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Jacob Thorpe

Jacob Thorpe

Current Position: Sports columnist

Jacob Thorpe is a freelance sports columnist covering Washington State football.

All Stories

Sports

Cougars come together to thump Portland State in Pullman opener

PULLMAN – Whether or not the offense or the defense played better on Saturday night will be a subject of debate in the Washington State locker room this week. Ultimately, the Cougars coaches will just be glad the two sides finally played well in the same game, combining to give WSU a 59-21 victory over Portland State before 30,874 fans attending the team’s home opener and first win of the season.
Sports

WSU-PSU notebook:

PULLMAN – Washington State’s running backs never carried the ball more than a dozen times in either of the team’s first two games. Against Portland State they did it by halftime. The Cougars coaches had expressed a desire to get the backs more involved during the week leading up to the game, and quarterback Connor Halliday – who calls run plays from the line of scrimmage – wasted no time getting the ground game established.
Sports

Cougs prepare for dual-QB threat

PULLMAN – When Kieran McDonagh stays on the sideline at the start of a Vikings drive today or runs to the bench while a replacement takes over, don’t make the mistake of thinking that Portland State quarterback has drawn the ire of his coaches or that he will spend the rest of the game with a clipboard. The substitution is completely normal for the PSU offense, which has the unusual practice of utilizing two quarterbacks.
Sports

Vikings still eye win vs. Pac-12

PULLMAN – Portland State can’t lose at Martin Stadium on Saturday, but it sure would like a win. The Vikings will pillage a Pac-12 program someday; they’re too close not to. Washington State just has to make sure that Martin Stadium isn’t the site of PSU’s first successful ransacking.
Sports

Jacob Thorpe’s Pac-12 football picks

At least USC and Oregon did what they were supposed to, beating Stanford and blowing out Michigan State as we predicted. But what to make of a conference in which UCLA and Washington have to squeak by Memphis and Eastern Washington at home, while Utah and Colorado are blowing teams out of the water? At least there’s one thing by which to set your timepiece: Colorado making pessimistic gamblers smart gamblers.
Sports

WSU’s pass-happy offense needs boost from RBs

PULLMAN – There is a funny thing about Washington State’s pass-until-the- quarterback’s-arm-falls-off offense: The running backs do most of the work, or at least they should. When Mike Leach’s Air Raid is at its best, the backs see as much work as they would in any power-based, 3-yards-and-a-pile-of-bodies scheme. If the WSU offense is to bounce back from last week’s 13-point debacle at Nevada, it needs to get the ball to its rushers, even if it’s through the air.