'It all starts this week'

PULLMAN — With the bye week now behind them, the Washington State Cougars will continue their slate of Mountain West games Saturday, now preparing for a road tilt against Fresno State.

“A team that knows how to win – this team is 17-3 at home the last four years,” Head Coach Jake Dickert said at a press conference Monday. “It’s not easy to go to the (Central) Valley and get a win. It’s going to be warm, their fans are going to be rowdy.” 

WSU’s last outing came Sept. 28, a 45-24 road loss to Boise State – the Cougars got within seven points to start the fourth quarter before surrendering touchdowns on Boise State’s next three offensive drives to put the game out of reach. 

“It came at the right time,” Dickert said of the bye week. “I’d be probably lying if I said we don’t have a bad taste in our mouth and want to get back out there and show the team that we know we can be.” 

Dickert described the Fresno State offense as a “very exciting brand of football.” Quarterback Mikey Keene is second in the Mountain West in passing yards this season with 1,356, second only to San Jose State’s Emmett Brown (1,460) whom WSU has already faced this season. Receiver Mac Dalena has also amassed 501 yards and four scores on 22 catches this season, the highest average yards per reception in the Mountain West this season. 

“They throw it around, you can still (see) the Kalen DeBoer offense, (and) Kirby Moore,” Dickert said. “The quarterback is a high-level player; they have all seniors across the offensive front. This is a very seasoned offense.” 

Keene has been sacked nine times through Fresno’s first five games of the season, third-most in the Mountain West, while the Cougar defense has only garnered five sacks so far this year. 

“I think we’ve just got to keep hunting,” WSU edge Andrew Edson said. “Keep getting out there, keep rushing and I think eventually we’re going to start breaking through and getting a lot more sacks. I think we’ve been getting some good pressures lately, but I think we need to finish those rushes and I think we can do that.” 

The Bulldogs also have surrendered 28 points per game to opposing teams this season – Washington State’s offense is coming off a 24-point day against Boise State two weeks ago, where the Cougars put up 416 yards of total offense but turned the ball over three times in Boise State territory – twice on fourth down and the other on an interception in the end zone. 

“They threw a lot of things at us that we didn’t see previously, and I (saw) that we got down on ourselves early,” receiver Kyle Williams said. “That’s something that we can’t do – we've got to know that we can fight back from any type of possession, or if we’re still down we can come back and win the game.” 

Kickoff between the Cougars and Bulldogs is at 4 p.m. in Fresno, California. The last time the two sides met on the field was in the 2022 LA Bowl, where the Bulldogs won 29-6. 

“It all starts this week,” Edson said. “Last year we ended up having that six-game losing streak, which we do not want to replicate again. If we start fast this week after the bye week and end it with a win, then I think we’ll be doing what we want to do and on the right path of where we want go.” 

Regional College Football Action 

Eastern Washington (1-4, 0-1 Big Sky) at No. 18/20 Sacramento State (2-3, 0-1 Big Sky) 

Both sides enter Saturday’s matchup coming off a bye week, as Eastern narrowly lost 52-49 at home to Montana on Sept. 28 while the Hornets lost 34-16 at Northern Arizona. It’s the first time Eastern and Sacramento State have played since the 2022 season, where the Hornets defeated the Eagles 52-28 in Cheney. 

Kickoff is at 6 p.m. 

Central Washington (4-1, 3-0 LSC) vs UT Permian Basin (3-3, 2-2 LSC) 

Coming off a 44-28 win over Eastern New Mexico last week, the Wildcats will host the defending Lone Star Conference champion UT Permian Basin Falcons on Saturday in Ellensburg. Central will look to avenge last season’s 42-14 road loss to the Falcons. 

UTPB has flipped results through the first six weeks of the season, opening with a win against Western New Mexico before losing to Colorado State University Pueblo, beating Adams State before losing to Texas A&M University – Kingsville and defeating Midwestern State 27-3 before losing to Angelo State last week. 

Kickoff is at 6 p.m. Saturday. 

    Central Washington hosts UT Permian Basin on Saturday, the defending Lone Star Conference champion.