Cougars Plan Organized Confusion WSU Will Go To Great Lengths Defensively To Stop Montana’s Slick Qb Dickenson

Washington State’s defensive plan for today’s 2 p.m. home football opener against Montana is highly simplistic - in a complex sort of way.

The Cougars’ strategy, it seems, is to use every defensive look in their playbook in hopes of confusing and containing Dave Dickenson, the Grizzlies’ record-setting quarterback.

“You have to change things up for Montana,” said WSU coach Mike Price, whose Cougars are coming off a disappointing road loss to Pittsburgh in last Saturday’s season opener. “(Dickenson) is a senior quarterback and he’s smart. You can’t just sit in one thing, otherwise he’ll pick you apart.

“We’ll just sprinkle in a little of everything and keep him off guard so he doesn’t know what to expect. That’s the best thing to do against a guy like Dickenson - just try to contain him.”

Others have tried, most have failed, as evidenced by his overwhelming numbers.

The elusive 5-foot-11, 175-pounder already holds the school record for touchdown passes with 60 and needs just 538 passing yards to move past Grady Bennett and into the No. 1 spot on that career list.

He is coming off a solid performance in last weekend’s season opener, having thrown for 337 yards and two touchdowns in a little more than two quarters of playing time in the Grizzlies’ 41-14 rout of Eastern New Mexico.

“He’s going to complete his share of footballs,” Price said. “We just have to keep him out of the end zone as much as possible.”

The Cougars have worked all week on a wide variety of defensive sets, including a nickel package, featuring five defensive backs, and a dime package, featuring six DBs.

Montana coach Don Read expects some defensive trickery from Price, but after watching video of WSU’s 17-13 loss at Pittsburgh, he’s not sure it’s needed.

“Though they lost a lot of players on defense, they had some players waiting in the wings who are just excellent players,” Read said. “I think if anything on their team is underrated, it’s their defense.

“They have that chase-the-ball philosophy and really get after you with pressure. They have a lot of quickness, there’s no doubt about it. We’re really going to have to anticipate and shift gears to match up with them and all of their speed and quickness.”

Key matchups

WSU’s wide receivers were smothered by Pittburgh’s defensive backs last Saturday and caught only nine passes. They have another tough task this afternoon, trying to elude the coverage of a Montana secondary that is deep, experienced and talented.

Price rates safeties Blaine McElmurry and Justin Hazel as the strength of the UM defense.

When Montana has the ball, look for the Grizzlies offensive line to have its hands full against WSU’s pass rush. Price said junior college transfer Dav’id Evans might get the starting nod at one defensive tackle spot ahead of 309-pound redshirt freshman Darryl Jones in order to speed up that pass rush.

Players to watch

With all the attention focused on Dickenson, there’s a great opportunity for WSU quarterback Chad Davis to step up and surprise some of the 27,000-plus who are expected at Martin Stadium.

The 6-1, 200-pound junior was adequate against Pittsburgh, but didn’t produce much in the way of big plays. Price feels that might change today.

“With all the spotlight on Dickenson, I’d like to see Chad Davis step up and surprise everybody,” Price said. “Wouldn’t that be something? That would be a great story for somebody right there …”

If Dickenson is going to be effective, he will need a big game from his receiving corps, which is tiny by Division I-A standards. Best of the bunch is Matt Wells, a 5-7, 160-pound senior, who caught five passes for 76 yards last week.

Wells, with 1,801 receiving yards, is 6th on Montana’s career list and needs just 774 to pass Scott Gurnsey, the school’s all-time leader.

Hurtin’

Montana lists offensive guard Jeff Zellick (back), offensive tackle Jason Baker (flu) and junior kicker Andy Larson (ankle) as probable.

WSU will be without junior linebacker Johnny Nansen, who underwent arthroscopic knee surgery earlier this week, and third-string running back Miguel Meriwether, who is still nursing a sore back.

Senior defensive end Dwayne Sanders, who has been slowed the past couple of weeks by a mysterious low-grade fever, will play, along with senior defensive back Brian Walker, who suffered a concussion in the Pitt loss.

Coaches’ quotes

“The picture at Montana is good. The kids did some awfully good things in our game last Saturday.”

- Montana’s Don Read

“I think the fans in Montana hated me more when I was at Weber (State) than they do when I’m at Washington State.”

- WSU’s Mike Price, on the differences he’s noticed between Division I-A and I-AA competition.

Third-and-shorts

Even with this afternoon’s matchup against Division I-AA Montana factored in, WSU’s 1995 schedule is rated third-toughest in the country according to USA Today’s Sagarin computer ratings… . Senior linebacker Chris Hayes and senior center Marc McCloskey have been selected as WSU’s captains for the 1995 season… . The Cougars’ defense allowed just eight runs of longer than 20 yards in 1993, seven in 1994 and none so far in 1995.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: Cougars vs. Montana