Cougs prep for Fresno State in LA Bowl

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — There will be many new faces on the field and calling plays for the Washington State offense in their bowl matchup against Fresno State in the Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl on Saturday.

WSU’s offensive coordinator Eric Morris was announced as the new head coach at North Texas on Tuesday, leaving the Cougars with a playcalling-by-committee approach against the Bulldogs. Head Coach Jake Dickert said at a press conference on Wednesday that offensive line coach Clay McGuire and wide receivers coach Joel Filani will head the playcalling responsibilities.

“Excited about their growth because I’ve seen both of those guys really progress as the season has gone on into more of a coordinator mindset and mode,” Dickert said. “Clay has been calling most of the runs throughout the season anyway, and excited about Joel and his vision of the pass game – It’s a little bit different than Eric’s – and I’ll be calling the defensive plays. It’ll be back to where we were last year.”

McGuire said that the Cougars had already put together an offensive game plan before the team arrived in Inglewood.

“It’ll be called more trial by committee, it’ll be pretty much every coach on the offensive side of the ball is going to be very involved in what we’re doing and getting plays called,” McGuire said at a press conference on Wednesday. “Obviously, the guy that has the most experience in this offense of anybody is Cam (Ward), so we’re going to put a lot on Cam and give him a lot of opportunities to go out there.”

With three of WSU’s four leading receivers out on Saturday – De’Zhaun Stribling and Donovan Ollie are in the portal, and seventh-year receiver Renard Bell is injured – McGuire said many active receivers will all get reps in a committee approach, specifically noting redshirt freshman Tsion Nunnally and junior Lincoln Victor.

“Somebody’s going to get hot with the game, and we just got to give them the ball when they’re hot,” McGuire said.

Ward made it clear that despite the circumstances, the Cougar offense is going to enjoy the bowl game.

“Being able to go out there, have fun, and check plays at the same time, I think It’ll be fun for me,” Ward said at a press conference on Wednesday. “Fun experience for the offense, allow our playmakers to make plays.”

After a season-opening win over Cal Poly, the Bulldogs dropped to 1-4 after losses to Oregon State, USC, UConn and Boise State. Starting quarterback Jake Haener suffered an ankle injury against USC and returned to help close out the regular season on an eight-game winning streak, including a win in the Mountain West championship. Haener finished the regular season completing 228 of 314 passes for 2,616 yards and 18 touchdowns.

In the eight games started and finished by Haener, the Bulldogs average 36.25 points per game compared to the 23 points per game without him.

“Haener, he’s an NFL quarterback,” Dickert said. “He can make all the throws, you can see the difference when he’s been in there versus when he’s been out. I think (receiver Jalen Moreno-Cropper) and (receiver Nikko Remigio) are explosive players that can play in any league in the country. The tailback’s (Jordan Mims) good, and I think the o-line has been solid and kept him upright for the most part.”

Defensively, the Bulldogs have allowed the second-lowest passer rating to opposing quarterbacks in the Mountain West this season, holding passers to a 52.4% completion percentage. Against Boise State in the Mountain West title game, Fresno State intercepted two passes by Broncos quarterback Taylen Green, who had only thrown four interceptions on the year entering the game.

“They’re a real solid defense,” Ward said. “I feel like they haven’t played an offense like ours this season, so I feel we’ll be able to give them troubles at some point. The biggest thing for us is just staying on schedule; we just have to take what they give us. They do a lot of different fronts at certain times of the game, they like to do a lot of different coverages behind it.”

The Cougars and Bulldogs kick off at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.

“To get this reward of playing in a bowl game, I think it’s something special,” Dickert said. “We’ve been talking a lot to our guys, (saying) ‘Enjoy it, live in this moment. We have 13 seniors, who knows if they’ll put the pads back on? Enjoy these times, enjoy these moments together and it’s going to be a heck of a game against Fresno State.’”

Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.