Before this weekend's surprisingly huge contest between Stanford and Washington State, we took some time to chat with Jeff Nusser of CougCenter, SB Nation's wonderful blog for all things Washington State.
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1. I'll try and get all the Luke Falk talk out of the way early: the former 2 star Cornell commit is looking like the best QB in the conference with a chance to be an impact player for years to come. We all know how surgical he's been. From a fan's standpoint, just how excited are you about the young quarterback's future? What are his biggest strengths and does he have any weaknesses?
Super excited! Anytime you feel like your college team has its QB set for a few years, you're feeling pretty darn good, and that's exactly where WSU finds itself. His biggest strength as a thrower is his accuracy; he just doesn't make very many off-target throws. (And when he does, as he did when he had four consecutive incompletions on Saturday, it feels really, really weird and we wondered if he was injured.) He's also an excellent decision maker who is generally smart about the windows into which he tries to fit the ball, which is the main reason why he's only thrown four interceptions in nearly 400 attempts.
As for things he's still working on? He does have a tendency to hold onto the ball at times when he doesn't see what he wants to see, and this has led to a good number of sacks. He's gotten the ball out more quickly more often lately, but I imagine Stanford will bring a lot of blitzes designed to confuse him, and it'll be interesting to see how he copes with that. He's also put the ball on the ground a number of times while stalling in the pocket, but oddly enough, all of seven of his fumbles have been recovered by WSU. Also -- and this is tied into the previous thing -- he doesn't always recognize quickly when the flat is the best place to go with the ball. But we all expect that these are things that will improve as time goes by.
2. The offense is obviously the strength of this team and the run game has emerged as a nice counterpart to the Air Raid. Who are some other playmakers we should keep an eye out for? Knowing what you do about Stanford, what are your goals for the WSU offense?
Falk gets all the attention, but a lot of his success is because WSU has playmakers all over the field. Three of WSU's four starting wide receivers are on the Biletnikoff Award watch list: Gabe Marks, Dom Williams and River Cracraft. The first two play on the outside, and Marks has pretty much been uncoverable all year. But if you devote too much attention to them, Cracraft will absolutely destroy you underneath, particularly in the soft middle of the zone.
The new wrinkle this year is an effective running game that's powered by a big, experienced line and three talented backs. Each of the runners has a little different strength. Gerard Wicks is a bruising, straight-ahead runner; Jamal Morrow has a little bit of wiggle but can also break a tackle; and Keith Harrington is just flat explosive. Wicks will get the bulk of the carries, but all will play.
And this is what has made the Air Raid into what it was supposed to be all along -- you really are just picking your poison, because you can't possibly cover the entire field.
3. Defense has never been the calling card for Mike Leach's teams, and it seems to be the weak side of the ball for the Cougars. What does your defense do well and where are the biggest problem areas for the unit in 2015?
The defense is pretty good at wreaking "havoc" - tackles for loss, pass break ups, interceptions. The front seven is disruptive, particularly linebackers Peyton Pelluer and Jeremiah Allison, who have combined for 10.5 tackles for loss. A lot of that has to do with the work that the defensive line is doing, taking on blocks and generally being disruptive. Keep an eye on defensive end Destiny Vaeao, particularly on running downs -- he'll probably blow up at least a couple of runs. On passing downs, Kache Palacio and Ivan McLennan lead the way, with eight sacks between them.
The biggest problem area has been making tackles, which ought to have Stanford licking its collective chops. That's gotten better, but Arizona QB Jerrard Randle had a field day in the second half on Saturday. We're also not sure exactly how good the pass defense is. WSU has faced a lot of running teams, but not any that are able to throw off their run game the way Stanford can. We'll see.
4. The conference as a whole has been a little bit...chaotic in 2015. From your perspective, what do you make of the conference? What games do you have circled as we approach the end of the year?
This one! In all seriousness, though, what's happened this year has us feeling that there's not an unwinnable game left on the schedule. The odds are obviously against a win against the Cardinal, but the other four that are left -- at UCLA, vs. ASU, vs. Colorado and at UW -- all feel like games the Cougars could take. That's a pretty crazy development for a team that started is season with a loss to an FCS school.
5. Is Mike Leach's seat completely back to room temperature or will he need a strong finish to remain HC at WSU?
Barring a total collapse the rest of the way, the fans are probably satiated.
6. Predictions for the game?
I'm excited about this game for a number of reasons, but one of the biggest is that I'm just not sure exactly how it's going to play out. I'm excited to see what the WSU offense can do against a legitimate defense, I'm curious to see if the defense can feed off the energy of a sold-out house and give Stanford more than it bargained for. I could see anything from a narrow WSU victory to a WSU loss by a few TDs that shows the Cougars aren't quite ready for prime time.
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Want more Cougar talk prior to Saturday's frightfest? Head over to CougCenter to learn more about Washington State's prolific offense! Seriously, it's a really great blog.
