For Young WSU Defense, it's Sink or Swim

So much for wearing a life jacket and wading into the shallow end of the pool. Bill Doba is instead grabbing his young WSU defense by the back of the neck and tossing them off the diving board. The head coach and defensive coordinator is taking the tough-love route with his fresh young faces, as the Cougars will start three newcomers in the secondary as WSU gets set to take on Wisconsin at Camp Randall.

The scary part for Coug fans? Two of the newcomers couldn't be any "newer" at one of the toughest positions to play in a BCS conference. That's right, Doba has chosen to start a true frosh in Chima Nwachukwu at one corner spot, and JC transfer Devin Giles at the other. Chima is thought of as a rising prospect, and clearly had a fine camp by passing the upper class-men ahead of him on the depth chart (for sake of spelling errors, we'll just go with Chima this year). He's earned the right to start based on what coaches have seen thus far. But it's hard to envision a true freshman coming in and excelling right away. It might be a feat if he can simply tread water and not get beat too badly. But Doba certainly has confidence in the young prospect who has played on a big high school stage:

Nwachukwu is from Allen, Texas, and Doba said big-time high-school football in Texas has prepared him to step into pressure situations. Doba said Allen High School has a 50-yard indoor practice facility, a 15,000-seat stadium, 17 assistant coaches and a football-program receptionist.

"It's a different type of intensity," Doba said, comparing it to other high-school programs.

Giles may be a JC guy, but he didn't even play football last year, instead taking a redshirt and running track at Coffeyville JC in '06. The third new face in the secondary is JC transfer Alonzo Jackson. At least Jackson played JC football last year at Blinn College, and has shown the WSU coaches a lot thus far in camp. However Terry Mixon, the five-star JC recruit thought to be a starter immediately at strong safety when he signed with the Cougars, has battled weight and injury issues since the beginning of camp. That opened the door for Jackson, so he will get the start.

Meanwhile, the injury bug is biting the Cougars, yet again. Brandon Gibson, the big-play WR that the offense is really going to need to be the deep threat this year, is battling a balky knee that has slowed him down in recent weeks. Right now it's not really known if he'll be able to go this Saturday, with Doba saying it might be all the way up until warm-ups before they know for sure. The defensive end situation is also a concern, as Lance Broadus, a regular last year and leading returning pass-rusher with 7.5 sacks in '06, won't be able to start as he comes off a shoulder injury. That means that starting tackle Ropati Pitoitua, all 6-8, 300 lbs of him, will slide outside while A'i Ahmu and Aaron Johnson will start at the tackle spots. The dire news there is that both Ahmu and Johnson have had serious injury issues over the last few seasons, Ahmu a bum foot and Johnson a back injury so severe he had surgery in the off-season, so there's no telling how long they'll be able to hold up inside. Pitoitua could end up back at tackle if either Ahmu or Johnson need to leave the field.

Finally, the Cougars announced their 2008 schedule, and it's not exactly filled with cupcakes. They do have one likely lay-up in Portland State, but the rest of the non-conference could be difficult. They open the season with Oklahoma State in Seattle, a game ESPN has put together for WSU. Plus they have road games at Baylor and a season-ending game at Hawaii the week after the Apple Cup, the same kind of game that UW has this year. And of course they play the nine other Pac-10 schools, with an impressive home slate of Cal, Oregon, USC, Arizona and UW all in Pullman.