With all the talk about USC’s Caleb Williams, Washington’s Michael Penix-Jr, Oregon’s Bo Nix, and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, Washington State’s QB Cameron Ward just thought he should remind everyone to not forget about him when talking about this year’s Heisman Trophy. In a conference rich with QB talent it’s easy to overlook the guy signal calling for one of only two teams left in the PAC-12 without an invitation to go elsewhere. But that fact seems to be more motivating than defeating for the Cougars this year and Ward, in a Heisman looking performance, connected on over 80% of his passes for 404 yards, 4 TD’s and no interceptions while also rushing for another score in what turned out to be a narrow 38-35 victory after a furious 21 point attempted comeback by the Beavers in the 4th Qtr in an effort head coach Jonathan Smith called; “Just too little, too late.” For the record, Ward is Top-10 in the country in total yards thrown and QBR, second in the conference only to Michael Penix-Jr in that last category who happens to lead the nation.
Missing his favorite target, Senior Lincoln Victor who suffered an ankle injury early, Ward and his two primary Junior WRs, Kyle Williams and Josh Kelly, put on a clinic with the two of them combining for 333 of the Cougar’s total 422 yards in the air on just 15 receptions, an average of 22 yards per catch, along with a TD for Williams and three for Kelly. The Cougars rushed just enough to keep the defense honest while picking up 106 yards on 30 attempts. After missing a field goal early In the 3rd Qtr it turns out that Dean Janikowski’s 44 yard field goal with over nine minutes left in the game turned out to be the difference.
For Oregon State it was the first time for Freshman QB DJ Uiagalelei to experience the very devoted Cougar fans on their campus in Pullman—out on the Palouse. And although Martin Stadium, at a capacity of just under 33,000, is the smallest stadium in the PAC-12 it has maybe the highest seating capacity-to-fan base ratio in the country with the population of Pullman, WA right at 32,869. So yeah, when the stadium is sold out that means pretty much the entire town is coming to see you get beat which is what happened this past Saturday in a game that helped partially decide which of the six undefeated PAC-12 teams meeting head-to-head were going to still be undefeated going into Week-5.
Uiagalelei had a tough night, connecting on just 50% of his throws for 198 yards, 1 TD, and 1 interception to go along with another score on nine rushing attempts for 61 yards. The Cougars had little answer for the Beaver’s ground game as RB’s DeShaun Fenwick and Damien Martinez combined for 182 of Oregon State’s 242 total rushing yards with Fenwick picking up 3 TD’s while averaging over nine yards per carry. This game turned out closer than it needed to be with the Cougars fumbling a ball leading to an Oregon State TD as well as missing a field goal early in the 3rd Qtr. Up until this game Oregon State had the toughest defense in the PAC-12 just behind Utah and 13th in the country—but gave up 350+ yards in the 1st half and 528 in the game.
This reminds me of Oregon State’s back-to-back games last year against USC and then Utah—their only two losses. They lost a game to USC by three points that they should have won at home and then got blown out by Utah the next Saturday in Rice-Eccles. At least they get to stay home in Corvallis for this one, but will have to face the Utes on a short week this coming Friday and will need to get it back together quickly. After beating two Top-25 opponents in the first four weeks, the Cougars get a bye week and plenty of time to prepare for their game on the road against a UCLA team that beat themselves this weekend.
Regarding the current state-of-affairs with the PAC-12, Washington State Head Coach Jake Dickert had some comments for ESPN as documented in the AP Recap under the heading National Perception and reads: “Dickert was upset with some of the comments made during ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’ on Saturday where the Washington State-Oregon State matchup was referenced as the ‘No One’s Watching Bowl.’ “I don’t really understand that,” Dickert said. “The facts say people watch the Cougs. And people watch the Cougs more than every team left over in the Big 12. It’s well documented what ESPN has done to try to get our league where it’s at.”