If anything can be taken away from the Washington State football team’s first five games of the season, it would come in last week’s 42-28 loss at UCLA.
The Cougars found themselves down 14-0 just minutes into the second quarter, before clawing their way back in the game over the next 25 minutes. Sophomore quarterback Jeff Tuel led a remarkable comeback that saw Washington State pull ahead 28-20 near the end of the third, before the Bruins rattled off 22 unanswered points over the final 16 minutes of action.
The ability to compete with a UCLA squad that went to Texas and won big on the road a week before speaks volumes to the character of this Washington State team. Now in their third year under head coach Paul Wulff, the Cougars sit at 1-4 overall and will likely be sent to the bottom of the Pacific-10 Conference for yet another long season. But that doesn’t mean an undefeated Oregon squad will take them lightly on Saturday.
“It’s a good football team that has our full attention,” Oregon head coach Chip Kelly said.
Through five weeks, Washington State has experienced many of the same troubles that plagued the team in the past. The team gave up 35 points or more in each of its four losses and twice gave up 50 or more.
Defensively the Cougars feature a pair of talented Los Angeles natives in junior linebacker Alex Hoffman-Ellis and sophomore safety Tyree Toomer. Hoffman-Ellis leads the Cougars with 32 tackles, three tackles for loss, two interceptions, and five pass deflections. Toomer has tallied 30 tackles and one tackle for loss. Unfortunately for Washington State, which has given up 1,276 yards rushing and 13 touchdowns in 2010, matching up with the run-heavy Oregon squad doesn’t look favorable.
After last weekend, the Cougars rank last in the Pac-10 in scoring offense, rushing offense, scoring defense, rushing defense, total defense, and pass defense efficiency. Those aren’t good numbers considering they’ll be hosting one the most potent offenses in the country.
And following a breakout rushing performance from Oregon quarterback Darron Thomas last Saturday, the multi-talented Oregon backfield could carve up the Cougar defense similar to the likes of New Mexico and Portland State.
“The opportunity’s going to come a little bit more,” Thomas said. “Some teams are going to try to take LaMichael out the game since he’s doing a good job, but that’s still a lose-lose situation all around.”
The lone area where Washington State has been able to hold its own this season has been in the passing game. Tuel has grown dramatically since taking over as the starter during his true freshman campaign in 2009, completing 57 percent of his passes for 1,233 yards, while finding the end zone eight times against four interceptions.
Tuel saw few snaps when the Cougars came to Eugene last year, going just 1 for 2 for three yards and getting sacked twice, but Kelly has seen the improvements in Tuel’s game this season.
“Quarterback’s a really good player,” Kelly said. “They throw the ball extremely well. They’re one of the top-ranked teams in the conference throwing the football.”
The Cougars (fourth) currently sit one position higher than Oregon in the conference standings for passing, having totaled 1,267 yards through the air (253.4 yards per game) and nine scores. For those numbers, Tuel sits behind Arizona State’s Steven Threet, Arizona’s Nick Foles, and Stanford’s Andrew Luck in the overall standings.
Regardless of rankings, Kelly knows his team must to do two things effectively in order to leave Washington State with another victory.
“Just like any team in the Pac-10 when you go on the road — special teams and turnovers,” Kelly said. “If you can win the turnover battle and you can win the special teams, you’ve got a good shot.”
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