Notebook | Cougs tell tales of rural living

The No. 1 target of teammates' jokes this week at Washington State is backup linebacker Brady Emmons, who cut his leg while gutting a deer on a hunting trip during the bye week.

"He's taken a lot of ribbing over it," coach Bill Doba said.

Emmons, a redshirt sophomore from Meridian High School outside Bellingham, is back at practice.

Doba said Emmons' episode reminded him of the time in the early 1990s when linebacker Anthony McClanahan ran into the locker room just before practice with a dead pheasant and a shotgun.

"Where'd you get that?" Doba recalls asking McClanahan.

"In your backyard, coach," McClanahan replied, referring to some now-occupied acreage in the Pullman city limits behind Doba's house.

Doba said the inner-city players on the team were shocked to see a shotgun in the locker room.

"They were about to evacuate," he said.

Under current campus rules, WSU students who hunt have to check their guns in and out at the campus police station.

Notes

• Doba said starting tackle Micah Hannam (leg) has practiced well and should be able to play. Starting strong safety Alfonso Jackson (concussion) is considered doubtful and backup running back Chris Ivory (concussion) is out. Starting wide receiver Brandon Gibson (heel) is expected to play.

• Quarterback Alex Brink has been named a National Football Foundation scholar-athlete and will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship. Previous Cougars to win the award are Jason Hanson (1991), Ed Tingstad (1988) and Greg Porter (1982). Brink is in the running for the national Draddy Award that recognizes performance on and off the field. Brink spends 45 minutes a week reading to children at Pullman elementary schools.

• The Cougars are 5-2 after byes this decade. They had two byes in 2002 and none last year.

• The Cougars have played eight true freshmen this season: wide receivers Jeshua Anderson and Daniel Blackledge, offensive linemen Andrew Roxas and Tanner Way (walk-on from Okanogan), kicker Wade Penner, linebacker Hallston Higgins, and cornerbacks Chima Nwachukwu and Romeo Pellum.

• UCLA coach Karl Dorrell on Pullman: "I like it. It's a very pretty place. I used to live in Seattle (Washington staff in 1999) so I know a little bit about the state ... It's different in how you have to get there when you're traveling with a large group. It's a part of America. It's a nice change from what the city life is."

Craig Smith: 206-464-8279 or csmith@seattletimes.com