We finish our tour of the Pac 10 offenses Pullman, Washington as we look at our final Pac 10 offense; the Washington State Cougars.

As with many of the Pac 10 offenses, this Pac 10 team has a lot of talent, especially on the passing end, but have a lot of inexperience as well...particularly on the offensive line.

It all begins with experienced Quarterback Alex Brink. Brink has had a lot of success thoughout his career at WSU but has also tended to make mistakes at inopportune times, leading to the Wazzu faithful to look past him for the next Cougar Super-quarterback. Personally, I have always thought much of the criticism of Brink has been unfounded.

In 2006, Brink had a passing rating of 133% as he completed 61% of his passes. To add, Brink had 19 touchdaowns against just 10 interceptions, very decent figures for a quarterback on a .500 team. In 2007, I look for Brink to have a lot of success at it appears that he will have five viable options to throw to, as opposed to just three last season. this should be a breakout year for Brink as I expect him to challenge for Pac 10 honors on some level.

At Wide Receiver, WSU should be fine despite the loss of All-Pac 10 Wide Receiver Jason Hill. The primary option for the Cougs is certain to be Michael Bumpus, as he has all the ability to be All Conference Wide out. To add, I look for Brandon Gibson to have a very strong year as a second option, and we might even find a nice suprise in JC transfer Finas Rabb. All in all, I think the wide receiver position is in fine hands. This crop looks to play faster and taller than the crop from a year ago.

Running back is a bit of a challenge for Washington State. They return Dwight Tardy, who rushed for nearly 700 yards last season, but still, for a team in the Pac 10 to be successful, they need to average over 130 yards rushing per game. This was one of the reasons for the challenges WSU had last year. Although it could be a problem, I look for WSU to get some major help from DeMaundray Woolridge and Kevin McCall. Specifically, I see a good possibility that McCall will utilize his speed and strength to be very productive at times against teams with slower defensive ends.

The offensive line appears to be the make-it-or-break-it for WSU. This unit, comprised of Bobby Byrd, Micah Hannam, Dan Rowlands, Andy Roof, and Kenny Alfred, is both smaller and less experienced than other Pac 10 teams, averaging just 298 pounds and 1 year of experience. This group needs to be very fast and very strong to hold off the defensive lines that will be coming at them, which leads me to think that this group might be a year away from really holding down the fort. The largest Offensive lineman is Bobby Byrd (316 pounds) and hopefully he will function on the left side, otherwie, Brink might have a rough time staying healthy without having some bulk to protect his blind side.

With the kicking duties, WSU will use Romeen Abdollmohammadi (say that five times fast0, who was perfect last season in limited duty.

Basically, the success of Washington State is going to come down to how well their offensive line performs. If these kids are unable to play bigger and better than their size and experience would suggest, they will be unable to protect Brink or open up holes, and as we have seen, Brink isn't alwaysat his best if he has no time to throw the ball. Moreover, the running game will suffer dramatically to. On the other hand, if they can hold down the defenses, we can expect a free flowing, point producing offense that will challenge any offense in the Pac 10

I look for Washington State to struggle early in the season, and continually improve as the year goes on with an outside chance of going bowling, but if they do, their success will lie firmly on the shoulders of Alex brink and the ability of the offensive line to protect him.

Comments

DM14

Labels: CollegeFix, Dawgman14