Courtesy of a scheduling agreement between the Mountain West and the remains of the Pac-12, Utah State has been handed a matchup against Washington State. It’s kind of a conference game in that it was assigned by the Mountain West, but it will not count toward the conference standings and is essentially a non-conference game. It’ll be a stark reminder of the realties of conference realignment and perhaps a glimpse into the future with an opponent who may become a conference rival.
This is the ninth installment in a series of 12 opponent previews that will go in-depth on each of the Aggies foes for the 2024 football season.
Game Info
- Game Day: Nov. 9
- Location: Martin Stadium (Pullman, WA)
- Kickoff Time: TBA (1:30 p.m. or 8:30 p.m.
- TV Broadcast: The CW
Quick-Hit Info on Washington State
- Head Coach: Jake Dickert (3rd full season at Washington State, 15-16 overall record)
- 2023 Record: 5-7
- 2023 Offense Rank: 38th (31.7 points per game)
- 2023 Defense Rank: 85th (28.1 points allowed per game)
- Returning Production Rank — 94th
- 2024 Preseason Consensus Ranking — 71st
History of Utah State vs Washington State
- All-Time: Series is tied 2-2
- Current Streak: Utah State has won the last two meetings
- First-ever Meeting: Sept. 17, 1949 (Washington State won 33-0)
- Last Meeting: Sept. 4, 2021 (Utah State won 26-23)
Many Aggie fans will recall the last matchup between USU and WSU. It was the season opener of the 2021 season that ultimately ended with a Mountain West championship for Utah State. The victory by the Aggies over the Cougars proved to be a jumping off point for USU and at the time, new head coach Blake Anderson.
This series has been quite spaced out between the four previous meetings. In 1949 and 1950 the two sides did a home-and-home series with Washington State blowing out Utah State in both games (33-0 and 46-6). A decade later in 1961 USU turned the tables with a 34-14 win. Then 60 years after that the Aggies evened the series with the 2021 win.
Washington State Players to Watch
- Kyle Williams (WR)
- Christian Hilborn (OL)
- Syrus Webster (DE)
- Kyle Thornton (LB)
The Cougars in 2023
Simply showing the 5-7 overall record Washington State ended up with last year doesn’t really show the absolute highs and lows the team went through last year. Four weeks into the season, the Cougars had gone from completely unranked to the No. 13 spot in the AP Poll. They did this by beating two teams that were, at the time, themselves ranked in the AP Poll (No. 19 Wisconsin and No. 14 Oregon State).
Things went pretty quickly downhill after that, though.
A thrilling 38-35 victory over Oregon State that pushed Washington State all the way to being ranked 13th was followed up by six consecutive losses, only one of which was to a ranked team (No. 9 Oregon). Overall, the Cougars lost seven of their last eight games, completely choking away a shot a a bowl appearance despite a 4-0 start. Perhaps even more frustratingly, in the final game of the year, Washington State were tied 21-21 with rival Washington with 5:58 left in the game. The Huskies were ranked No. 4 at the time and were primed for a spot in the playoffs. WSU could have robbed its Apple Cup rival of that chance as a parting shot with Washington on its way out of the Pac-12. But it wasn’t to be as the Huskies hit a game-winning field goal with five seconds left in the game.
The Cougars’ season seemed to rise and fall on what was mostly a highly efficient volume pass attack with a run game that largely lagged behind. Quarterback Cameron Ward was third in pass attempts per game and fourth in yards per game, completing 66 percent of his passes and throwing 25 touchdowns to just seven interceptions. The rushing attack was a far different story. Washington State’s leader in rush yards, Nakia Watson, tallied a grand total of 321. Not only did the Cougars rarely run the ball to begin with (125th in rush attempts per game), they were terrible at it, ranking 124th in yards gained per attempt (3.0).
This lack of balance likely came back to bite WSU in the season, probably contributing to their losing streak as teams figured them out. Ward went from averaging Heisman-caliber numbers through four games (348.5 yards per game, 9.9 yards per pass attempt, 12 TDs, 0 INTs, 74.5 completion percentage) to a solid, but not elite statistical profile in the final eight games (292.6 yards per game, 6.8 yards per attempt, 12 TDs, 7 INTs, 63.4 completion percentage). In games where Ward threw for less than 320 yards, the Cougars were 2-5. If WSU weren’t throwing for gobs of yards, odds are it wound up losing.
2024 Season Prospects
The 2023 season may have cemented the fact that the post-Mike Leach Washington State teams just aren’t likely to reach the peaks that Leach took it to during his final four years with the team. After going 37-15 from 2015 to 2018 under Leach, the Cougars have two winning seasons in five years and a 26-29 overall record since the start of the 2019 season.
Unfortunately for Washington State, there’s probably going to be more noise about its off-the-field concerns (collapse of the Pac-12 and all) than what happens on the field itself. The Cougars aren’t expected to be a notable team, but they also aren’t expected to be bad, coming in at 71st in the consensus preseason ranking.
Finding a way to retain some of the elite passing the Cougars were capable of will be a challenge. Having good pass-catchers probably won’t be too much of an issue, but the group is only sort-of proven. The top two receivers from last year, Josh Kelly and Lincoln Victor, are gone but Kyle Williams was only barely behind those two in production with 843 receiving yards and six TDs. He should fill the WR1 role very nicely. Carlos Hernandez and Tight end Cooper Mathers were fourth and fifth on WSU’s receiving leaderboard and are both returning. To all this the Cougars add a newcomer with potential, Oregon transfer Kris Hutson. He only played five games last year with the Ducks but between 2021 and 2022 tallied 75 catches for 891 yards and two touchdowns.
Where Washington State has things to figure out is at quarterback. With Cam Ward transferring away, head coach Jake Dickert has tabbed John Mateer as the Week 1 starter but the redshirt sophomore has virtually no experience running a college offense. He’s appeared in 13 games but has a total of 19 pass attempts, topping out at eight in a single game (in WSU’s blowout win over FCS Northern Colorado). But with multiple seasons in the Cougars’ system, it’s not like he’s going to be lost. If Mateer, a former three-star recruit, can showcase his talent, he could be one of the more productive quarterbacks in the country this year.
Something that would be a major boost to WSU would be to have its run game take a significant step forward. Under Offensive Coordinator Ben Arbuckle, a shift away from a pass-happy offense isn’t going to happen, but some of Arbuckle’s teams have at least been decent at running the ball when they get around to it. His 2022 offense with Western Kentucky was 70th in rush yards per game but 36th in yards gained per attempt, a far better indicator of efficiency given the Hilltoppers were one of a handful of teams that ran the ball fewer than 30 times per game that year.
Aiding in a potential improvement in running is the fact Washington State returns four starting offensive linemen and two of its top rushers from last year. Dylan Paine and Djouvensky Schlenbaker top the depth chart with the latter being listed as the Week 1 starter. Paine was pretty solid in what few attempts he was given, gaining 150 yards (second on the team) on just 25 attempts — good for 6.0 yards per carry. Nobody’s rushing for 1,000 yards (probably not even 500) but any efficiency to balance things out would go a long way.
Dickert, as a defensive head coach, has taken the lead on that side of the ball during his tenure and has largely had solid units ranking in or near the top 40 in points allowed per game. Last year proved to be an exception as the Cougars ranked 85th in scoring defense and 79th in yards allowed per game. Things aren’t going to get any easier this year as the few stars Washington State had a year ago — defensive linemen Brennan Jackson and Rod Stone along with safety Jaden Hicks and cornerback Chau Smith-Wade — are now gone, either transferred, graduated or are now in the NFL. Dickert will have four returning starters to work with.
Several players are going to need to step up, guys like linebacker Buddah Al-Uqdah, defensive ends Raam Stevenson and Syrus Webster (a Utah Tech transfer) along with a re-worked secondary led by the lone returner, safety Jackson Lataimua.
This season is going to be absolutely critical to deciding what the future of Washington State football will be. It’s essentially going to be playing a Mountain West schedule so if it struggles and ends up with another season hovering around .500, it could spell serious trouble and Dickert could find himself unemployed as he’s already got a losing record as a head coach and last year was a step in the wrong direction.
Preseason Game Prediction — Close Loss
This game is a lot like the Wyoming matchup in how much of a winnable game this is. And it’s probably even more winnable because of the fact Washington State is in such a vulnerable position as a program right now and confidence in the head coach is relatively low. But there’s a couple factors leading towards me leaning me in the direction of this game being a loss.
Firstly, it’s another road game and the Aggies just haven’t been as sharp on the road of late, and until I see that change it’ll continue to count as a mark against them. Secondly, the Cougars could be riding high coming into this game, or at least higher than they will be early on. Washington State’s likely going to be taking a few knocks with games against Texas Tech, Washington, Boise State and Fresno State and could end up 2-4 in the first half of the season. But then it gets much easier with games against Hawaii and San Diego State. Those two games precede Utah State’s trip to Pullman so the Aggies could be taking on a WSU team on a two or three game winning streak and chasing bowl eligibility.
Perhaps a solid advantage for the Aggies in this one, though, is the fact they’ll be coming off a bye. And if things aren’t going super well with so many early games against the likes of USC, Utah, Boise State, UNLV and Wyoming, USU may be staring a sub-.500 season in the face with Washington State as the game upon which a bowl appearance hinges.
Overall, this is probably one of the toughest games to try and predict preseason and one can very reasonably chalk it up either way.
