--Cougar Marching Band in 2017 Holiday Bowl San Diego parade
--Balloon in 2017 Holiday Bowl San Diego parade
--WSU QB Luke Falk did not play in 2017 WSU vs Michigan State Holiday Bowl football game in San Diego due to injury.
COUGAR BASKETBALL
==WOMEN:
3pm DEC 29 (FRI) Pac-12 AT OREGON EUGENE
11am DEC 31 (SUN) Pac-12 AT OREGON STATE CORVALLIS
==MEN:
8pm DEC 29 (FRI) Pac-12 AT UCLA, LA
6pm DEC 31 (SUN) Pac-12 AT USC, LA
……..
FOOTBALL
December 29, 2017 / Football
Spartans Top Cougars 42-17 in Holiday Bowl
SAN DIEGO (AP) Brian Lewerke threw for 213 yards
and three touchdowns, and LJ Scott ran for 110 yards and two scores for No. 18
Michigan State, which took advantage of Luke Falk's absence to rout No. 21
Washington State 42-17 in the Holiday Bowl on Thursday night.
Lewerke also rushed for 73 yards for Michigan
State (10-3), which rebounded from a dismal 3-9 record last year to reach
double digits in wins for the eighth time in program history.
Falk, who was photographed earlier in the week
with a cast on his left wrist, went through warmups but came out in street
clothes at game time. He was replaced by redshirt sophomore Tyler Hilinksi, who
made his first start and eighth appearance of the season. It's unclear
precisely when Falk injured the wrist on his non-throwing hand, but he had
issues with it throughout the season. Coach Mike Leach refused to give
specifics during the week.
Hilinski led WSU (9-4) to a 45-yard field goal by
Erik Powell on the Cougars' second drive, but the Cougars were overpowered by the
Spartans.
Lewerke threw the first of two TD passes to Cody
White, a 7-yarder midway through the second quarter, when he was flushed to the
left but found the receiver in the back of the end zone.
On MSU's next possession, Lewerke took the snap
and glanced at his running back, which froze the secondary and allowed Felton
Davis III to get wide open for a 49-yard scoring pass.
Scott scored on a 3-yard run to give the Spartans
a 21-3 halftime time.
Early in the third, Lewerke rolled left and had
his pass tipped, but a sliding White caught it for a 7-yard touchdown.
Lewerke, who finished 13 of 21, was hit hard on a
keeper in the third quarter and came out for a few plays. His backup, Damion
Terry, scored on a 6-yard keeper to make it 35-3.
The Cougars closed the gap when Hilinski threw a
14-yard touchdown pass to Tay Martin late in the third quarter and a 15-yarder
to Tay in the fourth quarter.
Scott scored on a 28-yard burst up the middle with
about six minutes left to play.
Hilinski was 39 of 50 for 272 yards and two
touchdowns, with one interception.
THE TAKEAWAY
Washington State: It was the second straight
lackluster Holiday Bowl for Leach's Cougars, who lost 17-12 to Minnesota last
year. Besides being without Falk, leading receiver Tavares Martin Jr. was
kicked off the team after the regular season and third-leading receiver Isaiah
Johnson-Mack left the squad.
Michigan State: Scott had his third 100-yard game
of the season and ninth of his career. Felton had four catches for 118 yards.
UP NEXT
Washington State: Falk will move on to the NFL
Draft while Hilinski will take over the Air Raid offense. It was Hilinski who
led the Cougars to a comeback victory against Boise State in triple overtime on
Sept. 9 after Falk was knocked out of the game.
Michigan State: The young Spartans appear to be in
good hands with Lewerke, who was just a redshirt sophomore this season. All the
other starting skill position players return.
……………….
WSU's Holiday flop
With Falk watching from the sidelines, Cougars get
dominated in all phases in 42-17 Holiday Bowl loss to Michigan State
By DALE GRUMMERT of the Lewiston Tribune Dec 29,
2017
SAN DIEGO - Only once before in the last 42
Washington State football games has Luke Falk played the melancholy role he
played Thursday night: strolling back and forth along the sideline, clapping
his hands, trying in vain to keep morale from sagging.
The result was pretty much the same in both games.
Shelved by an apparent wrist injury, Falk
concluded his sensational career as a college quarterback in the same way Wazzu
fans did, watching helplessly as the Cougars languished in all phases of the
game in a 42-17 loss to Michigan State in the Holiday Bowl.
Falk participated in warmup drills, clothed in
full regalia but wearing a small cast on his left, nonthrowing wrist. It wasn't
clear who would start until the game began and Tyler Hilinski took the field,
while Falk apparently retreated to the locker room, later returning in street
clothes.
"I guess we had a sense of it (during
warmups) that he wasn't going to play," WSU coach Mike Leach said, coming
as close as he ever does to acknowledging an injury, "which is unfortunate
because of what he's done here. We have to look out for what's in his best
interests, and the best interest of our players."
Hilinski completed 39 of 50 throws but the Cougars
failed to ignite their vertical passing game and struggled to contain Michigan
State dual-threat quarterback Brian Lewerke. They trailed 21-3 at halftime and
gave up touchdowns on the Spartans' first two possessions of the second half.
The sight of Falk on the sideline in a spectator's
role was reminiscent of the 2015 Apple Cup in Seattle, a week after he'd suffered
a concussion. The Cougars were equally rudderless in that game, losing to
Washington 45-10.
Aside from those two contests, Falk started every
Cougar game since inheriting the starting job late in the 2014 season.
"Not being able to go out with the seniors
that came in and really changed the culture of this program - I mean, it
stunk," Hilinski said. "Luke's a great guy and he's done a lot of
great things for this program."
The Cougars finish the season 9-4, losing their
final two games a year after dropping their final three to wind up 8-5 in 2016.
Michigan State finishes 10-3. A somewhat chilled crowd of 40,092 watched at
SDCCU Stadium as the Holiday Bowl celebrated its 40th anniversary.
Hilinski passed for 252 yards and two touchdowns,
with one interception, but he averaged just 5.4 yards per attempt and got
little help from an injury-stunted run game, which produced 24 yards.
"I thought once he got in a rhythm he did
well," Leach said of Hilinski. "Pushed the ball downfield well. The
biggest thing is Michigan State kept us off the field, so we didn't get the
ball as often as we would have liked."
It didn't help that the Cougars were missing
consensus All-American defensive lineman Hercules Mata'afa in the first half
because of a targeting suspension left over from the Apple Cup.
The Spartans looked both stauncher and more
electrified than the Cougs, especially from the second quarter onward. Lewerke
passed for 213 yards and ran for 73, while LJ Scott bulled through the middle
of the WSU defense with numbing repetition, winding up with 110 ground yards.
"Michigan State was a very physical
team," Hilinski said. "They dominated us in all three phases of the
game. I thought they were a very well-coached team and very physical in all
four quarters."
The Cougars raised their offensive game in the
second half but their defense continued to sputter. The Spartans went up 28-3
on Lewerke's off-balance 10-yard touchdown toss to Cody White on the first
possession of the third quarter.
Four plays later, Hilinski fumbled a handoff to
James Williams, and linebacker Chris Frey recovered on the Cougar 27-yard line.
That set up a 1-yard scoring run by backup quarterback Damion Terry, who'd
taken the field when Lewerke took a stinging hit from Frankie Luvu on a 3-yard
run.
The Cougars finally produced their first touchdown
when Tay Martin made a deft end-zone catch for a 14-yard TD with about two
minutes left in the third quarter.
Luvu intercepted a Terry pass on the next Michigan
State possession, and Martin scored a lunging TD on a 15-yard catch-and-run to
make it 35-17.
But an onside kick then failed and the Spartans
capitalized with Scott's 28-yard bolt up the middle to restore a 25-point lead.
The Cougars looked lifeless for much of the first
half, mustering only 102 offensive yards and squeezing four of their five first
downs into an almost six-minute drive resulting in a 45-yard field goal by Erik
Powell. Their longest offensive play of the half was 13 yards.
The Wazzu defense initially looked sharp but badly
blew coverage on two first-half plays, allowing a 49-yard touchdown pass to
Felton Davis III and a key 16-yard catch-and-run by Scott to set up a TD inside
the final minute.
The coup by Davis, who finished with 118 reception
yards, was especially embarrassing to the Cougars, who "unraveled a little
bit after that play," Leach said.
Lewerke manufactured the game's first touchdown on
a dazzling 15-yard scoring bullet to White, who was surrounded by three Cougars
in the end zone.
That capped a imponderable 16-play drive lasting
9:24. At times like that, Falk wasn't the only Cougar quarterback who felt
helpless.
Washington St. 3 0 7 7 - 17
Michigan St. 0 21 14 7 - 42
First Quarter
WST-FG Powell 45, 5:45
Second Quarter
MSU-White 15 pass from Lewerke (Coghlin kick),
7:34
MSU-F.Davis 49 pass from Lewerke (Coghlin kick),
4:34
MSU-L.Scott 3 run (Coghlin kick), :29
Third Quarter
MSU-White 10 pass from Lewerke (Coghlin kick),
10:28
MSU-Terry 6 run (Coghlin kick), 5:08
WST-Martin 14 pass from Hilinski (Powell kick),
2:06
Fourth Quarter
WST-Martin 15 pass from Hilinski (Powell kick),
8:26
MSU-L.Scott 28 run (Coghlin kick), 6:14
WST MSU
First downs 17 25
Rushes-yards 8-24 48-227
Passing 272 213
Comp-Att-Int 39-50-1 13-22-1
Return Yards 91 57
Punts-Avg. 4-37.75 2-42.5
Fumbles-Lost 2-1 0-0
Penalties-Yards 4-46 6-50
Time of Possession 23:18 36:42
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING-Washington St., J.Williams 3-14, Hilinski
5-10. Michigan St., L.Scott 18-110, Lewerke 14-73, Terry 4-21, London 4-17,
White 1-9, Holmes 6-2, Jackson 1-(minus 5).
PASSING-Washington St., Hilinski 39-50-1-272.
Michigan St., Lewerke 13-21-0-213, Terry 0-1-1-0.
RECEIVING-Washington St., J.Williams 10-65, Sweet
8-52, Martin 7-51, Patmon 4-38, Morrow 4-27, Bell 4-13, Calvin 1-19, Arconado
1-7. Michigan St., F.Davis 4-118, White 3-41, L.Scott 2-26, Stewart 2-15,
Ma.Sokol 1-12, Rison 1-1.
MISSED FIELD GOALS-None.
////////////////////////
Not a happy Holiday for Cougs
WSU quarterback Luke Falk didn't play; out with
apparent wrist injury
By DALE GRUMMERT of the Trib of Lewiston Dec 29,
2017
SAN DIEGO - In recent years, Washington State has
rediscovered how to garner bowl berths. But bowl victories remain elusive.
Cougars quarterback Luke Falk watched from the
sideline with an apparent wrist injury Thursday night as the Cougars lost 42-17
to Michigan State in the Holiday Bowl at SDCCU Stadium.
A crowd of 47,092, perhaps evenly split between
Cougar and Spartan fans, watched on a mild and slightly chilly evening as the
game itself was upstaged by spectacular halftime fireworks display celebrating
the Holiday Bowl's 40th anniversary.
Falk, the leading passer in Pac-12 history, is
believed to have aggravated an injury of his left, nonthrowing wrist in recent
days. He warmed up before the game but yielded to sophomore Tyler Hilinski when
the game began. Falk disappeared for a spell before returning to the field in
street clothes.
It was the Cougars' third straight bowl appearance
but also their second straight bowl loss, and third since 2013. The only time
coach Mike Leach has tallied a bowl win during his six-year WSU tenure was in
2015, when the Cougars outlasted Miami in a snowy Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas.
The Cougars also have lost two consecutive Holiday
Bowls, giving them a 1-3 record in the annual San Diego event. They upset No. 5
Texas 28-20 here in 2003, but bowed 38-36 to Brigham Young in 1981 and to
Minnesota last year.
It was probably the final WSU game for highly
respected defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, who is reportedly headed for some
type of assistant's job at Ohio State. The Ohio native hasn't confirmed or
denied the reports.
The Cougars entered Thursday night's game as
two-point underdogs. They finish the season with a 9-4 record.
…………………………….
HOLIDAY BOWL NOTES: Several Coug seniors finish
their careers on sidelines
By DALE GRUMMERT OF Lewiston’s Tribune
29 Dec 2017
SAN DIEGO - From start to finish, seniors ruled
the culture of Washington State's 2017 football team.
But several of them were denied the honor of
finishing the season on the field.
Luke Falk, Jamal Morrow, Gerard Wicks, Peyton
Pelluer, Robert Lewis, Nate DeRider - all of them were sidelined in the second
half as the Cougars stumbled to a 42-17 loss to Michigan State on Thursday
night in the Holiday Bowl, capping a season of high ambition and a painful late
fade.
The latest departure was that of Morrow, the
dynamic and influential tailback, who seemed to be nowhere in sight during the
second half. The Cougars, of course, don't talk about injuries, so his status
was unclear. There were reports he had hurt an ankle.
The Cougars had hoped Wicks would recover from an
injury in the Stanford game last month in time to play in another bowl game,
but he watched in street clothes. So did Falk, who apparently aggravated a
left-wrist injury in recent days.
Pelluer, Lewis and DeRider sustained season-ending
injuries early in the year.
LOOK WHO'S 40 - By far the most explosive plays of
the evening were the halftime fireworks show as the Holiday Bowl celebrated its
40th birthday with the help of marching bands, dancers, cheerleaders and yes,
plenty of pyrotechnics, while the P.A. system belted out hit songs from the
game's inaugural year of 1978.
COUGAR NOTABLES - James Williams made 10 catches
and finished the season with 71, the most ever by a WSU running back. ...
Offensive tackle Cole Madison wound up one start shy of the WSU career record
of 48, set by Micah Hannam from 2007-10. ... Senior linebacker Isaac Dotson
matched a career-high with 10 tackles.
SECOND-QUARTER SURGE - Michigan State tied a
school record for points in a quarter during a bowl game, producing 21 in the
second period.
////////////
Cougars fall short against Spartans
WSU had 102 total yards, five first downs in first
half
By DYLAN GREENE, Evergreen sports editor December
29, 2017
WSU football dropped its final game of the 2017
season to Michigan State University on Thursday in the Holiday Bowl. The final
score was 35-17.
Redshirt senior quarterback Luke Falk was forced
to sit out of the bowl game with an injury to his left wrist. This was Falk’s
final game as a member of the team.
Falk threw passes in pregame warm-ups, but when
the teams emerged from the locker room for kickoff he was in sweats. He has
played with an injured left wrist all season, according to The Seattle Times.
Head Coach Mike Leach said the team was prepared
to play without Falk.
“We had a sense that he wasn’t going to play,
which is unfortunate because of what he’s done here,” Leach said, “but we had
to look out for what’s in his best interests and in the best interests of the
players.”
With Falk unable to play, redshirt sophomore
quarterback Tyler Hilinski stepped in and made his first career start for the
Cougars (9-4). Hilinski completed 39 of his 50 pass attempts for 272 yards, two
touchdowns and one late interception.
The Cougar offense struggled in the first half of
the game with Hilinski under center. WSU had 102 total yards of offense and
five first downs at the half.
A 45-yard field goal by redshirt senior kicker
Erik Powell was the only points the Cougars could muster in the first half.
On the other side of the field, the Spartans
(10-3) scored three touchdowns in the second quarter and racked up 265 yards of
offense in the first half. WSU trailed MSU 21-3 at halftime.
The Spartans got the ball to start the second half
and drove 67 yards on 10 plays to score their fourth touchdown on the night. On
the ensuing possession, Hilinski fumbled a handoff to redshirt sophomore
running back James Williams and MSU recovered the loose ball. The Spartans
punched the ball into the endzone seven minutes later to make it 35-3 MSU.
WSU was able to respond on their next drive when
Hilinski found freshman wide receiver Tay Martin in the back of endzone for a
14-yard touchdown to make it 35-10.
Martin caught another touchdown pass about six
minutes later to bring the Cougars within 18 points of the lead. He finished
the night with seven receptions for 51 yards and two touchdowns.
Hilinski said it was nice to put some points on
the board in the second half, but the offense was inconsistent all night.
“We just weren’t executing, was what it came down
to,” Hilinksi said. “The three and outs really killed us. They had the ball for
a long time, and just kept us off the field and we really couldn’t get in a
rhythm.”
MSU scored a sixth touchdown when Spartan junior
running back LJ Scott ran the ball in from 28 yards out with just over six
minutes remaining in the game. Scott had 110 rushing yards and two touchdowns.
The WSU defense allowed the Spartans to rack up
440 total yards of offense in the game. The Cougars played without consensus
All-American redshirt junior defensive lineman Hercules Mata’afa in the first
half. He was ejected in the second half of the Apple Cup game against
University of Washington for targeting, which caused him to be suspended for
the first half of the Holiday Bowl.
Despite not playing in the bowl game, Falk
finishes his WSU career as the Pac-12 career record holder in passing yards,
passing touchdowns, total offense, completions and attempts.
The defeat gave WSU its second straight loss to
end the season. With a win against MSU, the Cougars would have notched 10 wins
for the first time since 2003.
…………….
WEATHER: Crews continue to plow snow on Palouse
…………….
Luke Falk’s celebrated career, WSU’s solid season
come to a tragic end in Holiday Bowl beating
By John Blanchette Spokane S-R
NCAA FOOTBALL Holiday Bowl at SDCCU Stadium, San
Diego SPARTANS42 COUGARS17
SAN DIEGO – No hand has received this much
attention since Thing on “The Addams Family.”
Yes, Luke Falk’s celebrated college career came to
a sad and unceremonious end Thursday night – Washington State’s
record-shattering quarterback on the sidelines at the Holiday Bowl in street
clothes and his left hand in that brace or cast or whatever it is.
Not that we know for sure that’s why he didn’t
play and backup Tyler Hilinski did.
“We felt like Tyler was the ideal guy to start
with our lineup today, and he’s the one we selected,” coach Mike Leach said.
Whew. At least we know Falk wasn’t suspended.
Leach doesn’t cop to injuries, so normally we can only assume the worst.
And speaking of assuming the worst, the Cougars
once-celebrated 2017 football season came to an unceremonious end – as pretty
much every Leach season at Wazzu does.
Oh, there was that Apple Cup rescue his first year
and the Sun Bowl slog past Miami in the snow, which stranded enough fans in El
Paso to make it seem like something other than a victory. But otherwise,
Leach’s Cougs make their farewell toasts with hemlock: They’re 6-12 over the
final three games in the years of his tenure.
Of course, he’s even worse at openers. In between,
though, the Cougs are terrific.
So just don’t give him eight months to prepare for
an FCS team, a month to prepare for a bowl or a bye week to prepare for the
Huskies.
This time the exit was a 42-17 roasting at the
hands of Michigan State, a Top 25 team at least. This wasn’t losing to a
humdrum Minnesota outfit that had suspended a slew of players – which is what
happened here in SDCCU Stadium a year ago.
Holiday Bowl organizers have already issued a
request to the Pac-12 for next December: anybody but the Cougs.
Then again, there aren’t many attractive options.
Your Conference of Champions is a lusty 1-4 in bowls this month.
But on Thursday, the Cougars set a standard – or
substandard, if you will – for suckage.
Their offense – not just Falk-less, but minus also
former starting wideouts Tavares Martin Jr. and Isaiah Johnson-Mack who
divorced themselves from the program in the last month – was helpless, and
dimensionless. The Cougars tried all of three called runs all game. Good thing
the hotshot running back who picked Wazzu over Stanford signed before seeing
this one.
Defense? Well, the vaunted Speed D was the Need D.
Michigan State quarterback Brian Lewerke did a
respectable Russell Wilson shtick, dicing the Cougs with his arm and legs.
Playing without standout Hercules Mata’afa for one
half – his penalty for targeting in the Apple Cup – surely was a factor for the
Cougs, but as safety Jalen Thompson noted, “Even when he came back, they were
still getting a lot of plays off on us and driving the ball down the field.”
Allowed Leach, “They didn’t do much we didn’t
expect and that’s one of the disturbing things about it.”
The other disturbing thing was how unprepared or
perhaps even uninvested the Cougars were – and given that their head coach
spent part of December playing footsie with Tennessee and the defensive
coordinator already has a new job, could you blame them?
Naturally, there will be attempts to rationalize
this one away, and if that’s not entirely unfair, it’s also not very
persuasive.
Surely playing without your senior quarterback is
not just debilitating, but a bummer. Falk had worn a glove on his left hand
most of the season, apparently since injuring it early on. There were
unconfirmed reports that he underwent surgery sometime after the Apple Cup, and
when he was seen wearing his cast/brace to practice here, doubts about his
availability grew.
Leach extended the charade into pregame, letting
Falk go through warmups – though with the second unit. But he came out after
the anthem not in uniform, and the emotional embraces he shared with countless
teammates and coaches who approached him were telling.
Football isn’t always fair.
“Not being able to go out with the seniors he came
in with, who really changed the culture of the program, it stunk,” Hilinski
said.
But it’s also true that Hilinski has been thrown
the car keys on a couple of occasions this season and that Leach had extended
practice time to get him ready. And he hardly looked it.
There were other missing pieces, of course – the
receivers previously noted, Mata’afa for that killer first half, Jamal Morrow
for much of the second. But no one much wanted to hear that the Cougs beat
Oregon without its quarterback, or Stanford with Bryce Love at half speed or
USC with its offensive line a shambles.
So let’s keep it simple: Mike Leach’s Wazzu teams
don’t show up in the end – in the big ones that count. And it’s time for him to
take stock of that.
Even if the school that pays him so handsomely
won’t.
///////////////////
Grip on Sports: The bowl blues envelop Washington
State fans one more time
Fri., Dec. 29, 2017, 7:20 a.m.
By Vince Grippi Spokane S-R
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Maybe it’s just us, but
Washington State’s recent history in bowl games seems to mirror the time of
year. And, no, this isn’t one of those columns about the weather. Read on.
••••••••••
• We’re talking the Christmas season. See, Cougar
fans look forward to a bowl game all year. Whether or not it will happen is the
subject of numerous questions from August on. The sixth win is celebrated like
a visit to the North Pole. Heck, I’m sure there are Cougar boosters who sit on
Santa’s lap and ask for a bowl win.
Alas, the big guy brings them a lump of coal
almost every year.
Which brings about their personal version of post-holiday
depression.
It happened again. Oh sure, Cougar Nation received
a holiday surprise yesterday, but it came in the form of
all-everything-recordwise quarterback Luke Falk not playing. His left wrist,
wrapped in a brace or a cast or whatever, didn’t allow him to participate as
anything other than a cheerleader.
That left Washington State’s offense in the hands
of sophomore Tyler Hilinski. A competent backup, sure, but a backup
nonetheless. To make matters worse, Hilinski was dealing with a receiving corps
missing two of its three most experienced targets.
And then there was the pesky defense across the
way. You know, Michigan State, a team that forced three-and-outs on about a
third of its defensive possessions this season.
So maybe the 42-17 defeat shouldn’t look so bad.
But it does. Under Mike Leach, now the $20 million man, the Cougars have earned
four bowl berths. That’s good, especially considering they went more than a
decade without one. But in those four games they have won once.
The three defeats include: Losing to Colorado
State in the last seconds after an ill-advised handoff; losing to a Minnesota
team that went through a player revolt before the bowl; and getting blown out
last night.
Bah, humbug indeed.
A season that began 6-0, which included a
nationally televised upset of No. 5 USC, once again ended with an Apple Cup
rout and a bowl loss. It’s enough to leave a sour taste in a Cougar fan’s
mouth.
WSU: If you really want to relive last night’s
42-17 loss, then we have the links for you. We will start with Theo Lawson’s
game story, which covers all the details. Theo also covered the postgame press
conference in which Leach answered some questions sarcastically and ignored
others. … John Blanchette was in San Diego, witnessed the game live and has a
column. … Jim Allen was there as well and has the difference makers and two
stories from the Spartans’ postgame, one on the quarterback and another on coach
Mark Dantonio’s 100th win. … Tyler Tjomsland has the photo report. … I put
together some thoughts in the second half and they appeared online right after
the game ended. … There is coverage from the Times too, with Matt Calkins’
column and Stefanie Loh’s game coverage. … The Michigan media has more on the
game and there are whole sections of stories from San Diego, which probably
won’t be the Cougars’ bowl destination next season.
…………………………………
Abysmal second quarter, rash of injuries doom
Washington State in 42-17 Holiday Bowl loss to Michigan State
UPDATED: Fri., Dec. 29, 2017, 12:23 a.m.
By Theo Lawson S-R of Spokane
SAN DIEGO – Washington State’s history in the
Holiday Bowl against the Big Ten Conference and the Cougars’ documented
struggles to contain quarterbacks with the ability to run and pass morphed into
one big catastrophe Thursday on a calm, still night at SDCCU Stadium in San
Diego.
With a different quarterback under center this
year – it was Tyler Hilinski starting in place of the ailing Luke Falk – the
Cougars still couldn’t get their Air Raid to manufacture anything resembling
offense, and the Michigan State Spartans, just like Minnesota before them,
showed just how simple it can be to shut said offense down, stomping WSU 42-17
in front of 47,092 fans at the 2017 Holiday Bowl.
Both teams came into the game with identical
records. The Cougars finish 9-4, the Spartans 10-3.
Rumors of Falk’s injury emerged earlier in the
week when he was seen walking into bowl practice with a cast draped over his
left forearm/hand. During interviews on Tuesday and Wednesday, Leach stuck to
his normal routine and neglected to give any detail about the injury, but the
coach hinted in his postgame press conference that Falk wasn’t necessarily a
game-time decision for the Cougars.
“We had a sense of it that he wasn’t going to
play,” Leach said. “Which is unfortunate because of what he’s done here but we
have to look out for what’s in his best interest of him and the other players.”
The WSU quarterbacks were part of almost every
conversation in the days leading up to the Holiday Bowl. But all the postgame
chatter was about another signal-caller.
Add MSU sophomore Brian Lewerke’s name to a long
list of opposing QBs who’ve been able to torment the Cougars with
improvisation. Often running when it looked like he might pass, and passing
when WSU thought he might run, Lewerke reached 286 all-purpose yards by the
time he came out of the game in the third quarter with an injury. Backup Damion
Terry came in and punched in a 6-yard touchdown on an option-keeper to make it
35-3.
Lewerke returned for the next drive and a
combination of MSU’s QBs carried the Spartans to the finish line – never truly
threatened by Mike Leach’s Cougars. The MSU starter finished 13 of 21 through
the air with 213 yards and three touchdowns and after his work on the ground
was done, Lewerke had racked up 73 rushing yards on 14 carries.
“I thought their quarterback did a really good job
of keeping us honest,” Leach said. “Anytime they needed a key play or something
like that, their quarterback did a good job of converting a third down. That
type of thing.”
Leach’s 2017 Cougars began the season with an
all-star cast of players headlined by Falk, the fourth-year starting
quarterback who earlier this year accomplished a mission to win more games than
every other Cougars signal-caller before him. The Pac-12’s career passing
leader leaves with a remarkable legacy, but it’s a legacy that was cut one game
short.
Falk didn’t play in what would’ve been his career
finale because of a reported hand injury that the Cougars, per program policy,
have declined to comment on.
The starter handed the keys over to the backup and
Hilinski wasn’t a whole lot better than Falk was in the last. The redshirt
sophomore who figures to be Leach’s starter when the Cougars reconvene for
spring ball finished 39-for-50 passing with 272 yards and two touchdowns. But
he’d only done a fraction of that when the first half ended and the Cougars
were already stuck in a 21-3 hole.
Grading himself, Hilinski said, “We didn’t win, so
not good.”
When the Cougars arrived in Lewiston for fall camp
in August, their roster was stockpiled with proven talent – a list that
included Falk, defensive tackle Hercules Mata’afa, linebacker Peyton Pelluer,
wide receivers Tavares Martin Jr., Isaiah Johnson-Mack and Robert Lewis, and
running back Gerard Wicks.
But a spate of injuries, dismissals and departures
have shortened WSU’s roster throughout the year and Mata’afa’a ejection in the
Apple Cup meant the Cougars had none of the aformentioned players when the
Spartans made their move in the second quarter.
MSU assembled a 16-play, 81-yard drive that
consumed more than nine minutes to get on the board. Lewerke put his
dual-threat talents to use and scurried away from the WSU pressure to zip a
15-yard touchdown pass to Cody White.
“It was kind of tough guarding him,” WSU safety
Jalen Thompson said. “Him running out like that bought him time for the
receivers to get open, so he made our job today kind of hard. But … we didn’t
do our jobs and we didn’t execute.”
After another three-and-out for the Cougars, Lewerke
and his crew made a quick return to the end zone splashed with dark green paint
and lettered with white “Spartans” script. The MSU QB didn’t need 16 plays to
stick the ball in the end zone this time and spotted a breakdown in WSU’s
secondary before airing out a 49-yard touchdown to Felton Davis, who was at
least 10 yards clear of the next closest defender when he glided into the end
zone.
“Guys had their eyes in the wrong place,” Thompson
said of the play, “and we didn’t execute the coverage.”
Added Leach: “I did think we unraveled a bit after
that play.”
WSU’s offense clicked late, or at least the tandem
of Hilinski and freshman receiver Tay Martin did. Those two hooked up for
consecutive TDs in the third and fourth quarter to make it 35-17, but MSU’s LJ
Scott ripped off a 28-yard touchdown to stick a final dagger in the Cougs.
It didn’t help matters that another WSU standout,
running back Jamal Morrow, left the field for good in the third quarter. Morrow
later emerged from the Cougars’ locker room with a boot on his left foot – yet
another injury to a star player in a season that was full of them.
“We have been plagued with injuries all year,”
Hilinski said. “I mean, that’s football, though.”
Hilinski and Martin wound up connecting seven
times for 51 yards. The freshman outside receiver has been a bright spot for
the Cougars late in the season, reeling in six touchdown passes in his last six
games.
“Tay came in a little bit raw,” Hilinski said.
“He’s gotten really precise at his routes and he goes 110% on his routes.”
As much as the Cougars lost, there’s reason to be
optimistic about the future. It just didn’t arrive in time for WSU to avoid a
second straight loss in the Holiday Bowl.
………………
Mike Leach mum on future of Washington State
junior defensive tackle Hercules Mata’afa
UPDATED: Thu., Dec. 28, 2017, 11:47 p.m.
By Theo Lawson Spokesman-Review of Spokane
SAN DIEGO – Hercules Mata’afa will be wearing one
of 33 uniforms next season – Washington State’s or that of one of 32
professional teams who could select the Cougars’ stud defensive tackle in the
2018 NFL Draft.
Mata’afa’s future appears to be one of the major
storyline of WSU’s offseason and WSU coach Mike Leach didn’t provide much
clarity when he met with reporters following the Cougars’ 42-17 loss to
Michigan State in the Holiday Bowl.
The Lahaina, Hawaii, native and consensus
All-American didn’t play in the first half of the game because of his targeting
ejection in WSU’s previous game against Washington. The Cougars were staring at
a 21-3 deficit when Mata’afa returned in the third quarter. He finished with
two tackles, including one sack.
Asked how much the Cougars missed Mata’afa in the
first half against the Spartans and if he’d met with the junior defensive
lineman about whether he’ll stay in school or turn pro, Leach provided this
response:
“Yes, we missed him in the first half and any
conversations I have with him on whether he’s coming back or what he’s doing I
will share with him and probably not anybody in here. I will tell you when you
guys start getting invitations to these meetings and stuff you ask me about,
when we ask you to the meeting we’ll probably have some hors d’oeuvres, maybe
tea, coffee, might even ask you what you like. But you guys can figure about
the time we start inviting you to these meetings is about the time we’re going
to tell you this stuff.”
Mata’afa finishes his stellar junior season with
22.5 tackles-for-loss and 10.5 sacks. He led the Pac-12 in both categories and
was named an All-American by the Walter Camp Foundation, the Associated Press
and Sporting News. He was also named the Polynesian College Football Player of
the Year.
#
