Early afternoon kickoff set for Saturday’s game between No. 10 Washington State, Colorado

PULLMAN – Washington State and its Hesiman Trophy candidate quarterback should have a large national television audience the next time they step on a football field.

Plenty of eyes will be on Gardner Minshew and the 10th-ranked Cougars next Saturday when they play Colorado at Folsom Field in Boulder. The kickoff time, announced earlier today, is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. PT and the game will be broadcast on ESPN.

Saturday’s game will be WSU’s earliest since the Cougars opened the season on Sept. 1 with a 12:30 game at Wyoming. Since then, WSU has played at 8 p.m., 5 p.m., 7:30 p.m., 3 p.m., 6 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 4 p.m. and most recently, 7:45 p.m.

A lunchtime kick at Colorado means voters on the East coast will have their best opportunity to see Minshew play since the graduate transfer quarterback entered the Heisman Trophy conversation in earnest a few weeks ago. Minshew is the country’s leading passer through 10 weeks of the college football season, with 3,517 yards.

The Pac-12 finalized kickoff times for the other games set to take place on Nov. 10. They are as follows: UCLA at Arizona State (11 a.m., Pac-12 Networks), Oregon at Utah (12:30 p.m., Pac-12 Networks), Oregon State at Stanford (6 p.m., Pac-12 Networks), Cal at USC (7:30 p.m, ESPN).