Another dreary November?; Cougars confront, if not dwell, on issue of traditional late-season swoon

PULLMAN -- One hates to be indelicate, but has anyone noticed what month begins Saturday?

The party line at Washington State is: Not really.

Mike Price: "I'm not going to bring it up.''

Ryan Leaf: "It's a nonissue. This team has never lost in November.''

That is true in the strict sense. But, at the risk of flogging a horse that took a thorough beating last year, one feels obliged to point out Price's eight-year record of 4-19 in the month of November, including 0-12 on the road.

Oddsmakers have perhaps noticed. Undefeated, 10th-ranked and sporting their best record since the Depression, the Cougars are nonethless three-point underdogs for their game at 7 p.m. PST Saturday at Arizona State.

His reticence on the November issue notwithstanding, Price this year is actually confronting it more directly than he has in the past. The issue, he has hypothesized, is not November per se, but the way the Cougars have approached their entire season, particularly in regard to injuries.

In an effort to treat sore muscles earlier in the week, he has followed the cue of NFL teams and an increasing number of college clubs in staging a light practice on the day after games. So the Cougars this year have taken Mondays off instead of Sundays.

By any team's standards, but especially by the Cougars', the team is indeed remarkably healthy this year. Aside from defensive tackle Gary Holmes, no starter has been held from the lineup because of an injury.

Are the Cougs winning because they are healthy? Or healthy because they are winning?

"A healthy mind is a healthy body,'' said Leaf, the Cougar quarterback who ranks fourth in the nation in pass efficiency. "When you're winning, you feel different. You feel no one can bring you down.

"Plus, everyone did a tremendous job working in the weight room and things like that. It's hard to say why we're healthy. It's just a godsend that we are.''

Leaf said there is even a mental advantage to a Sunday practice. "You're focused on the next opponent, which is good,'' he said. "In the past, that (last) game would linger in your mind until Monday night.''

The Cougars' other major change in approach this year, besides the Sunday-Monday swap, has been to practice as often as possible on their grass practice field, rather than on the hard, sandy surface of Martin Stadium. That, too, may have contributed to the reduction in injuries.

In the past, the Cougars have shared the practice field with WSU intramural teams, whose constant use has left the field a mudbath by October, chasing the Cougs into the stadium.

Last spring, having built an extra intramural field elsewhere, the school gave Price control over the practice field, which is now protected by a chain-link fence. Barring rain, the Cougars plan to practice there for the rest of the season.

In other words, Price believes he has addressed the November issue already. There is no point in talking about it now.

The Cougars' plan is to sweep the November hex quietly aside, as they have done with seemingly every other barrier they have faced this season.

Symbolic of this effort is their redefinition of the verb, "to Coug,'' coined by a sportswriter several years ago to describe the school's tendency to crumble in tense situations.

Players and coaches are saying "to Coug'' now means precisely the opposite.

"Fourth down, 1-yard line against UCLA -- we make the stop. That's Couging it,'' Leaf explained.

"It was the same thing at USC. Four minutes to go, I hit Kevin (McKenzie), he makes a one-handed grab and Shawn (McWashington) gives a block to Coug it.

"The same thing happened Saturday,'' Leaf said of a 35-34 overtime victory over Arizona. "A two-point play, and LeJuan Gibbons and Duane Stewart Couged it.

"It's fun to change the definition of something that was supposed to be so negative.''

Next word in line: November.