CougCenter

Examining Travis Long And Logan Mayes At 'Buck,' Via Cougar Sports Weekly

2012-05-17T23:52:42Z

For this week's edition of Cougar Sports Weekly, I went back and watched the spring game again to get a sense of how new defensive coordinator Mike Breske will be using Travis Long in his new "buck" position. Here's a snippet of the 1,700-plus words I devoted to the topic:

Defending modern college football offenses requires an ability to provide multiple looks in order to match their opponents’ ability to attack them in multiple ways. Flexibility is key, so simply labeling WSU’s defense a "3-4″ doesn’t do it justice — most especially because it doesn’t really seem to function like a true 3-4.

One of the keys to Breske’s defense is the "Buck" position — Long’s new spot. It’s a hybrid defensive end/outside linebacker position that requires the player to be equally adept rushing the passer and dropping into coverage. I wanted to see how Breske is planning on using Long in this new capacity, so I went back and watched the spring game again, charting all of Long’s snaps — which side he lined up on, whether he was up or down in a three- or four-point stance, and whether he rushed the QB or dropped back. I did the same with his backup, Logan Mayes.

The more I watched, the more questions I had as I tried to understand what was going on conceptually. The questions led me to do a fair amount of research on the internet, which led me to more questions, which led me to watch the spring game for a third time. While I’ll readily admit, as usual, that I’m no coach and that it’s tough to know exactly what was intended on each play given the limited camera angles available to the layperson, I think I now have a pretty good idea what Breske’s scheme is trying to accomplish in the front seven and the role that Long and Mayes play in that.

First, let’s take a look at how Long and Mayes were used in the spring game. Here are a few easy-to-grasp charts that summarize the data. There were 50 total snaps that I was able to chart (fuzzy camerawork and the early end of the online feed conspired to keep me from charting any more).

That, my friends, is what we call a teaser. I also examined baseball's non-existent NCAA tournament chances. Subscription info here.

Mike Leach's Bear Hunt Was A Rousing Success

2012-05-17T20:36:07Z

Remember when we said Mike Leach was heading out to hunt bears this week? It was all fun and games and most got a nice chuckle. You probably figured Leach was just going to hang out in the woods with Mike Pawlawski for a couple days. If you wondered whether or not he'd actually find and take down a bear, though, you've probably underestimated Leach.

So this happened:

Yesterday, I shot one of the biggest bears the guide had ever seen.He has been guiding for over 15 years.Over 7 feet and over 350 lbs.
— Mike Leach (@Coach_Leach) May 17, 2012

That's right: Leach wandered off into the woods in Canada with a gun, found a bear (with the help of a guide) and shot it. While most coaches are twiddling around, going to conferences and, perhaps, working on their tan, Mike Leach is taking down bears. Really big f'n bears.

No word on whether or not he killed or neutralized the bear to bring it back for Andrei Lintz to play with.

This has been your daily reminder that Mike Leach is the most interesting coach in all of college football. And our coach is better than yours.

Jeff Hironaka Loses Assistant Coach Title, Will Be More Of A Consultant

2012-05-17T19:41:51Z

I had a plan for this offseason. I'd become kind of disenfranchised with the basketball team and hadn't written much about it, but had some kind of a plan for after the season ended. It was one post with a point, and an effort to spotlight someone I think very highly of.

Time started flying by and I never got around to writing it -- at least while it was relevant. I wanted to write about how Jeff Hironaka was too good to just be an assistant; how he deserved to be a head coach at a Division I school. In theory it seemed like a good plan.

It doesn't much matter anymore and I never expected it would be like this. If I were to take a guess what Hiro's next move would be, it would have been as a head coach somewhere. Instead, it's a step backwards.

On Friday night, a tweet he sent out caught my eye, both for the content and the name attached to it.

Well life has changes that affect your position
— Hiro (@jeffhiro) May 12, 2012

He had been @coachhiro. Now he's @jeffhiro. Something had changed, and it wasn't good. Dropping the "coach" wasn't an innocent move, and those of us paying attention knew it.

The "coach" part is gone because he's no longer a coach at Washington State. He's moved to a director of player development and special assistant to the head coach role. It's a fancy title that says nothing. He won't be on the sidelines and won't be recruiting, but can fiddle around with gameplans.

Bone wanted another recruiter, because at this point he needs one pretty badly. I understand that and know this plays to Hironaka's strength. But it's still sad, in a way.

This all comes via Christian Caple. You can read more on his Twitter timeline and we'll pass along a link to his story when it's up.

This bothers me a lot. It's been bothering me all weekend, then all week. It's been eating at me in a weird way that's hard to explain.

I've always admired Hiro, both as a person and a coach. Every once in a while, when I was in Pullman for games or now that I'm living here, I'd see Hiro out running around town. He ran more in a day than I probably do in a year. Sometimes, he'd break out goofy outfits, others he'd just be jogging around in skimpy shorts.

His personality, though it didn't necessarily shine through in a public sense, was endearing. People love him. He genuinely cares about his players, his job and the people around him. His interviews are simply fantastic. It's refreshing.

You might not think this matters -- after all, he's just an assistant and assistants generally fly under-the-radar. He's easy to spot on the sideline and his story has been told*, but he's still just an assistant. And he'll still be around the program. But it matters.

*Read that link, then read it again. It's a story Vince Grippi wrote last year, and is one of the best things I've read from him.

Hiro's life has revolved around basketball for ... well, pretty much forever. He's a basketball lifer, devoted to the game and its teachings. He knows more about the game than any one of us could dream of, and probably more than all of us combined. He's meticulous, thoughtful and a student of the game.

And he's been the best damn coach on the staff, in terms of understanding the game and the x's and o's, by a million miles.

He has a weakness, though, and you can probably guess what it is. For all his skills on the court and in the huddle, he's not as strong of a recruiter as everyone else. Recruiting is, of course, a big part of the game. But what he lacks in selling, he's more than made up for in teaching, developing and coaching.

Still, never did I expect this to happen. If anything, I thought, or hoped, he'd get another head coaching job -- this time at the Division I level. I didn't expect him to be demoted -- something that likely sets his career back at an age where even small setbacks seem gigantic.

The premise of what I originally wanted to write remains true, even with this cruel twist. Jeff Hironaka deserves to be a head coach, deserves to run his own team. He's paid his dues over decades and is an even better person than he is a coach.

He deserves better than this.

College Football Relegation: Hello Idaho, My Old Friend

2012-05-17T17:35:14Z

If you've missed it, Jason Kirk and the college football friends over at SBNation.com have deemed this week Relegation Week. With all the conference expansion and realignment, it was decided that relegation should be attempted, and what followed was a pretty amazing exercise. This wasn't simply throwing teams around and taking a dartboard approach to relegation: They explained why is should happen, how it would happen, arranged the conferences into tier and, finally, got to relegatin'.

Let's catch up before we get to the good stuff.

Spencer Hall on why college football needs to embrace cannibalism (it's good, as always).
An interview with a relegation expert (our soccer friend Kevin McCauley) to explain this all.
The real legwork begins: All the conferences are arranged and tiered -- all the way down to the NAIA.

So that was all the prep work done. It was all building up to Thursday's adventure, in which Bill Connelly simmed everything since 2005 and started moving teams up and down. The concept is simple: Last-place finisher in a tier goes does; first-place finisher in the tier below moves up.

You knew Washington State was going down.

On the plus side, the Cougars were responsible for the Washington Huskies being sent to the MWC in the first year of the sim. The Apple Cup became a de facto playoff game for the relegation spot and down went the Huskies.

The bad news? Renewing the rivalry with Idaho in 2013 was probably pointless. After two incredibly bad years in 2008 and 2009, the Cougars fell from the Pac-10 to the MWC, then immediately dropped to the WAC. We missed you, Idaho.

At the end of it all, Washington State is still in the WAC this year -- lawd, Mike Leach is going to put up eleventy billion points on those poor souls -- and Washington is still in the MWC. The only Washington school that ended up with a good deal was Eastern Washington (now in the WAC and at one point in the MWC while the Cougars were in the tier below).

So, relegation ... cool idea or "no thanks"? And if you have any questions leave them on Bill's realignment piece above.

HOT COUGAR ACTION: 15 Weeks Until Football

2012-05-17T13:01:31Z

With yesterday's official news that the opener against BYU will move to Thursday and be broadcast on ESPN, we are now exactly 15 weeks from football. To be even more precise, at the time this posts, we will be 151,995 minutes away from Cougar football.

Now, the question becomes how will you spend the next 9,119,700 seconds? Here are just a few things you could do to keep you busy until kickoff.

You could watch Mike Leach's introductory press conference 5,929 times.
You could drive from Pullman to Provo and back 104 times.
You could listen to the WSU fight song 121,596 times.
You could watch The Shawshank Redemption 1,070 times.
You could play this Sporcle quiz, and use the full time, 15,199 times.

Finally, depending on how fast you read, you could re-read every comment from our 24-hour signing day chat roughly 422 times.

Football

Bledsoe: From the gridiron to the vineyard
Washington State University’s football team has a new head coach, his name is Mike Leach. Bledsoe and Canzano have a spirited discussion on the hiring of Mike Leach and how it’s been tough for Drew to live in Bend, OR being a Cougar and dealing with the surrounding fans of the Ducks and Beavers.

Mike Leach era at WSU to start on a Thursday night - Spokesman.com - May 16, 2012
The hiring of coach Mike Leach continues to pay dividends for the Washington State football program.

The Reach of Leach: WSU-BYU game moved up for ESPN | Pac-12 Confidential | The Seattle Times
Washington State had hoped to make a splash with its hire of Mike Leach as football coach last fall, and the Cougars no doubt would tell you today: So far, so good.

ESPN to Televise Football Game at BYU - The Washington State University Official Athletic Site
PULLMAN, Wash. - Washington State's 2012 season-opening football game at Brigham Young University has been moved to Thursday, Aug. 30, 2012 and will be televised nationally on ESPN.

Basketball

Cougars Add Australian Big Man James Hunter - The Washington State University Official Athletic Site
PULLMAN, Wash. - James Hunter (Sydney, Australia/Gillette College-Wyo.) has signed a National Letter of Intent to compete with the Washington State University men's basketball team beginning next season, head coach Ken Bone announced Wednesday.

Ed Rush Hired As Pac-12 Coordinator Of Men's Basketball Officials

2012-05-16T22:50:20Z

The Pac-12 hired Ed Rush, former NBA Director of Officials, to lead its men's basketball officiating crew, the conference announced on Wednesday. We all know about Pac-12 officials by now, so it goes without saying that something needed to change. Rush will, hopefully, spearhead that change.

The press release can be found here and a quote from Larry Scott is below.

"I am delighted that we have been able to attract someone of Ed's experience and expertise to lead our officiating program," Commissioner Larry Scott said. "He has been an expert and leader at all levels of basketball officiating, and the training program he developed for us is considered state-of-the-art. We look forward to taking our men's officiating program to the next level under Ed's leadership." he added.

And now, a look at what needs to happen.

On his first day on the job, Rush gathers the conference officials together at Pac-12 headquarters. They all gather around a conference table to go over some tape and evaluate where the conference is at.

Rush: Gentlemen, let's see what we're working with here. You are all being evaluated all the time. Remember that.

Rush pulls up the tape from this rather memorable incident.

Rush: ...

Mike Littlewood: Look, I can explain. The rules ... they say ...

Rush: ...

Littlewood: I was just making the call by the letter of the law ...

Rush:

Rush surveys the room as the referees gathered look on in horror. He spots Kevin Brill.

Brill:

Rush:

At this point, the whole room is quivering. A somber mood sets in.

Rush: And for the rest of you ... you know what, forget it. We're starting over. Everybody out. Now. You're all done. All of you.

With the meeting over and Rush riding the high of firing everyone, he wanders over to the football officiating lounge. And then all hell breaks loose. (Language warning, naturally. He was angry)

Sporcle Quiz Wednesday

2012-05-16T19:49:19Z

Sporcle Quiz Wednesday

82/99. Holy cow I missed some obvious ones. I'm pretty upset with myself. There are also some names on this list where you think WUT, HOW.

BYU-WSU Date, Game Time Set For Aug. 30 At 7:15 P.M.

2012-05-16T18:22:30Z

We've still got nothing official yet, but this is just about as good a confirmation as we'll get until BYU and/or WSU announce the date and time for their season-opening matchup. On Monday, Bill Moos said something was in the works, noting that he'd likely have an announcement that the all-Cougars matchup would be moved to the season-opening Thursday on ESPN.

More information can be found here, in our previous post. Remember: It's Mike Leach's first game back on the sidelines and he'll be facing his alma mater. Storylines galore!

Now, there's this.

BYU TV games so far: Washington St at BYU Thu, Aug 30, 10:15pm & BYU at Boise St Thu, Sept 20, 9pm, both on ESPN
— Mike Humes (@MikeHumesESPN) May 16, 2012

Humes is a college sports publicist at ESPN. I doubt he'd just be throwing something out there all willy-nilly. While it may not be officially announced by either school, if ESPN is chiming in and saying this is happening, we're going to assume it's happening.

So there you go. A 10:15 p.m. ET start on the back-end of the ESPN opening-night doubleheader. Make plans accordingly.

Edit: WSU has confirmed the game time. Schedule for the season is below the jump.

2012 WSU Football Schedule

DATE OPPONENT SITE TV TIME

Aug. 30 BYU Provo, Utah ESPN 7:15 p.m.

Sept. 8 EASTERN WASHINGTON Pullman TBA

Sept. 14 UNLV Las Vegas, Nev. ESPN 6 p.m.

Sept. 22 COLORADO Pullman TBA

Sept. 29 OREGON Seattle (CenturyLink Field) TBA

Oct. 6 Oregon State Corvallis, Ore. TBA

Oct. 13 CALIFORNIA Pullman TBA

Oct. 27 Stanford Stanford, Calif. TBA

Nov. 3 Utah Sal Lake City, Utah TBA

Nov. 10 UCLA Pullman TBA

Nov. 17 Arizona State Tempe, Ariz. TBA

Nov. 23 WASHINGTON (Apple Cup) Pullman TBA