Up Next: Washington State aims to rebound from worst showing in years
Colorado recruits react to win over OSU, 4-3 record
Bobo stepped up in crunch time for Buffs with two fourth quarter TDs
Three days after Washington State sleepwalked through one of the worst performance of his six-year tenure as the Cougars’ head coach, Mike Leach was bombarded with questions about. . .WSU’s departing athletic director?
Yes, indeed.
About 36 hours after nationally ranked Washington State fell to Cal, 37-3, in Berkeley, Calif., former AD Bill Moos, a WSU alum, exited Pullman without telling a soul. Sunday, there he was in Lincoln being introduced as Nebraska’s new AD.
As a result, Leach spent far more time Monday during his weekly press conference denying his bags were already packed for the Great Plains or reminiscing about working alongside Moos since being hired in December 2011 rather than focusing on Colorado or Saturday night’s game at Martin Stadium (8:45 p.m. MT, ESPN).
“I don’t have plans to do that,” Leach said when asked about rumors being spread by the Nebraska media that he would soon follow Moos to Lincoln. “They already have a head coach there and he’s a pretty good one (Mike Riley).”
Nonetheless, Washington State’s Air Raid, when executed properly, remains one of the most feared offenses in the Pac-12 despite the horrific showing at Cal when normally dependable QB Luke Falk threw five interceptions and the Cougars turned the ball over seven times. He was also sacked NINE times.
“He got hit way too much,” Leach said. “He made some bad reads. When a quarterback doesn’t get into a rhythm as far as throwing , he develops some trust issues back there. And it wasn’t just the O-Line. I thought our running backs were atrocious (in pass protection). We have to coach everybody better.”
In his post-game press conference, Leach described Washington State’s performance as “pathetic” multiple times.
“We played sorry and we got what we deserved, is what it boiled down to,” Leach said. Monday. “It was the worst game everybody has played under me. We didn’t play well anywhere. I think we’re determined to improve and focus in. If you’ve had some success, you get to that midway point and every year a bunch of teams get upset. I was hoping we were mentally tougher than that, but we aren’t.”
Best thing the Colorado coaches can do this week? Scrutinize the WSU-Cal video very carefully (literally frame-by-frame) and figure out what the Golden Bears did so well to shut down WSU’s high voltage offense, and do exactly that in Saturday night‘s game.
Falk is close to becoming the Pac-12’s all-time leading passer as he needs just 422 yards to break former Oregon State QB Sean Mannion’s all-time record of 13,600 passing yards. In 38 career appearances, Falk has thrown for 13,179 yards and completed 69.2 percent of his throws with 108 TD passes (2nd most in NCAA history).
The Logan, Utah native is the nation’s active leader in passing yards, passing touchdowns, total offense, third in completion percentage (70.8) and his 346.8 career passing yards per game average is currently fifth-best in NCAA FBS history.
While the Buffs rely primarily on one running back (Phillip Lindsay), Washington State has two – Jamal Morrow (339 yards on 45 carries) and James Williams (249 yards on 63 carries). Five WSU wide receivers have 30 or more receptions led by Williams (46) and sophomore Isaiah Johnson-Mack (39).
Defensively, Washington State will likewise try to bounce back from a poor outing against the Cal offense. Still, the Cougars rank second in the Pac-12 in total defense (288.3 yards per game) and third in scoring defense (21.1 ppg). They have the top passing defense in the Pac-12 (162.4 ypg) as opposing quarterbacks are completing just 56.2 percent of their passes against WSU.
WSU defensive lineman Hercules Mata’afa had two sacks against Cal, upping his season total to 6.5 sacks and 12 tackles-for-loss, both Pac-12 highs.
PAC-12 WEEK 8 SCHEDULE (Oct. 21)
Arizona State at Utah, 1:30 p.m. (FS1)
Oregon at UCLA, 2 p.m. (Pac-12 Network)
USC at Notre Dame, 5:30 p.m. (NBC)
Arizona at California, 6 p.m. (Pac-12 Network)
Colorado at Washington State, 8:45 p.m. (ESPN)
(All Times Mountain)
PAC-12 SOUTH STANDINGS:
USC 4-1 (6-1)
Arizona 2-1 (4-2)
Arizona State 2-1 (3-3)
Utah 1-2 (4-2)
UCLA 1-2 (3-3)
Colorado 1-3 (4-3)
