Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009

Cougar legacy lives on with TE Thompson

HOWIE STALWICK, SPECIAL TO THE HERALD

PULLMAN -- Tony Thompson, the son of legendary Washington State quarterback Jack Thompson, plays tight end for the Cougars.

That did nothing to prevent the younger Thompson from delivering a mean impersonation -- in more ways than one -- of his rocket-armed father when he was a 6-year-old spectator at the 1992 "Snow Bowl" Apple Cup in Pullman.

"Unfortunately," Thompson recalled, "I was a little immature, and I was throwing snow balls at the Huskies as they came out."

Yeah, the man said "unfortunately." The look in his eye told a different story.

Thompson, a fifth-year senior, worked his way up from walk on to starter at Washington State. His career came to a premature end Oct. 31 when he suffered his fifth concussion in college during the game with Notre Dame.

"It does break my heart, because I do want real badly to play against the Huskies," Thompson said. "But I understand that it's a better decision for my overall health."

Thompson, who regularly attended Apple Cups with his father while growing up in Seattle, said his "single best memory" of Apple Cups past took place last year. He got knocked out of the game with his second concussion of the year, but he joined the on-field celebration after Nico Grasu's field goal in the second overtime gave the Cougars a 16-13 win.

"I couldn't watch Nico's game-winning field goal because I was too nervous," Thompson said. "So I looked at the crowd, and I knew we had won by the crowd's reaction."

Thompson graduates next month and hopes to stay connected with the school, possibly as an intern with the Gray "W" Club, an organization that works to enhance the WSU experience for current and former athletes.

NOTES: Coach Paul Wulff removed all doubt about WSU's starting quarterback for Saturday's Apple Cup when he said Tuesday that senior Kevin Lopina "definitely" will start.

Lopina took the vast majority of the snaps with the No. 1 offense at practice Tuesday. Wulff expressed far more pessimism about the chances of Jeff Tuel playing than he had on Monday after Tuel resumed practicing for the first time since he went down with a knee injury Nov. 7 at Arizona.

Wulff said the Cougars won't play Tuel unless they are certain he faces no undue risk of aggravating his injury.

"He's not 100 percent and I don't know that he will be by game day," Wulff said.

Lopina started the first two games, then rode the bench until playing most of the UCLA game Nov. 14. He played the entire game last Saturday against Oregon State.

In 13 career games (11 starts) at WSU, Lopina has thrown 13 interceptions and two touchdown passes. Tuel, a true freshman, has six TD passes and five interceptions in six games (five starts).

-- The won-loss record and statistics aren't much different from a year ago, but Wulff and assistant head coach/co-defensive coordinator/safeties coach Chris Ball continue to maintain that the 1-10 Cougars of 2009 are better than the 2-11 Cougars of 2008.

"We always said if we got injuries we'd be in trouble," Ball said. "We said we'd be better, but we didn't really know how many wins that would calculate to."

According to data in the WSU football media guide, the Cougars tied a school record by playing five ranked teams this year. Three other opponents have been ranked at some point during the season.

-- The Cougars dressed only 13 scholarship players on defense last Saturday -- including senior end Jesse Feagin, who chose not to play with his broken hand in a cast -- and there was very little substituting in the 42-10 loss to Oregon State. The Cougars trailed 21-10 late in the third quarter before tiring.

"You've just got to hand it to the players," Ball said. "They mentally prepared themselves for a bunch of snaps. The coaches did a great job of preparing them for it.

"They (the players) didn't flinch at all. There wasn't anyone trying to get out of there. There wasn't anybody with their hands on their knees."

Asked if he expects defensive players to take on a similar workload Saturday, Ball said, "I think so. They sort of fed off it, being able to take all the snaps.

"I was really impressed just with the way they prepared themselves for it. That's hard to do, especially on the defensive line. They're banging every snap."