After 12 spring practices and two scrimmages, your Washington State Cougars football team will end the spring season with the annual Crimson and Gray game today at Martin Stadium. The festivities begin at 3 p.m., and if you’re not there in-person, you can watch on the Pac-12 Network.
As far as springs go, this one wasn’t as much of an attraction as previous versions, at lest in recent memory. Once upon a time, the team bused to Spokane and played at Joe Albi Stadium and fans could attend the Crimson and Gray game for free. This was during the Mike Leach years during a time when the team was quite competitive, and that usually made for a large crowd.
Albi Stadium is now a pile of dirt (thank goodness), and the game has been in Pullman since 2018. The school is charging admission today if you want to sit in the club seats ($15 for CAF members, $20 for non-members). There’s free parking, RV lots, Cougville, inflatables for the kiddos—many of the normal gameday attractions.
So, how much attention have you paid to this spring, and how much attention are you paying today? Coming off a losing season, it’s natural for the excitement to wane. Plus, the news this spring around WSU athletics has mostly been focused on the men’s NCAA Tournament appearance, Pat Chun’s traitorous exit, Kyle Smith’s departure and David Riley’s arrival.
Plus, in my experience covering football during the Doba years for The Daily Evergreen, spring football is incredibly boring. Sure, it’s a great opportunity for players to impress coaches and develop further. But (Allen Iverson voice incoming), we’re talking about practice. Not a game. Practice.
But since college football is a habit I can’t seem to kick, and no matter how uninterested the TV networks make me feel, I’m still sucked in. And I’m sure many of you are, too.
So what should we expect? As always, one of the top rules of college football fandom is to never, ever, under any circumstances, get too invested in the annual spring game. Players who have big performances in these games have come to be known around here as members of the Andrei Lintz All Stars. IYKYK.
Plus, per Greg Woods of The Spokesman-Review, don’t expect to glean much information about the Cougs’ offensive line—the position group that hamstrung the team last season. Christian Hilborn, Brock Dieu and Fa’alili Fa’amoe are all on the shelf with injuries. That leaves mostly backups in for today’s game. Which, again, is a fantastic opportunity for them. But don’t come away this evening lamenting the o-line or praising its improvement, whichever happens. The three on the injured list are expected back for the fall.
The quarterback position is always in focus. Today, it’s John Mateer as the presumed no 1. Transfer Zevi Eckhaus is the presumed no. 2, though we’ve made assumptions ahead of the spring game before, only to see things shake out quite differently. There was Gage Gubrud, another FCS transfer, who was the presumed starter heading into the 2019 season before Anthony Gordon showed he was ready to break all sorts of records.
There was also the time fans were excited to see what hyped recruit Tyler Bruggman was going to bring in the spring game, only to be disappointed in his performance, which ultimately led to a former walk-on named Luke Falk to pass him on the depth chart.
The Cougs are also rebuilding their wide receiver corps and much of their secondary, so those are two other positions to watch today.
Again, spring games are glorified scrimmages. There will be in-game roster changes, celebrity coaches on the sideline, and one time Ryan Leaf subbed in for a play. It’s a celebration of the culmination of 15 practices and a launch pad into the summer season.
Here are the rosters for the game for those following along. Go Cougs!