| Pac-10 Player Watch: Jeff Tuel | ||||
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College Football Insiders "Pac-10 players to watch for 2010" series continues on the offensive side of the ball with Washington State's Jeff Tuel.
Stepping into the fire as a true freshman last season after the players ahead of him on the depth chart were injured, Tuel showed poise and potential in the six games he played before he also succumbed to injury. Statistically, his finest performance of last season came against Cal. Tuel went 28 of 42 for 354 yards and added a pair of touchdowns and, perhaps more importantly, no interceptions. He also looked good in his first career action on the road, against USC, completing 14 of 22 passes for 130 yards. Only one other quarterback in school history had seen action as a true freshman, and that was Drew Bledsoe. There isn’t a lot for Cougar fans to be excited about this season. One of the positives for the program is that it has a quarterback with size (6’3”), one who can move around pretty well, has a good arm, and already has starts at USC, at Oregon, and against Notre Dame under his belt with three years of eligibility left. If the Cougars, who ranked 119th in the nation in sacks allowed last season, could find a way to give their sophomore quarterback time to throw they might just have a chance to surprise some people this season and save their coach’s job. More importantly it may be a signal that things are looking up. Related Columns: Pac-10 Player Watch #1 - James Rodgers, Oregon State Pac-10 Player Watch #2 - Shane Vereen, California Pac-10 Player Watch #3 - Chris Owusu, Stanford Pac-10 Player Watch #4 - Chris Polk, Washington Photo Courtesy of WSU Athletic Media Relations 
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Things have not looked up in Pullman, Washington in recent years. The Washington State Cougars’ last Pac-10 win was on November 22, 2008. Outside of that victory at home, against a Washington Husky team that went winless for the season, you’d have to go back to 2007 to find a Pac-10 victory. Worse yet, none of the Cougars’ league games last year were even close. To say this team needs to put a conference game (or two) in the win column is an understatement. When that win (or more) comes no one knows, but it’s safe to say the quarterback will be Jeff Tuel.