A little R&R

PULLMAN – Coming off of back-to-back losses to enter the bye week, the Washington State Cougars will look to rest and learn from mistakes before a home matchup against Utah next week.

“We still got a lot to play for,” WSU head coach Jake Dickert said in a press conference Thursday. “We want to extend our season, and that’s something that we’re out here preparing for each and every day.”

Dickert said after Thursday’s practice that the team is off until Saturday afternoon for a light practice before preparation begins for No. 15 Utah.

“I believe the emphasis is by far recovery,” WSU receiver Orion Peters said in Thursday’s press conference. “We want everybody to get their bodies right, just recover.”

Among the focuses during practices will be protecting the quarterback. The Cougars gave up six sacks to the Beavers last week in their 24-10 loss to Oregon State, just a week after allowing five sacks to USC. In three of four conference games for WSU this season, quarterback Cameron Ward has been sacked at least five times.

“I think there’s protection and getting beat, which will happen and we got to coach better technique and understanding that we got to execute better,” Dickert said. “And, there’s missed assignments in protection. There’s been too many of those.”

Ward managed to throw for 345 yards against the Oregon State defense on Saturday but did so by completing 25 of 54 passing attempts.

“Credit to Oregon State, but we gotta be better,” Dickert said. “Some of it’s one-on-one matchups, and some of its this league, they have really good pass rushers. But, we have to be able to get through multiple progressions in the pass game without getting our eyes down, and scrambling and a variety of different things.”

WSU only managed 23 total rush yards on Saturday, a season-low and the fourth time the Cougars have finished with under 100 yards on the ground this season.

“I think the run game has been highs and lows, and it hasn’t been (consistent),” Dickert said. “I think that’s the story of where we are right now, offensively. We gotta be more consistent, and it starts with me.”

Peters said that he believes the Cougar wideouts have been efficient in quick passes but wants to improve on receptions down the field.

“As a group, we want to clean up deep balls,” Peters said. “Anytime we just get it downfield, throw it deep, we want to clean it up.

The redshirt freshman receiver also said that the energy has been positive through bye-week practices.

“There’s been a lot of energy these past few practices that we had during the bye week,” Peters said. “I think it’s going to continue to be energized.”

Receiver Renard Bell, who left WSU’s game against USC two weeks ago with an injury, has still been present and leading the Cougar receivers off the field.

“(Bell) has taken a big role, basically being a coach now,” Peters said with a smile. “During meetings, he’s writing notes down for each receiver on what they need to improve on and how to do it. (Bell) always brings a ton of energy, so that’s always good.”

WSU linebacker Francisco Mauigoa said that he’s seen players in the linebacking corps improve throughout the course of the season, something they’ll need against a Utah offense that has scored the second-most points in the conference through seven weeks.

“I see a lot of people grow in the blink of an eye,” Mauigoa said. “You see people grow and make plays out there. It’s a competitive group, we love physicality and it’s something that we work on every day. It comes down to fundamentals now.”

Until then, Washington State will look to keep bringing the energy to practices in preparation for the Utes.

“We try to bring the juice every day, we bring the energy every day,” Mauigoa said. “If we lose, we win, we bring the same energy. Energy never changes.”

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