Notebook | WSU may face Ducks without top receivers

Two of Washington State's top three wide receivers are questionable for Saturday's game at No. 9 Oregon.

Coach Bill Doba said he doesn't know if Pac-10 leading receiver Brandon Gibson (bruised heel) or Charles Dillon (shoulder) will be able to play Saturday at No. 9 Oregon.

Gibson has caught 39 passes for 567 yards. His six touchdown passes ties him for the league lead with Mike Thomas of Arizona.

Doba said there is a chance that starting strong safety Alfonso Jackson (concussion) may be able to play after missing last Saturday's Arizona Sate game. He is less optimistic about the return this week of linebacker Kendrick Dunn (leg), who also missed the Arizona game.

Injured Cougars will get time to heal next week because the team has its first bye in two seasons.

NOTES

• Against Arizona State the Cougars used an attacking style that sometimes featured two linebackers charging through the same gap.

Doba said the Cougars can't be as reckless against Oregon for two reasons: Duck quarterback Dennis Dixon is mobile; and the Duck offense has a lot of option plays.

"A blitz might get you minus 2 or 3 yards on one play and give them 67 yards on the next play," he said.

Doba said the Cougars won't abandon blitzes but that they are likely to be more selective about calling them.

• WSU quarterback Alex Brink leads the Pac-10 with 17 touchdown passes. He has been intercepted five times. He also leads the league in total offense with 1,897 yards (316.2 average) and passing 1,828 (304.7 average). Brink is on pace to become just the eighth Pac-10 quarterback to pass for more than 10,000 yards.

• For the third and final time this season, the Cougars are playing an opponent the week before the Huskies play the same team. This has happened with USC, Arizona State (the Huskies' opponent Saturday) and Oregon. The Ducks visit Husky Stadium on Oct. 20.

• The Cougars have a shortage of bodies at the two safety positions, with only four players — Husain Abdullah, Xavier Hicks Jr., Christian Bass and Jackson — listed on the depth chart. Plans to burn the redshirt of true freshman Eric Block hit a roadblock last week when he suffered a knee injury in practice.

Doba said that if a cornerback has to move to safety, it will be true freshman starter Chima Nwachukwu. Terry Mixon, a junior-college safety who had been considered one of the Cougars' prize recruits, was injured in fall camp, quit the team in late August and transferred to Eastern Washington.

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