‘It really reveals your character’: Washington State conducts well-matched, high-energy session in first spring scrimmage

PULLMAN – About two hours and 100 snaps into its first spring scrimmage, Washington State sent out a lineup of deep reserves for a final possession.

Chris Irvin, a redshirt freshman quarterback from Coeur d’Alene, capped the drive in style, lofting a high-arching, 25-yard pass to the far corner of the end zone and connecting with Bode Brewer, a fresh-faced walk-on receiver from Burlington, Washington, who made perhaps the play of the day. He extended his arms in stride, hauling in a finger-tip touchdown grab while crashing to the turf.

All of the familiar faces on the Cougars’ roster – the solidified starters, veterans and rotational players expected to contribute next season – had completed their work for the day well before. Some of them had been watching from the sidelines in the bitter gusts at Gesa Field for an hour or more.

“Those are the moments when a lot of teams could have been checked out,” WSU head coach Jake Dickert said. “It really reveals your character.”

Both sidelines emptied and every Cougar converged, swarming Brewer in a congratulatory mosh.

“You gotta find a way to be engaged, to celebrate,” Dickert added after Saturday morning’s exercise. “I love it. We’re 100 plays into a scrimmage, the offense scores a touchdown and they’re sprinting down there to celebrate it together.

“It’s hard to be happy when other people are making plays, right? But that’s really what ‘team’ is about, and that’s what we’re about.”

Spring possessions led by fourth- and fifth-stringers and reps such as the Irvin/Brewer score won’t factor in to the grand scheme of the 2022 season. The starting QB’s performance and ongoing position battles in the secondary were much more important storylines to follow Saturday, but the Cougs weren’t treating any moment as insignificant.

From the top of its depth chart to the bottom, WSU got the entire roster involved on the sixth day of spring camp, a well-matched and high-energy scrimmage featuring gamelike situations and a steady rotation of lineups and various personnel configurations.

For some players, on-field evaluation isn’t imperative.

Several first-string defenders participated in only two or three scripted possessions early against WSU’s first-team offense. They were tasked with providing guidance and support for the remainder of the session – those including standout edge rushers Ron Stone Jr. and Brennan Jackson, sure-fire starting linebackers Daiyan Henley and Travion Brown, and mainstay nickel Armani Marsh.

“RJ Stone, really from the team meeting at 9 a.m., he just had it,” Dickert said. “He knew he wasn’t going to get all those reps today, but that’s what leadership is.

“Once you’re proven, we want to get you to game day, and game day is a long ways away. Spring is for everybody to get reps, to see what they can do and show the work they’ve put in.”

No Cougar has attracted more attention this offseason than prized transfer quarterback Cameron Ward. The highly touted sophomore received the bulk of the snaps leading WSU’s first unit as he continues to settle in at the wheel of the team’s new Air Raid offense.

At first, the Cougars’ defense had the upper hand. Ward clearly felt the pressure put on by WSU’s disguised blitzes and stunts up front.

“They had people coming from everywhere,” Ward said.

He seemed to have happy feet early and several throws were rushed and off the mark. Ward started the scrimmage 6 of 11 and was intercepted by Nevada transfer strong safety Jordan Lee on an intermediate pass that sailed above its intended target.

“What I loved to see was Cam bounce back from early adversity,” Dickert said. “That’s when leadership grows. He was saying, ‘That one’s on me,’ and he came back and responded, and I thought he had a great back half of the scrimmage.”

Ward finished 14 of 21 for 155 yards and two touchdowns across a handful of possessions. He completed his last five passes, firing a 25-yard strike to Donovan Ollie over the middle and a pair of accurate touchdown balls – a 15-yarder to slot Lincoln Victor on an out route and a 30-yard rainbow pass to Drake Owen.

“Just gotta start faster as an offense,” Ward said when asked for his takeaways from the scrimmage. “I can’t have bad throws starting the practice off. I can’t throw a pick on the second play. That’s unacceptable for my position.

“It’s part of the game. It’s how you bounce back. You just gotta play the next play and have that mindset. … Not overthinking, getting people to the formation we’re in. There’s a lot of communication as the quarterback in this offense, so it’s just calming down and settling in.”

Ward and second-team QB Victor Gabalis (11 of 14, 85 yards, two TDs) both grooved in the middle portion of the scrimmage and benefited from their receiving corps’ fine showing.

“We started to escalate as the practice went on,” slot Orion Peters said.

The lightning-quick Victor amassed 69 yards on five catches and the fleet-footed Peters shimmied past defenders to record 39 yards and a score on five grabs. Ollie fashioned space down the seams and caught three consecutive first-down passes from Ward, who showed off his quick release and sidearm passes in the Air Raid’s heavily employed short game and exhibited touch and power on longer attempts.

Owen tallied 51 yards and outside receiver CJ Moore snagged a short TD from fast-improving walk-on Emmett Brown. Dickert noted that Brown is in a competition for the backup role with Gabalis and Xavier Ward.

The first-year coach was pleased with the back-and-forth between the offense and defense throughout.

“The biggest thing in a scrimmage is you want them to be in the flow of the game, and I always talk to our guys about punch/counterpunch,” he said. “(The defense) punched right away and then got punched back.

“We wanted a competitive atmosphere, and I thought we saw that.”

WSU’s deep and talented defensive front took credit for eight sacks against the Cougars’ work-in-progress offensive line – whistles sounded when defenders got within arm’s reach of quarterbacks.

“They have to affect the passer, the No. 1 guy that turns the ball over,” Dickert said. “Cam, early on, wasn’t settled with his feet and was a little anxious with his throws. … It starts up front, and I thought those guys really set the tone for the day.”

Ward shouldered the blame for a couple of the sacks and commended the O-line’s performance. WSU is replacing three experienced starters up front. The group’s first unit received a considerable workload, as did a cluster of players competing for roles in the secondary, the receiving corps and on the defensive line.

Breakout redshirt freshman edge rusher Raam Stevenson Jr. logged two touch sacks and earned one of Dickert’s “Juice Players of the Day” nods.

“His ceiling is really, really high,” Dickert said.

The other “Juice” award went to running back Djouvensky Schlenbaker, a true freshman out of Bellingham. Schlenbaker burst through a gap in the line for a 60-yard scamper and finished with 70 yards on five carries. Starter Nakia Watson compiled 28 yards on five carries. The running backs provided checkdown options and totaled eight receptions.

Six WSU RBs combined for 150 yards on 22 carries, and six Cougar QBs went 37 of 60 for 410 yards and six TDs against two picks. New lineups trotted onto the field after every seven plays and each series started from a different spot. The scrimmage included referees, down-and-distance markers and live tackling on every ball-carrier except the QBs.

In all, 25 players touched the ball. Freshman linebacker Micah Lopez was the last defender to do so. He jumped a crossing route and intercepted Irvin, taking the pick into open field to end the day’s penultimate possession. Lopez was promptly mobbed by dozens of his Cougar teammates.

“There’s an effort to it. There’s a flow in scrimmages that’s sometimes … hard to get into,” Dickert said. “You might have to wait 35 reps before you get in, but when your moment comes, you have to be ready.”

WSU practiced without a few notable players: receiver De’Zhaun Stribling, and cornerbacks Derrick Langford Jr. and Chau Smith-Wade. They are dealing with minor injuries and should return to action next week, according to Dickert. The Cougars avoided any further injuries.