It’s Apple Cup week, and in anticipation of Saturday afternoon’s clash in Pullman, I had the opportunity to talk to CougCenter’s Michael Preston about this year’s Cougar team!
MS: The Cougs are led by first year head coach Jimmy Rogers, who had a great run as head coach of FCS South Dakota State, winning a national championship with the Jackrabbits in 2023. What does he bring to the table in terms of philosophy and how he will build his program?
MP: Rogers’ focus his entire career has been on the defensive side of the ball, spending most of his years at SDSU prior to his promotion as either the linebackers coach or defensive coordinator. On that side of the ball, his philosophy of assignment football and swarming the football shined through in their first two games of the season. The third? Nothing too shiny about that!
Offensively, it’s a big change for WSU: run-first. We spent seven seasons with Mike Leach’s Air Raid, one-and-a-half more with Nick Rolovich’s run-n-shoot, then the last three with Eric Morris and Ben Arbuckle’s interpretation of Leach’s system. So far, to call the results “mixed” would be generous as WSU’s offensive line recruiting hasn’t matched a run-first philosophy for the better part of 15 years, let alone the last few.
Rogers has a massive task ahead of him in that regard. Offensive line recruit was languishing under Leach, got worse under Rolovich and cratered under Dickert. In terms of building a program in a circumstance as unique as the one WSU finds itself in, that’s job number one if Rogers wants to commit to looking to keep the ball on the ground before putting it in the air.
MS: Danny Fruend is the offensive coordinator, having followed Coach Rogers to WSU. What is his scheme like, and who are the major weapons to look out for?
MP: Certainly, the scheme has reflected Rogers’ desire to be a run-first offense, though when it clear that wasn’t working against Idaho, Fruend went pass first against San Diego State, which helped to open things up. Against North Texas, the Cougs actually had more yardage through the first two quarter despite being down by a breathtaking 39 points as the teams went into the locker room.
With Jaxon Potter as the starter, they’ve been heavy on screens and Fruend scheming receivers open in the short and medium passing game. Potter’s arm is big and capable of stretching the field, but with transfer Devin Ellison out with a “heel injury” (Rogers has been cagey about Ellison’s status), there’s no one who can really stretch the field.
Still, whoever starts at quarterback on Saturday will have Noted Apple Cup Enthusiast Josh Meredith to throw to, along with Carter Pabst and Tony Freeman. Keep an eye on Kirby Vorhees out of the backfield, he has performed much better than Angel Johnson.
MS: The defense is coordinated by Jesse Bobbit, another former SDSU assistant. What is the defense like, and who are some of the contributors on that side of the ball?
MP: Swarm. To. The. Football. That kept up at least for the first portion of the UNT game but that’s a performance where I truly have no idea what to make of it after they were handed, and I’m not kidding, five possessions where they started inside their own 30.
Compared to the defenses of the last few seasons, small sample size and what not, they’re very good at getting to the ball and, perhaps more importantly, playing assignment football. So far this year, “out of position” hasn’t really been an issue, especially for linebackers Anthony Palano (assuming he’s healthy to play) and Parker McKenna.
Whether they have the size to keep up in a now fully FBS schedule given how stocked they are with SDSU transfers remains to be seen.
MS: With the announcement over the summer of PAC 12 expansion, are Coug fans excited to play in a competitive conference again, after 2 years of being basically independent? More immediately, what is the outlook for the team this season?
MP: I think a lot of the excitement comes from a couple of places: 1) Everything is just settled, or at least there’s a great base to build on. 2) These other schools are genuinely excited to be in the Pac-12.
On that first point, we had a vague idea following the Pac-12 settlement in late 2023 that we’d at least have the money to go get some schools. The announcement of five schools, plus Gonzaga, in 2024 got us most of the way there and Texas State’s addition at least made things feel secure. Granted, I don’t believe it all shook out in the absolutely ideal way (the additions of UNLV, Memphis, and Tulane would’ve been a little better) but there’s a good foundation upon which to build.
But importantly, these are all schools that appear very excited to be here! After two summers where everyone was bolting for the hills as quickly as they could, it just kinda feels nice to see other institutions thrilled to be coming to you with open arms and enthusiasm.
This season, though, is the second edition of “what’s there really to play for?” besides some pride. A bowl game? Even the importance of those in this day and age are diminished. Especially with 75 new players on the roster and there will be plenty of turnover again, it’s hard to know what to make of this year on a week to week basis. I didn’t have us scraping by Idaho and I also didn’t have us blowing the doors off SDSU! And then … whatever that was in Denton.
MS: It’s time for a score prediction! What will the score be in this, the 117th playing of the Apple Cup?
MP: It’s no secret UW retained more of their talent from last year’s edition of the game than Wazzu did. It’s a rough transition year in all likelihood for the Cougs as they welcome a new coach, virtually an entirely new roster, and get ready for Pac-12 play again in 2026.
Is this team as bad as the result against North Texas? Certainly not. Are they as good as the win against San Diego State? That’s probably a little closer to reality.
College football is, truly, a week to week sport that’s almost impossible to transitive property. Wazzu should be much better at home, with a whipped up crowd buying beer in Martin Stadium for the first time. Is that good enough to beat a UW team that looks very similar to last year’s edition? Probably not.
The line opened around 21 points depending on where you prefer to do your gambling and that’s probably a little much to me. Surely the UW coaching staff has the team focused on this week as much as possible but a much bigger match-up awaits next week against the Buckeyes. I’ll say something like 31-14 Washington.
Enjoy Pullman in the late summer for the first time ever. It’s much better than 34 degrees and whipping hail that you’re used to in late November!
Thank you Michael, and let’s have a good, clean Apple Cup on Saturday afternoon!