LOGAN, Utah – When Friday night arrives at Maverik Stadium, Washington State players will gather in a tunnel, prepared to head out onto the field, ready to take on Utah State. The Cougars will go through all the same routines, the same rhythms, the same stretches and warmups and jumping jacks that they always do.
Then, when gametime gets closer, they’ll move over to their sideline and get ready for kickoff. Music will blare. Fans will clamor. The visitors will steel themselves to try and end a two-game losing skid.
That’s about where things will begin to look different for WSU.
Washington State is changing up a lot ahead of this game against Utah State, set for 6 p.m. Friday evening on the CW, and all eyes will be on its offense. Thanks to a lowly first five games on offense, head coach Kirby Moore is taking over playcalling duties from offensive coordinator Matt Miller. Moore will have a playsheet in his hand the entire time.
Will Moore make a change at quarterback? Will he pivot away from starter Caden Pinnick, who has lost six total turnovers, and start Owen Eshelman or Julian Dugger? One of those three quarterbacks will jog out onto the field for the Cougars’ first snaps of offense. How much will Moore’s oversight help the team turn things around, help WSU (1-4, 0-1 Pac-12) win what profiles as the most winnable game on its schedule the rest of the season?
To avoid letting Moore’s debut season slip away, the Cougars will have to take down the Aggies, who are also 1-4 overall and 0-1 in conference play. In coach Bronco Mendenhall’s second season, Utah State has looked even worse than WSU on offense, throwing a nation-worst 10 interceptions between quarterbacks Grady Brosterhous and McCae Hillstead. The Aggies’ offense is averaging just 13.3 points per game, a couple ticks better than the Cougs’ 11.8, the latter of which ranks nine spots up from last in the country.
That’s a key reason why on Monday Moore seemed to indicate he’s open to moving away from Pinnick, who has looked anything but sturdy in the pocket for the Cougars. He ranks first in the country with 10 QB-fault sacks, according to Pro Football Focus, which has spawned all kinds of other problems. This fall, WSU has a turnover margin of minus-5, which is No. 122 nationally.
“It really starts with the operational piece from an offensive standpoint,” Moore also said of his QB evaluations this week, “whether it’s a protection check, whether it’s something with a motion. Obviously the defense is game-planning just as much as us, so there’s times where, yes, there’s a first read in a progression, but there’s times where we gotta check the ball down. We can’t make a bad play worse. So that’s the big emphasis. It’s gotta start in practice. We’ll go through that process. That’ll determine what happens on Friday.”
Will this be the week WSU changes its QB? It might stand to reason that since the Cougars are changing one big thing about their offense, their playcaller, they could get a better read on Pinnick. But if Pinnick looks the same, still looks turnover-prone with Moore calling plays, perhaps the Cougs would feel more comfortable pivoting away from him at that point.
Regardless of which quarterback Moore and Miller decide on – Dugger has played sparingly in his one-plus seasons with WSU, while Eshelman has yet to take the field in any meaningful capacity – the Cougars get the challenge of facing an Aggie defense that ranks fifth in the Pac-12 in scoring defense, allowing 25 points per game. In their one win of the season, they held Troy to just 10 points.
Which QB is best suited to take on that defense? It might depend on what the Cougars want at the position. If they feel most comfortable with the experience of Pinnick, who started all last season at FCS UC Davis, they might stick with him. If they want to stretch the field, they might go with Eshelman, who might have the best arm on the team. Or if they want a jolt of athleticism and playmaking on the ground, they might pivot to Dugger.
Either way, a lot rides on this game for WSU. If the Cougars can find a way to eke out a win, they could save their season and make bowl eligibility look somewhat possible. That would extend their bowl streak, which stands at 10 of the last 11 full seasons. If not, they’ll fall to 1-5, continuing the program’s worst start since 2010. At that point, bowl eligibility would be the least of the concerns for the Cougs, who would have to find something to salvage from a lost season.
Check out the next couple games on WSU’s schedule: Next weekend, it’s a road game against Oregon State, which has won three straight. Then the Cougars will host No. 23 Boise State, the Pac-12’s best team.
In that way, coaches would do well to make the right call at quarterback – but it will be interesting to see if they make any other personnel changes. After a loss last weekend to Fresno State, in which his team failed to score an offensive touchdown for the second time this season, Moore indicated that everything would be up for reevaluation with WSU’s offense. Could that extend beyond the quarterback position? Will it include the QB to begin with?
“Everyone’s gonna get reps,” Moore said. “I think that’s the most important thing. Everyone’s gotta make the reps count. We’ll see where it’s at on Friday, and we’ll play ball.”
The good news for WSU: The Cougars’ defense figures to feast on this Aggie offense, which has yet to find its footing. Brosterhous and Hillstead have taken a combined 17 sacks, which could mean a big day for WSU pass rushers like Linus Zunk and Matyus McLain, the latter of whom pocketed a half-sack and two tackles for loss last week against Fresno State. Look for the Cougs’ defense, which has played heroically the past several games, to defang a moribund Aggie offense.
But will that be enough to help WSU win its first game in Pac-12 play? That much might depend on who the Cougars roll out at quarterback.
“I think the best thing about football is that you watch the film, you put the game to bed, and then you have a new opportunity that week in order to move on,” tight end Jack Pedersen said. “At least from my point of view, that’s the biggest thing for me. Let’s get the next week going. Obviously, what happened, happened. Let’s get ready to go play Utah State. It’s gonna be a great opponent, and I think we’re all looking forward to it.”
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