Pac-12 coach laments Luke Falk's return

Hello, Coug fans. We're one more Saturday closer to Cougar football. Some farmers have started harvesting on this side of the state, and others will follow in the coming days. That's always a sign that football season is upon us.

Another sign? Cougar football players in Lewiston. The Cougs rode school buses yesterday to Lewiston, Idaho to begin their annual session in the state's ninth-largest city (look it up).

With the season around the corner, all sorts of previews are hitting the web, including this one from Athlon that gives Pac-12 coaches anonymity for their thoughts on other Pac-12 teams.

It's no secret that once you give anonymity to somebody, they naturally open up and tell you things they'd rather not be attributed to.

In Athlon's survey, the comments about our beloved Cougs is tame. One coach is bummed Luke Falk decided to come back for his senior season.

"We were hoping he’d turn pro, obviously, but he probably made a good decision to come back.," said one anonymous coach, referring to Falk.

The rest isn't anything earth-shattering: The Cougs will be "in the mix again," they have a strong running game to go along with the Air Raid, the offense is so simple yet so difficult to defend, the defense is good enough—that sort of thing.

It's always fun to guess which coach says what. Last year, Nuss connected the dots on a similar exercise Sports Illustrated did and came up with that nice gentleman otherwise known as Jim Mora as suspect no. 1.

This year? Honestly, it's hard to tell.

Everything that was said could have come from, say, Rich Rodriguez*, or the old guy that sometimes sits next to me in section 25.

(*Took his name at random out of the air)

I don't think a coach that beat WSU last season would comment like this, so Chris Petersen and Mike MacIntyre are out, at least in my book.

WSU didn't play USC or Utah last season, so Clay Helton and Kyle Whittingham are out, too (again, in my book. You are free to believe what you want.).

Also, Oregon and Cal both have new head coaches in Willie Taggart and Justin Wilcox, respectively. So they can probably be eliminated.

So that leaves....

• David Shaw
• Gary Anderson
• Jim Mora
• Todd Graham
• Rich Rodriguez

Given the bland statements about WSU, I'm inclined to guess David Shaw. But your guess is as good as mine.

Links

Football

Pac-12 Coaches Talk Anonymously About Conference Foes for 2017
Coaches around college football talk anonymously about Pac-12 football teams for the 2017 season.

Twitter becomes a vital tool for Washington State coach Mike Leach | The Spokesman-Review
This offseason, Mike Leach found a new platform to share his wild thoughts, cast his bold opinions and further cement his status as the most interesting man in college football.

In a battle of offense vs. defense, Marcellus Pippins laughs last ... and four other observations from day three of WSU camp | The Spokesman-Review
A slight breeze whipped through the Lewiston Orchards Friday afternoon, making day one of Cougar camp at Sacajawea Junior High bearable and maybe even … pleasant? Here are five observations from Friday’s session:

Inside and out, WSU receivers getting the tips they need | The Spokesman-Review
In an effort to ensure that no lesson goes untaught, WSU football coach Mike Leach is giving Dave Nichol the inside receivers this fall and Derek Sage will handle the outside receivers.

Former Federal Way QB D’Jimon Jones cut from WSU football team | The Seattle Times
D'Jimon Jones was a three-sport star at Federal Way High School. He would have competed for playing time at nickelback for WSU this fall.

Drew Bledsoe watches as WSU Cougars have an intense first padded practice of fall camp | The Seattle Times
Senior cornerback Marcellus Pippins welcomed a young freshman receiver to college ball in his own special way, plus some observations from WSU's first practice in pads.

Soccer

Position Preview: Soccer's Scoring Front Line - WSUCougars.com | Washington State University Athletics
The WSU women's soccer team continues its preparation for the 2017 season.

Baseball

Bailey-Brayton Field To Get New AstroTurf - WSUCougars.com | Washington State University Athletics
The baseball field is getting new turf. The playing surface went to FieldTurf in 2004 and was last replaced in 2013.

Old YouTube Clip of the Week

Let's take a look back at the end of WSU's 2003 Holiday Bowl victory over Texas in what should go down as one of WSU's two greatest wins of all time (the other being the 1997 Apple Cup).

• This video is the last minute of the game with the Cougar radio team of Bob Robertson (GOAT) and Jim Walden (not the GOAT) providing audio over the ESPN broadcast. It works just fine for a little bit, but soon it'll be a little odd.
• Texas' Chance Mock is having a hell of a time against that Cougar defense. He picks up one first down but it's all for nothing as he was constantly chased during this sequence. Man, that defense sure was something.
• Would someone smarter than me let me know if that should have been a facemask penalty on D.D. Acholonu at the 1:59 mark?
• I love how Mack Brown basically waves the white flag (with five seconds left, granted) after Acholonu catches Mock again to clinch the win.
• "IT'S OVER! WASHINGTON STATE WINS!" That has to be one of BobRob's greatest calls ever.
• Bill Doba shows his elusiveness when he dodges a hug from Calvin Armstrong. Nice moves, coach.
• Bud Namek is talking to Matt Kegel when the audio stops matching the visual. You're not going crazy, that's just how the video was uploaded.
• Seems like it's taking forever to sing that darn Fight Song.
• Walden about loses his you-know-what because apparently the Texas band started playing. Don't mess with Texas, Jim.
• This whole time, Mark May is saying something on ESPN. What it is, we don't know and we don't care.
• Eventually, everybody gets it together (sort of) and they play the fight song (it actually interrupted a player's prayer circle).
• SportsCenter is now starting, and they open the show with the Holiday Bowl highlights and tell us it was Sammy More Day.
• ESPN's highlights continue as an extremely excited D.D. Acholonu talks about being really sweaty, and some other things, I don't know.
• The video ends with the radio broadcast playing over video from KOMO and KING.
• Let's all remember WSU's Holiday Bowl trips with just this one game, shall we?