Swogger earns win, respect
TUCSON, Ariz. — After beating up on Idaho, Washington State head coach Bill Doba disclosed that his starting quarterback, Josh Swogger, had suffered a knee injury.
Doba said the sophomore was doubtful when considering his status for the next game, WSU’s Pac-10 opener at Arizona. He even half-jokingly spoke of prepping punter Kyle Basler as an emergency quarterback.
Swogger’s right knee was in fact injured — a partial tear of the posterior cruciate ligament, to be exact. But as it turned out, Doba didn’t need to be concerned. And he certainly didn’t have any need to turn to a backup.
“Josh Swogger,” running back Jerome Harrison said, breaking into a quick laugh after he had watched the quarterback lead WSU to a fourth-quarter comeback win on the injured knee. “My boy. Commentators say he’s so laid back; he doesn’t show a lot of intensity. But the guy can barely walk and he still comes out there and plays his heart out and has a lot of intensity. You respect guys like that. You know if it’s third or fourth down you really feel comfortable with him taking the snap.”
The Ohio native appeared to be in control much of the day, save for a case of fumble-itis that plagued both him and the entire offense. He went 18 of 37 for 282 yards without an interception. He fired two scoring passes to Jason Hill.
Swogger, as is becoming a trend, saved his best for last, taking the Cougars 28 yards into the end zone for a winning touchdown in the final minute-and-a-half.
All that despite the knee injury. Swogger managed to participate in practice every day during the week leading up to Saturday’s game, but it didn’t help to have a blitzing Wildcats defense after him when it came to kickoff.
“I got whacked around a little bit today. Arizona’s got a great defense,” Swogger said. “I wasn’t moving very well on it last weekend and then the more the week went on the more faith I had and the more belief I had in my knee.”
His teammates appear to be trusting in their signal-caller just as much as he believed in his health as the week progressed. On the sidelines before WSU’s defense produced a game-winning fumble that opened the door for offensive late-game heroics, Swogger exhorted his teammates to help put the ball in the end zone. And his actions as a captain, even though he has two more full seasons left at WSU after this one, have them taking notice.
“I thought he threw that ball great. When he was firing up that offense, that’s why we chose him as a captain,” defensive co-captain Will Derting said. “That’s his job, to be the leader of the offense.”
Swogger still has his faults, as both Doba and offensive coordinator Mike Levenseller acknowledged. But after being pulled from a game twice two weeks ago and injured last week, Swogger is 2 for 2 when he has a chance in the closing minutes this season.
“It’s seriously like a killer instinct,” Swogger said. “We know we got to score a touchdown. The defense has given us another opportunity. We just got to get the ball and get it in the end zone no matter how we do it.”