Redemption or Turning Point? (CS)

Happy Humpday to you, Followers. Hope you're having a great week. 

As for me, well, I've been a bit gloomy over the past few days about my Cougars current and future fortunes.  But before I got near to the point of jumping off a cliff, I became a bit contemplative.

So, if you want to check out how it is that the latest injury report may wind up being a 'good' thing for the Cougs, then read on.


Followers, I don't know about you all, but watching Jeff Tuel play against Stanford, and then watching him get pummeled in the first half against the Beavs, well, I just coudn't help but think that the guy was never going to be his former self this season.

Moreover, as those of you who were former (legendary) athletes know, sometimes when we play hurt, we compensate in doing so.  And, more often than not, the whole act of compensating can bring two troublesome friends along with it.  And those friends are:

a) Injury

and/or

b) Bad Habits

Mind you, I am NOT suggesting that Tuel's latest calf injury had anything to do with his shoulder.  But what I am saying is that as I watched him play at less than 100%, I found myself worrying about what next year would look like if Tuel had an on-going shaky, "but I played totally hurt all year" type of season. (see Reggie Moore last year as Exhibit A).

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A few weeks back, we were all celebrating the heroic stand-in job completed by our main man Mr. Lobster.  As we all know, Marshall had us sitting pretty at 3-1 heading into that UCLA game in LA a few weeks back.  Unfortunately, not only did we lose that UCLA game (which I think was the BIGGEST loss of the year so far), we ultimately did so when Marshall threw his first truly "stupid" interception of the year.  And as I remarked at the time, that was a tough, tough end to what had been to that point one heckuva success story.

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Well, as fate would have it, Marshall gets his chance to shock the world once again on Saturday.  And based on the presumed severity of Tuel's injury, one would have to think that he'll be behind center for quite some time.  And, if he plays well?  Well, that would not only be fricking huge for him and the program, it would also be a game changer for our head man, the now beleagured, Paul Wulff.

But here's the other thing to think about heading into this weekend.  With Marshall soon-to-be out of the fray (b/c of graduation) AND with Tuel now showing himself to be at least marginally injury prone, the next few weeks may represent a prime opportunity to begin the development of the next quarterback of the future....

Yes folks, the next few weeks may represent a good time for us to take a really nice Halliday.  I mean, not only does the kid have one helluva cannon, he also stands to be the guy who will take over the reigns in 2013.  And by my last count, that would be the year where Wilson, Mizell, Kafusi, Buchanon et al. are all seniors.  And yes, that also is the year where our non-conference schedule includes games against BYU and (@) Auburn, while our Pac-12 North schedule will once again include road tilts at Cal, Oregon, and the U.

So, count me in as a guy that is going to look on with great interest as the rest of the season unfolds. 

Who knows, we could witness one of the great Cougar stories of redemption that we've seen to date and/or we could see the future being built--and possibly saved--along the way?!!!

Of course, we could also witness neither of those scenarios--but why the hell ruin a really good Humpday, right?

All for now.  Go Cougs.