Fall camp opens…Can the Cougs turn it around this season?

Coach Wulff met with the media on Thursday to discuss the opening of Fall Camp. Below are his comments. Also we’ve posted some video of the first practice of the 2011 season, complete with comments from Jeff Tuel, Tyree Toomer and Coach Wulff.

 

There’s definitely a bit more optimism in the coach’s voice this pre-season, and seeing how unhappy he’s been in years’ past, maybe this is a sign of actual improvement in the wings. Of course, perhaps it’s just better PR.

Undoubtedly the Cougs will field a better, larger and more experienced squad in 2011, but will it be good enough to compete week in and week out with Pac-12 teams? That still remains to be seen.

The crimson optimists see a team fighting for a bowl berth. The crimson realists see a team fighting to save the coach’s job and showing enough forward progress that perhaps Bill Moos will allow him to serve the fifth year of his contract.

Of course, not everyone wants that. Outside of fan sites like Cougfan.com, it seems the majority of Cougar fans would’ve been just fine with the Paul Wulff era ending at 00:00 mark of the last Apple Cup. In fact, most of the comments I heard as the third-straight miserable season ended was, “at least this means we’ll get Bellotti.”

Moos and President Elson Floyd didn’t agree and decided to bring Wulff back and announced that return in less-than-Moos-like fashion.

Now, Wulff’s tune is a bit different and the outlook for his team is much more sunny. But that brings us again to the question of just how much more sunny can things really be?

It’s not unheard of for a team to make a big turn-around from season to season. Many folks will look at the 2000 and 2001 teams. The ’00 squad went 4-7. The 2001 squad went 10-2 and finished as the #10 team in the nation. What should be noted, though, is that a 4-7 team with three losses by less than a TD is not the same as a 2-10 team with the #118th defense (there are 120 teams total) who lost their 10 games by an average of 21 points. I think it’s safer to assume the 2011 team may be more like the 2000 team than the 2001 version.

The 2011 Cougars, like I said, will be better and I think a four or five win season with a couple of games that are really close and could’ve gone either way is likely going to be the result.

The offense will be solid and will continue where they left off last season and put up some very decent if not good numbers. The line is deeper and more experienced than it has been in years. They’ve got what you need in a WR corps – solid possession receivers like Jared Karstetter, speedy flankers like Isaiah Barton, and game-breakers like Marquess Wilson. The backfield has a small and quick “Quizz-like” Rickey Galvin and a bruiser in Logwone Mitz. Of course, it’s all tied together by Jeff Tuel who will be making headlines all season long.

But then, there’s that D. Last year, they were talented but very green. They were exciting, but extremely thin. This year, there’s a bit more depth and a bit more experience, but again, how will that translate on the field? Even if they are twice as good as they were last year, you’d still be looking at the 60th-best defense in the nation and against Pac-12 competition, that’s not going cut it.

So, as we enter fall camp, there’s one question – Can the D turn it around?

If they can and that d-line can provide at least a bit of pressure and perhaps tackle an RB or two, the linebackers can find some consistency and the DBs can develop from simply being big-hitters but also stop the big plays, and the offense does their thing, maybe…just maybe this team can win six games.

But again, it’s a tall order and realistically, this team is another year away.

Will they be good enough for Wulff to keep his job? Is four wins enough? What about five? I think we’d all agree that six is definitely the magic number to guarantee safety. We’ll see if they can get there.

Here’s the schedule for this season with my predictions:

9/3/11 – Idaho State – W

9/10/11 – UNLV – W

9/17/11 – @ SDSU – L

10/1/11 – @ Colorado – W

10/8/11 – @ UCLA – L

10/15/11 – Stanford – L

10/22/11 – OSU (@ Seattle) – W

10/29/11 – @ Oregon – L

11/05/11 – @ Cal – L

11/12/11 – ASU – L

11/19/11 – Utah – L

11/26/11 – @ UW – W

Go Cougs!