Washington State to be without starting QB Jayden de Laura vs Stanford

It looks like there’s some inevitable turnabout in the Pac-12, with this whole playing a football season during a global pandemic. The Washington State Cougars are set to be without starting quarterback Jayden de Laura for their matchup with the Stanford Cardinal this weekend.

According to Theo Lawson of the Spokesman-Review, de Laura has tested positive for COVID-19 and will miss the game vs Stanford. On the football field, that’s a big loss as de Laura has been terrific to start the year under new head coach Nick Rolovich.

Off the field, however, reports are that de Laura has experienced severe symptoms — so from all of us at Rule of Tree and SB Nation — we wish you nothing but the best Jayden. Get well as soon as you can, this is much, much bigger than football.

Back to the field, though, and this now means Gunner Cruz is scheduled to start vs Stanford. Heading to our friends at CougCenter for a bit of insight into Cruz, this is what we get:

Cruz — who has never thrown a college pass after sitting out last season — has a different skill set than de Laura, standing 6-foot-5 and 217 pounds with a cannon for an arm. He does have a bit of athleticism, just not in the same way that de Laura does at 6-feet and 195 pounds.

Cruz was a three-star recruit out of Casteel High School in Queen Creek, Arizona, who also had offers from the Arizona State Sun Devils, Baylor Bears and Cincinnati Bearcats.

This of course comes after Stanford’s own starting quarterback was forced to miss the Week 1 game against Oregon in what turned out to be a false positive test result that kept him in quarantine until the following Thursday.

The Cougs and Cardinal are set to kick off at 7:30 pm on Saturday.