokesman.com - June 6, 2014
It was the first game of Washington State's best season in a decade, it was nearly the Cougars' most improbable upset, in hindsight, in at least that long. Auburn played in the BCS championship game last season, but its breathtaking run was almost undone from the start at home by ...