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November 26, 2011 in Sports
Washington downs WSU in Apple Cup
Washington’s Chris Polk, left, runs against Washington State in the first half of an NCAA college football game on Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011, in Seattle.
(Full-size photo)
SEATTLE – The start couldn’t have been too much worse. And the finish wasn’t much better.
Add it up and Washington State had lost its third consecutive Apple Cup, falling 38-21 to Washington on Saturday at CenturyLink Field.
In a game Paul Wulff may have needed to win to ensure finishing out the fifth and final year of his contract, the Cougars fell behind 7-0 less than four minutes in.
And the script was something they had seen before.
Washington backup linebacker Thomas Tutogi burst up the middle, got his right hand on Dan Wagner’s punt and it flew high into the air. It settled in running back Jesse Callier’s hands at the 2-yard-line and he walked in.
“It was big mistake,” Wulff said. “We had somebody not block it correctly. (It) put us in a hole and it just can’t happen.”
But it did for the second time this year, the first at Oregon in a 43-28 defeat. Add in an opening kickoff return for a score in the Arizona State game and WSU has some experience in starting slowly.
“It’s nothing new to us,” said senior guard B.J. Guerra. “We don’t expect it to happen, but we are ready when it does.”
The blocked punt was just part of Washington State’s early troubles. With the 64,559 in full throat, the WSU offense sputtered.
“The crowd noise bothered us a bit,” Wulff said, “but we settled down.”
But that wouldn’t be until the second quarter, after the offense had three penalties and a fumble by Rickey Galvin – when the Cougars had a first-and-10 at the Huskies’ 23.
By then it was 14-0, as UW found other ways to move the ball when the Cougars shut down leading rusher Chris Polk, who had 284 yards in last year’s Apple Cup.
The main alternative was Keith Price’s arm, with the sophomore completing 21 of 29 passes for 291 yards and three touchdowns. His best throw may have been his first touchdown, a 16-yard strike to Kasen Williams, who was covered tightly by Nolan Washington.
“I was on him, but I have to get my head around and that would have been a pick,” Washington said.
The Cougars picked that spot to finally start moving the ball, with Marshall Lobbestael, pressed into starting duty with WSU’s two other starters, Jeff Tuel and Connor Halliday, injured, keying an 80-yard drive with four completions of more than 12 yards.
The last one was a 16-yard bullet to Jared Karstetter that cut the lead in half. Five minutes later it was tied, with Lobbestael connecting with Marquess Wilson, also for 16 yards.
“We settled down and our quarterback made some plays,” is how Wulff explained the second-quarter turnaround, adding that Lobbestael was up and down while throwing for 344 yards on 29-of-42 passing.
But, as has been the case before in WSU’s 4-8 season (2-7 in Pac-12 play), the Cougars gave up a decent kickoff return near the end of the half and the Huskies responded.
A pass to Williams on the right side went for 17 yards when the freshman hurdled Washington. The next Price throw was also to Williams for a 21-yard touchdown and a 21-14 halftime lead.
“We can’t let them score right before halftime and let them get some momentum,” Wulff said.
But they did. And when Polk, who finished with 100 yards rushing with 34 of them coming on a late draw play, got behind the Cougar defense for a 22-yard touchdown pass late in the third quarter, it looked bleak for WSU.
The Cougars answered in a little more than a minute, the touchdown coming when WSU caught the Huskies (7-5, 5-4) in a blitz and Wilson raced down the right sideline with a screen pass – tackle Dan Spitz clearing out the safety – for 38 yards.
“If you can get the ball over the blitz, it’s got a chance to go,” Lobbestael said.
But that was the last hurrah for WSU’s offense. From that point, the Cougars picked up just four first downs in the final 20 minutes.
The Cougars even tried a trick play they had practiced all season but had not used in a game, with Carl Winston throwing the ball back to Lobbestael for a double pass.
The play backfired though when Lobbestael’s pass floated toward Wilson – not the primary target – and Desmond Trufant tipped it to Sean Parker for the interception.
“We had a receiver (Kristoff Williams) who fell down, and it seemed he would have been open,” Wulff said.
The Huskies took the turnover and went 69 yards in eight plays. Polk put a nail in the Cougars season with a 1-yard run.
“It just came down to certain players making plays,” Washington said. “We didn’t make enough to win today.”
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liberal_in_right_wing_land on November 26 at 7:52 p.m.
Bye Wulff
westerly on November 26 at 8:00 p.m.
Wulff was in heaven at EWU….
Northern_kid on November 26 at 8:06 p.m.
Was sacrificing small animals in the dungeon to help the Lobster & Cougs win this one. Defense was OK. Offense not.
Lobster doesn’t move well enough to avoid sacks and that bomb pass in the 4th that every one had to stop and wait for was a joke!
Well….. Moos will appear soon and we’ll know if it will be Wulff’s shadow or not in Spring ball…..
drwonderful on November 26 at 8:10 p.m.
Make it swift, Bill!
The_Seer on November 26 at 8:16 p.m.
Huck the Fuskies!
mdriftmeyer on November 26 at 8:50 p.m.
Will everyone stop posting if Wulff get’s his 5th season? I sure hope so.
liberal_in_right_wing_land on November 26 at 9:04 p.m.
I will be the first to say I wanted Wulff to win here. I don’t think he ever leaves if he wins here as he went to WSU and you can tell he bleeds crimson and grey. However, you cannot defend a 9-40 and when WSU is about to get more money than they ever could have imagined due to the new TV contract that starts next year, they are finally able to afford to hire a coach from somewhere besides the Big Sky Conference.
Also, Moos knows he needs money to continue upgrading Martin Stadium and most donors aren’t giving money to a program headed by a coach with a 9-40 record. They don’t have time to hear about the improvement Wulff has made, they only see the record.
edgedog5 on November 26 at 9:32 p.m.
Go Dawgs!!!!!!!!
bobsacoug on November 26 at 9:49 p.m.
Thankfully, hopefully the end of the Paul Wulff era is here. Fans expected 6 wins this season, we got only four..not enough to keep the coach for another year. Hopefully, the athletic department will make the changes needed to make the Cougs competitive. I am tired of WSU being a laughing stock!
Traditionally, our athletic department has not made changes fast enough; and in those cases it has taken forever to rebuild. We kept Doba a year too long. We kept Paul Graham in basketball way too long and as a consequence suffered a whole decade of a pathetic basketball program. I believe that is better to err by cutting a coach off too early, than letting a program hit rock bottom. For this reason, I believe that Paul need to be fired this week. I wish him luck and a much better future for Cougar Football.
keithj on November 26 at 10:35 p.m.
WSU won’t “hit rock bottom” if Paul Wulff is kept one year too long.
Its better to keep a coach until he stops making progress, than fire him when the team is still progressing and not knowing how much more the team can improve.
If Wulff is allowed to finish his contract and the team ends up winning 4 games next year; it won’t be the end of the world. It won’t set the program back a decade—just one year.
The 2010 recruiting class was excellent. The 2011 class was not so good. if the 2012 class also turns out to be not so good, then Wulff can be fired, with the knowledge that the team had progressed as far as it could with this coach.
What if Bobby Bowden had been fired at the end of the 1976 season, the only year he had a losing record at FSU?
sndmnpja on November 27 at 1:34 p.m.
Wulff has been consistently out coached over the last four years and is out of his depth. Time for him to back to the Big Sky.