Cougars A.M. Links: Washington State News 4/3
By Josh Davis
Hey good morning Cougs! We have another solid day of articles coming your way so stay tuned throughout the day, but of course we had to wake you up with the best Cougar articles of the past 24 hours, including a humorous tale of flights to American Samoa for coach Joe Salave’a.
Football
"The more I tried to develop a hypothesis as to what might explain the Cougars being at the top of the charts, I realized that it would be a fool’s errand, because there are many factors that put certain players into starting roles. Some have earned starting roles by their play in practice and on the field, while others have lost starting roles for the same reason. Injuries (and alleged injuries circa 2012-present) also play a very prominent role in pushing players in and out of the lineup. Also, starting does not necessarily reflect total experience. There were several players with 10+ appearances in non-special team situations, but little to no starting experience. However, starting experience does say something, because it does give context to the situation in which a player is appearing, so I think this is a useful thing to look at."
WSU’s American Samoa Pipeline just got more expensive
"Washington State has put an emphasis on recruiting American Samoa recently, and with Joe Salave’a leading the way, WSU has done quite well for itself. That could continue, but if it does, it will likely come at a steeper price: Samoa Air introduced a new policy which charges passengers by body weight."
Cougs keep score during Tuesday practice – Spokesman Review
"The bullhorn was all part of Mike Leach’s desire to let his players know what the score was. Yes, there was a score being kept. Each time the offense netted a positive play — it’s unclear what the exact paramaters were — a graduate assistant would yell into the bullhorn, “one point, offense,” or “two points, offense,” if it was a particularly good play, such as the pass Connor Halliday threw to Rickey Galvin that went for a long gain down the right sidelines thanks to a block from Teondray Caldwell."
Marks Making Mark on WSU – Spokesman Review
"“I used to like Mario Manningham a lot when he played for the Giants,” Marks explained, “and he used to flick it up. He used to switch it up from time to time, he’d throw a little dance in there, throw a little flick in there, there’s a lot of stuff you can do with it. You can dunk it. You can dunk on somebody. You can flick it.”"
Basketball
Larry Scott: Ed Rush’s joke ‘not a fireable offense’
"Believe it or not, I actually don’t disagree with Scott, in this sense — if you take Rush’s comments in a vacuum, it’s perfectly reasonable to think that he was using hyperbole to make a point, and in and of itself, that probably isn’t egregious enough to cost someone their job."