2020 Team Preview: Will Washington State Continue To Be Relevant?

It has been impressive to see Washington State survive over the past several years of college football. This is one of the Pac-12’s two especially small schools in relatively remote locations. Washington State, located in small-town Pullman, is – like Oregon State University in the cozy town of Corvallis – one of the league’s more remote outposts. It is a lot harder to recruit to Washington State and Oregon State than to the other 10 schools in the conference. Yet, WSU regularly made bowl games under Mike Leach. Now, though, Leach is in the SEC at Mississippi State. Can a new coach keep the momentum going for Wazzu?

Offseason Changes

The arrival of new head coach Nick Rolovich has been the talk of the town in Pullman. Rolovich developed a high-octane offense at Hawaii and will bring it to Washington State. Leach’s so-called Air Raid offense and Rolovich’s run-and-shoot concepts aren’t exact replicas of each other, but they both share spread-passing concepts which are part of modern college football philosophies in which it’s important to spread out a defense and force it to use five defensive backs to cover every receiver, thereby defusing a strong pass rush.

Rolovich can probably maximize WSU’s offense in the course of time, but not right away. This is because quarterback Anthony Gordon has graduated, forcing Washington State to start fresh at quarterback this season with new faces who haven’t logged very many collegiate snaps. An entirely new coaching staff and an entirely new quarterback mean this year is likely to be a transitional one.

The Cougars Will Succeed If…

Their new defensive coaching staff can work wonders. This is a team which – in its last season under Mike Leach in 2019 – somehow lost a game in which it led by four touchdowns and scored 63 points. Yes, Washington State gained a huge lead on UCLA at home but lost 67-63. Anthony Gordon threw nine touchdown passes and was the losing quarterback. That’s how bad the Washington State defense was. The thought process at WSU is that the defense needs to be ordinary instead of awful, and the offense needs to rock and roll. That combination is the Cougars’ realistic path to a solid season, but it’s asking a lot of a new defensive coordinator and new defensive coaches to put all the pieces together in year one on staff. This defense is likely to be completely remade over the next few seasons.

The Cougars Will Fail If…

They don’t find a big answer at quarterback. Cammon Cooper and Gunner Cruz are both in the mix at quarterback. Washington State needs to end this season knowing it has a reliable signal-caller who can accumulate big numbers and preside over Rolovich’s offense. If the Cougars don’t get that one thing from this season, 2020 will be looked on as a failure.

Prediction

The Cougars have an experienced offensive line, the foundation of a good offense, but that foundation might require time to be fully built. Not having a veteran quarterback makes it hard to expect too much from Nick Rolovich right away. This is at least a two-year rebuild if not three.

Prediction: 6th in Pac-12 North