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PULLMAN – Washington State may be battling a bevy of injuries on defense, but the team is set to get one key player back this weekend.

PULLMAN – Here is a first look at Washington State’s road game against Oregon State on Saturday.

PULLMAN – As far as jobs on a football field go, offensive line ranks among the most thankless. When a quarterback has time to throw, he’s praised for making the right reads. When he doesn’t, the blame immediately goes to the offensive line, the mistakes the group is making, the ways it could be overmatched.

PULLMAN – From the very beginning, from the moment Jimmy Rogers posed for pictures with the No. 35 Washington State jersey a few days after he became the Cougars’ next head coach last winter, he established a vision for the type of football descending on the Palouse.

PULLMAN – Parker McKenna doesn’t say much. Not after practices, not in radio shows, especially not after Washington State games, not even when he makes plays that almost singularly turn the tide in favor of the Cougars.

PULLMAN — In his second and final season at Washington State, Parker McKenna has blossomed into one of the team’s hardest hitters. At the linebacker spot, he’s delivered a slew of vicious tackles, punishing opponents with crunches over the middle.

Parker McKenna

Washington State built a comfortable lead with a second-quarter onslaught, then its offense went quiet for most of the second half. But the Cougars’ defense kept Toledo at bay and WSU snapped a two-game losing streak, cruising to a 28-7 victory over the Rockets on Saturday at Gesa Field in Pullman. Now back at .500, the Cougs (4-4) have a couple of winnable games ahead of them – they face one-win Oregon State next weekend at Beaverton, Oregon, then host a middling Louisiana Tech team on Nov. 15.

PULLMAN – Talk to anyone in the Washington State football orbit, fans to former players to casual observers from afar, and this sentiment has seemed to hover over the program recently.

PULLMAN – Here is what to watch for when Washington State takes on Toledo at 12:30 p.m. Saturday on The CW.

PULLMAN – Each of the past two weekends, Washington State players have boarded a team plane and flown back home with a sour taste in their mouths. In each experience, they performed well against power-conference opponents, capturing the attention of nervous home fans in tense fourth quarters.