WULFF: Back to business

THE WARM FEELING for Cougar fans won't subside anytime soon following a thrilling double overtime finish in this year's Apple Cup win over the Huskies. Paul Wulff and the Cougar staff, however, have no such luxury. For Washington State, a tough road game to Hawaii looms, and Wulff has asked the Cougar players one very pointed question in particular headed into the final game of the season.

On the need to focus on Hawaii:
"We've had to address that and really challenge them to see how mature they are, to see how they can come back off a big emotional game and respond. 'How are you going to play? Will you learn from this and come out and do it or are you going to lay an egg?' -- that's the question I asked them...hopefully it's something they can learn from this trip," said Paul Wulff.

The unsung, a few of the players' whose contributions might have been overshadowed -- from game film study:
"We had a couple offensive linemen that played pretty well -- Vaughn Lesuma and Kenny Alfred played an awfully fine football game. Chima Nwachukwu and Romeo Pellum, two kids in the secondary, also played well. It was encouraging to see those guys do some good things," said Wulff.

Some of the challenges Hawaii presents:
"They are fairly talented, particularly on defense...anytime you play them in Hawaii, as everyone knows that has ever hard to do that, that's a huge challenge, it's like you're going in there 14-21 points down," said Wulff.

Looking for a residual effect from the win over the Huskies headed into Hawaii:
"We want it to be, and we need it to be...you come off a big game like that and hopefully you can utilize that win in confidence building, and see if that can apply into your next ball game..I am anxious to see if we can respond and play better football -- that part is interesting to me. I do like (a game after the Apple Cup) in this situation because of the youth on this football team and so many of these players will be impact players as we move forward in our program. I'm interested to see how they respond," said Wulff.

Injury status on Tony Thompson (concussion) and Jeshua Anderson (bruised sternum)
"(Tony) had a concussion and he'll definitely be out for this game. (Jeshua) practiced this morning, not contact, but he was able to practice. I believe at this point he'll be ready to go.move," said Wulff.

Encouraging signs:
"We played a little better in the fourth quarter on defense and late in the game, than we did in the first three quarters so that was encouraging," said Wulff.

Sending the seniors out with an Apple Cup win:
"It's been a long season to get to this point obviously. But it was good to get that win under our belt and build a little confidence for our young guys. But more importantly just to have our seniors finish their last home game at Martin Stadium on a great note. I'm sure that is something that they will now carry with them forever," said Wulff.