COUGAR COACHES CORNER
Good Evening and Welcome to the Cougar Coaches Corner, where we sit down with WSU Football Head Coach Bryan Dodge and get inside info on what's going on with the team, I am your host and everybody's favorite mascot "Butch"
Butch- You got excitement brewing here in Pullman, but I got to ask what are your goals this year. Can you improve on what you already have done?
Coach Dodge- Well Butch, like last year my goal was to get this team to a Bowl game. This year hasn't changed, except this year I want to win it!!! Also we have a couple of high profile non-conference opponents in #13 Notre Dame and #21 TCU. I think it's important that we win 1 of those games. We also have 3 games against current Top-25 programs inside the Pac-10. I think it's very important that we win atleast 1 of those as well..
Butch-Coach you signed a 4 year extension to your contract giving you 6 years total. Do you plan on sticking around for the entire time. Also tell us about your decision to hire your brother Todd Dodge as Assistant Head Coach and Co-Offensive Coordinator.
Coach Dodge-Well as you know Todd struggled last year at UNT and was fired after going 0-11 and 0-8 in the MWC after I lead them to a bowl game the previous year. If it wasn't for him I would've never had the opportunity to even get here, so I though I would return the favor. As far as sticking it out for the next 6 years, you bet I do. I don't have any plans to leave Pullman for a very long time..
Butch-Coach you made some interesting decisions with redshirts, most noteably not redshirting QB J. Roland, RB P. Smith, WR R. Mack and T. McCoy as well as SS G. Keyes.
Coach Dodge-Well Butch when recruiting players sometimes it's a big deal for them to play their 1st year. I had to promise that to all 5 of those guys in order for them to come to Pullman to begin with. I do with we could've sat all 5 because we have the depth but in the end I need to be a man of my word.
Butch-Tell us what happened with WR M. Wilson?
Coach Dodge-Well he and RB/CB D. Horton were involved in a car accident. Mr Horton has decided that he is not going to return to the team, but MarQuess wants to still be apart of this program and had a redshirt still available so I thought it would work well for him to sit out the entire year and still have 2 years left to be our #1 WR.
Butch-You landed 3 very talented transfers.. How painfull is it not to have them eligble to play this year?
Coach Dodge-Very!!!!! RB D. Williams is a player that you dream of having. Todd and I have already started to look at our playbook and make some changes to get the RB's more involved this year. Hopefully C. Winston can shoulder the load and give us a vision of what next year will be like.
Butch-What's up with this stupid schedule. 3 Road games to start the year and 4 road games to end the year?
Coach Dodge-I agree Butch, but you can't expect schools like TCU or Notre Dame to want to come to Pullman and Idaho came over last year so it's our turn to travel the 8 miles to Moscow. As far as the Pac-10 schedule it is what it is.
Butch-Coach last year WR I. Barton had a breakout year. What can we expect from his this year and who on the team do you think will be that guy this year?
Coach Dodge-Well I expect Isiah to only get better and better. He has the potential to be a 2000 yd reciever if we can keep Tuell upright. As far as breakout guys. I think WR R. Jiles has the potential to be that guy and I think RB C. Winston if even more carries can be a 1000 yd back.
Butch-What about the "D" We lost an amazing player in A. Hoffman-Ellis. Everyone thinks that A. Burns will step up and replace him, but what about C. Mizzell?
Coach Dodge- I am high on both players. I really think we will see a vast improvement on both of their stats.
Butch-Coach what kind of recruiting needs do you have this year?
Coach Dodge-Well we just talked about Burns and Mizzell. I need to find guy's who can step in and take over for them in the next couple of years. So finding Linebackers is huge. Also we need to continue to just add depth at every posistion, because we dont' really have any huge holes to fill this year. We have a pretty balanced roster. I would like to find some future CB's and you can never have enough O-Line.
Butch-Well Coach we are out of time. Thanks for joining me. I look forward to the next show.