WSU Football: DE Toni Pole Will Indeed Play in Gildan New Mexico Bowl

Sep 14, 2012; Las Vegas, NV, USA; UNLV Rebels tight end Jake Phillips (46) is brought down by Washington State Cougars linebacker Eric Oertel (21) and nose tackle Kalafitoni Pole (98) during the fourth quarter at Sam Boyd Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

The Washington State Cougars do indeed look to have their entire team in Albuquerque, including defensive lineman Toni Pole.

Pole was sent home earlier in the week and subsequently speculated to have been ruled ineligible for the Gildan New Mexico Bowl and possibly beyond, due to academic ineligibility. Turns out it was merely a matter of needing to finalize something on the grade books.

Mission accomplished.

This no doubt the team knew he was coming back, so chances are he didn’t give a tremendous boost to them when he arrived. However for the Cougar faithful, it’s a different story. Pole is a big part of the run fits that Washington State will need to put together so as to stop Kapri Bibbs from having a field day.

He is considerably bigger than the defensive end that would have presumably played most of the game, Kache Palacio. According to CF.C indications are that Pole will start against CSU, but Palacio will get his snaps so there’s really not a whole lot of difference in the game plan from previous weeks. Pole probably plays in more every down situations and Palacio will probably step in on passing downs.

At any rate, exciting news is the distractions are gone for Pole and his teammates. Two days from playing ball for the final time in 2013!

Go Cougs!