No position has been more painful to watch the past two seasons than Quarterback. It seems like a century ago when we were hoping that Gary Rogers would be the next version of Matt Kegel. Since then we've seen two broken backs at the position and two season ending knee injuries. It's enough to make a Coug fan yearn for the days of Paul Mencke and Steve Birnbaum.

Nevertheless, real hope emerged last year when Jeff Tuel entered the game down in Los Angeles against USC. He showed the spark and energy and playmaking ability that had left town with Alex Brink. He completed nearly 60% of his passes as a true freshmen. He got 121 pass attempts in last season which essentially equates to about five full games of experience. Now we'll get to see whether he has taken another step in the weight room heading into Spring camp. He played at 207 pounds last season and there is no question that he'll need to be closer to 220 next season if he wants to finish the year. Jeff Tuel has the potential to be the next star Quarterback at WSU and it could come as early as next season if he stays slightly ahead of the curve on his progression. Marshall Lobbestael is a nice backup. Best case scenario is that he's WSU's version of Seneca Wallace. Only play him if Tuel is injured or we are blowing a team out. He is not a quarterback you can win with consistently in the Pac-10. This Spring should be all about Jeff Tuel.

As we continue our look at WSU football going into Spring practice we focus on running backs today. The story here is somewhat similar to the wide receivers. Some talent, little quality depth, and hopes placed on the young or injured stepping up in a big way.

We'll try to do our preview a touch differently. We'll cover on what to watch for, what you should be freaked out if it happens, and what you should hope will happen for each unit. We'll start out with wide receivers!

Lots of spring previews are going to be coming your way. Beware what you read. It's hard to get a gauge of who is playing well when the team is playing against each other. We'll give you our perspective good and bad and leave it unfiltered. If you want unbridled optimism this probably isn't your series of previews. If you want to be nega-Coug then this isn't for you either. Instead we'll bring you what we think is objective truth on each unit going into Spring Practice. Then when practice kicks off we'll bring you as much insight we can from our guys that will be observing most of the practices and talking to various people connected to the program.

We'll try to do our preview a touch differently. We'll cover on what to watch for, what you should be freaked out if it happens, and what you should hope will happen for each unit. We'll start out with wide receivers.