Cougars uncover big play

Washington State coach Paul Wulff has decried all season the lack of big plays.

He saw a familiar pattern through most of three quarters Saturday.

“We felt like we were missing so many opportunities on offense,” he said. “We weren’t playing very well.”

Many of the opportunities came about because WSU was running the ball well on first down.

The Cougars saw a weakness in the Washington defense on film and exploited it by running two tight ends – balancing the Husky front – and leading the tailback – either Dwight Tardy or Logwone Mitz – with a fullback in an old-fashioned I-formation.

The idea was to stretch UW to the right, with the offensive line reaching to block the Husky in their area and the fullback kicking out the cornerback.

“Oh, my gosh, we ran it maybe 15, 20 times,” said right tackle Micah Hannam, who served as the lead blocker on all of them. “We worked on it all week. We wanted to use that play a lot and we did.”

Despite the success, WSU still couldn’t get any closer than the Washington 33 – and that came on its first possession – through most of the third quarter. So the Cougars decided to stay with the stretch play.

It worked one more time, with Logwone Mitz darting through a hole supplied by Hannam and fullback Marcus Richmond for 57 yards and WSU’s lone touchdown.

“After he scored I was juiced because I felt like I scored,” Richmond said after making the key block.

For Richmond, the game marked the first time in his career he had played fullback. But when Tony Thompson, the starter, went down with a possible concussion, Richmond was the guy.

“Whatever helps the team, I’m willing to do,” said Richmond, who started the season at running back, moved to receiver for a while and then back to running back.

The Cougars stretched the UW defense often enough to finish with 171 yards rushing, a total topped only against Portland State. Mitz’s scoring run was also their longest of the year – by 15 yards.