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We still don't know much about the injury sustained by Luke Falk on Saturday, but WSU athletics director Bill Moos' intimated on his weekly radio show in Spokane this morning that WSU's quarterback did sustain a concussion. He also said Falk is "doing real well," and hasn't yet been officially ruled out for Friday's Apple Cup.
"It’s Coach (Mike) Leach’s policy not to talk about injuries, but there are policies from NCAA in regarding to concussions we follow those to a T," Moos said, via Stephanie Loh at the Seattle Times. "We’re hopeful he can play (in the Apple Cup) but we don’t know yet."
You can listen to the interview here -- Moos never specifically said Falk has a concussion, but it's not hard to connect the dots. It's also not surprising that Moos would leave the door open for Falk to play, even if that seems pretty unlikely.
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"We’re not going to take a chance on a concussion. That’s the talk in major football college, NFL. There’s all the emphasis on head trauma. … We’re not going to mess with that," Moos said.
You might be wondering why Moos would even comment on this at all, given Leach's policy. Moos has a little different agenda than the coach -- as the steward of the athletics department, he answers to the public to a much greater degree than Leach does. And the public really, really wants to know at least something about Falk, which was obvious from the reaction to Leach's postgame comments about Falk's injury.
Because of that, it doesn't surprise me that Moos would say what everyone wanted Leach to say in the first place: The player is recovering, WSU is taking good care of him, and any decision made about him playing this weekend is going to be made carefully and by the book.
This is the only thing that has been said or reported about Falk's status, and as we've already mentioned, you probably won't hear much more. Leach said at his Monday press conference that the decision as to who would start at QB would be made "27 seconds before kickoff."
Falk was knocked out of Saturday's game after his head collided with the turf at the conclusion of a sack. He was eventually strapped to a board and carted off before reportedly being transported to Pullman Regional Hospital for examination.
The Cougars take on the Huskies in the Apple Cup on Black Friday with kickoff scheduled for 12:30 p.m. PT on big FOX.