TV Take: Washington State fans greeted by
familiar broadcast voice of Rich Waltz in victory at Wyoming
UPDATED: Sat., Sept. 1, 2018,
6:44 p.m.
By Vince Grippi Spokane S-R
There wasn’t
all that much familiar with Washington State’s football program as it opened
the 2018 season at Wyoming on Saturday afternoon.
Except,
fittingly for a team that has won 27 games in the last three-plus seasons, the
final score.
That would be
41-19, with the Cougars breezing past the host Wyoming Cowboys with a dominant
second half before 24,131 in Laramie.
And there was a
familiar voice on the CBS Sports Network broadcast, at least for Spokane-based
Cougars fans with long memories.
Rich Waltz
began his career here, calling Indians and Chiefs games fresh out of college in
the mid-1980s. That started him down a road that led to a variety of
assignments, including the Miami Marlins’ radio voice for a few years and many
college football games.
What they saw …
It’s more of
what they didn’t see,
at least at first.
Quarterback
Luke Falk is gone after four record-setting seasons. Defensive coordinator Alex Grinch is in Ohio. Starters on the offensive and defensive line had to be
replaced as well.
But WSU still
has Mike Leach on the sidelines and his familiar Air Raid offense, even with a
new quarterback running the show.
“Gardner
Minshew is dealing,” Waltz exclaimed early in the fourth quarter as the grad
transfer from East Carolina threw a perfect 7-yard touchdown pass to Easop
Winston Jr. to boost the Cougars’ lead to 27-19.
Minshew was
dealing, especially after halftime. Of his 319 passing yards, 191 came in the
second half, when he converted 21 of 27 throws. Two of those went for
touchdowns.
“When he has
time in the pocket,” said analyst Aaron Murray, a former quarterback, “he’s an
accurate thrower.”
The rebuilt
Washington State offensive line gave him plenty of time on his 57 attempts,
though Minshew’s one interception, an errant first-half throw, came on a blown
blitz pickup. The Cowboys (1-1) used it and a Max Borghi fumble to score 14
first-half points. The other two points came on a bad punt snap that led to a
safety.
In the second
half, when the Cougars took care of the ball, Wyoming struggled against the
new-look defense, with former Minnesota coach Tracy
Claeys now the coordinator.
Murray put much
of the blame for Wyoming’s struggles – the Cowboys had 206 yards of total
offense – on a lack of imagination.
“At some point
today you’re going to have to trust your young quarterback,” Murray said of
redshirt freshman Tyler Vander Waal in the second quarter.
The Cowboys
rarely did, with Vander Waal throwing just 20 passes for 67 yards. Some big
drops, especially late, didn’t help, but Wyoming wanted to run more.
Losing leading
rusher Nico Evans with an upper-body injury – sideline
reporter A. J. Ross ran that down despite Waltz saying Wyoming would not
release in-game information – was big, but it was more a matter of WSU’s
defense rarely bending or breaking.
What we saw …
A lot of yellow
flags, for one thing.
Waltz referred
to it in the third quarter, calling it a tough game to officiate. He was right.
Though he may have been less right when he praised referee Kevin Hassell’s
mixed Mountain West and Big 12 crew, for having “done a nice job.”
There were
enough iffy ones – a couple of holds, an odd pass-interference on the Cowboys,
an undetectable illegal fair catch flag – to keep both benches unhappy.
That and the
184 combined penalty yards.
There was also
a new formation the Cougars unveiled in the third quarter, with almost the
entire offense outside the numbers on the short side of the field. Kyle Sweet
served as the center and he snapped the ball directly to James Williams, who
ran for nine of his 82 rushing yards.
“I would call that Mike Leach creativity or
eccentricity,” Waltz said as Murray admitted he had never seen anything like
it. “I think I saw Knute Rockne call that,” Waltz answered.
Murray, when he
wasn’t using clichés like, “You could drive a truck through that hole,” did a
good job explaining defensive lapses and offensive successes. He also came up
with the occasional zinger, including after one Minshew completion that floated
to the receiver. “Spirals are optional sometimes,” Murray offered.
Especially in
the first game of the season. With a lot of new faces around.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::
WSU FOOTBALL
Recap and highlights: Washington State uses late surge to
top Wyoming 41-19
UPDATED: Sat., Sept. 1, 2018, 5:23 p.m.
By Theo Lawson, Spokane S-R
FINAL Cougs 41 - Cowboys 19
LARAMIE, Wyo. – There was nothing perfect about it, and who
anticipated it would be for a team that faced as much offseason attrition, and
has as much to replace as much as the Washington State Cougars?
No Luke Falk. No Hercules Mata’afa. No Cody O’Connell. No
Alex Grinch. No problem – at least not yet – for Mike Leach and the retooled
Cougars.
Gardner Minshew tossed three touchdowns in his first start
as a Pac-12 quarterback, all-purpose tailbacks James Williams and Max Borghi
combined to score three times and the WSU defense, under the direction of
first-year coordinator Tracy Claeys, held Wyoming’s offense at bay more times
than not, allowing the Cougars to pull away for a 34-19 victory in the season
opener at War Memorial Stadium.
Minshew endured a shaky second quarter to finish 38-of-57
passing for 319 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. Williams carried
the ball 16 times, gained 82 yards and scored a touchdown, while catching 10
passes for 53 yards and a touchdown. Borghi, a true freshman playing in his
first college game, caught a 6-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter and
rumbled for a 14-yard rushing TD in the fourth.
Claeys’ defense made things challenging for Wyoming QB Tyler
Vander Waal, who finished with fewer than 100 yards and completed less than 50
percent of his throws. Nico Evans contributed 89 rushing yards for the Cowboys
in 3 1/2 quarters, and scored one of their two touchdowns, but the senior
running back left the game before the fourth with a chest injury.
The Cougars (1-0) continue nonconference play next Saturday
at home against San Jose State (0-1) in a late-night 8 p.m. game at Martin
Stadium (Pac-12 Networks).
Minshew had to wait four plays to throw his first c pass for
the Cougars. Uncharacteristically, Leach opened WSU’s first offensive drive
with three straight run calls for junior James Williams, which netted 24 yards,
and Minshew threw 9-yard pass to Jamire Calvin to move the Cougars past
midfield. After a 36-yard hookup with Calvin, Minshew and the offense were
stopped in the end zone and had to settle for a 24-yard field goal from
Arkansas transfer Blake Mazza.
WSU’s defense, in its first game under new defensive
coordinator Tracy Claeys, got three straight stops in the first quarter and
Minshew fired his first touchdown as a Cougar, for 10 yards to Williams, to
make it 10-0.But the Cougars were eventually buried under their own miscues – a
fumble fro Max Borghi that led directly to a rushing touchdown from Nico Evans
and a Minshew interception that eventually turned into Wyoming’s second TD, a
23-yard jet sweep from Avante’ Cox.
The Cowboys dialed up two more points when WSU long snapper
Kyle Celli fired a snap over Oscar Draguicevich III’s head, forcing the Cougar
punter to chase it down. When Draguicevich III landed on the ball near the
1-yard line, he was tackled and the ball squirted into the end zone.
But after trailing 19-13, the Cougars, behind Minshew’s arm
and the tailback duo of Williams and Borghi, managed to outscore the Cowboys
28-0 the rest of the way and capped the dominant win with a 3-yard scoring
burst from Williams with 4:12 left in the game.
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