When senior slotback Robert Lewis went down with a season-ending injury during Washington State’s preseason football workouts, coach Mike Leach lost Exhibit A in his ongoing argument that size doesn’t matter in the art of blocking.
But there’s no lack of young, smallish inside receivers on the Cougar roster, and all of them at various times embody a toughness reminiscent of Lewis.
The No. 15 Cougars (7-1, 4-1) head to Tucson, Ariz., Saturday to face Arizona (5-2, 3-1) in a conference game (6:30 p.m. PDT, Pac-12 Networks).
Perhaps because of the Cougars’ recent success, Leach has been in an especially expansive mood lately, more prone than usual to flesh out the details of some of his pet notions — for example, the proper technique for downfield blocking.