Analysis: Braelon Allen to Michael Penix, Washington State will face some of country’s top players in 2023

PULLMAN – For Washington State, a certain feeling hangs over this season, the Cougars’ last in the Pac-12 as we know it. There is a prominent haze of uncertainty clouding the future of football in Pullman.

Where will the Cougars be in a year from now? A few months from now? Only time will tell.

For now, all WSU can do is prepare for each game as it comes. That’s why we’re here to scout the Cougars’ opponents, game-by-game, and identify one player WSU would do well to contain.

Let’s get started.

Week 1, at Colorado State: QB Clay Millen

Headed into his second year as the Rams’ starting signal-caller, Millen appears far more composed and confident, according to players and coaches. A year ago, he set a school record with a 72% completion percentage, and though WSU trounced CSU in a 38-7 home win, Millen racked up 212 yards on 25-for-35 passing.

The Cougars, 16-point favorites in this game per Action Network, will need to disrupt some of Millen’s accuracy to run away with another win. That’s where several WSU playmakers come in: Can edges Ron Stone Jr. and Brennan Jackson wreak enough havoc in the backfield to make Millen uncomfortable? Can DBs like Jaden Hicks and Chau Smith-Wade create a turnover or two?

Week 2, vs. Wisconsin: RB Braelon Allen

The reasons why Washington State upset Wisconsin in last year’s road game number about a hundred – think Nakia Watson’s two touchdowns, plus fumble recoveries from Sam Lockett III and Konner Gomness, the latter after a Cameron Ward interception – but one factor stands especially tall: WSU’s run defense.

Specifically, the way the Cougars bottled up Badgers running back Allen, a 2023 All-Big Ten Preseason first-team selection. In that game, Allen managed just 21 carries for 98 yards – the second time in his last 11 games he had been held below 100.

To produce another win, Washington State will need to produce a similar outing on defense. Allen is a load, a 6-foot-2, 245-pound back, so the Cougars will need to gang tackle. If they do that and they could be off to a 2-0 start to the season.

Week 3, vs. Northern Colorado: LB David Hoage

Hoage is a defensive lineman turned linebacker, a 2023 All-Big Sky preseason pick who looks poised to become the quarterback of UNC’s defense. That will be the challenge for Cameron Ward, who will have to move Hoage with his eyes, and running back Nakia Watson, who may have to pick up Hoage on a blitz or two.

Hoage didn’t play last year, missing the whole season with injury, but he’s back to prove why he earned third-team All-American honors from AP and STATS Performance.

Week 4, vs. Oregon State: QB DJ Uiagalelei

In what promises to be a thriller, a matchup of two of the last schools standing in the Pac-12, Washington State’s defense will face one of its stiffest challenges in Uiagalelei, a transfer from Clemson who has won the starting job at OSU, according to multiple reports.

The Cougars will be contending with a volatile quarterback, a guy who thrilled Clemson fans with his highs and crushed them with his lows. In 35 games with the Tigers, Uiagalelei posted 5,681 yards, 36 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. His Clemson career ended when he was benched in last year’s ACC championship, a game the Tigers won in spite of DJ.

To disrupt Uiagalelei and force him to become the pick-prone version of himself, the Cougars would do well to generate pressure up front, but that will be a tough ask, because the Beavers return three starters on the offensive line: Taliese Fuaga (All-Pac-12 Second Team in 2022), Joshua Gray (Pro Football Focus’ 21st-best tackle last year) and Jake Levengood (PFF’s No. 11 center in 2022).

Instead, WSU will likely have to rely on defensive backs like Smith-Wade, Hicks, Lampkin and nickel Dominic Hicks to read Uiagalelei’s eyes and create a turnover or two.

Week 5, at UCLA: Edge Laiatu Latu

There’s no telling what WSU’s offensive line will look like when this game comes around, but if the Cougars keep rolling out a right side of right guard Brock Dieu and right tackle Christy Nkanu, both backups filling in for injured teammates, they could be in trouble.

That’s where to find Latu, a transformed linebacker who led the Bruins with 12.5 tackles for loss and 10.5 sacks last fall. Dieu and Nkanu are both capable replacements, but they’re no Fa’alili Fa’amoe and Christian Hilborn, the Cougars’ returning starters at those positions. In the final week of fall camp, Hilborn shuffled in with the starters as he returns to full health, so he could be back starting by the time Week 5 comes around.

If not, watch out for Latu on the edge.

Week 6, vs. Arizona: WR Tetairoa McMillan

The tempting pick here is Jayden de Laura, the former Washington State quarterback, but after he tossed four interceptions in the Cougars’ win over the Wildcats last fall in Tucson, we can look elsewhere on Arizona’s roster.

That leads us to McMillan, a 6-foot-5 terror at receiver. A Preseason All-Pac-12 honorable mention pick, McMillan led all true freshmen nationally last season with 702 yards on 39 receptions and eight touchdowns. That could be a problem for WSU, whose best cornerbacks are the undersized Smith-Wade and Lampkin.

Still, the Cougars limited McMillan to three catches for 75 yards in last year’s win. Do that again and WSU probably secures another win over Arizona.

Week 7, at Oregon: QB Bo Nix

Last season, WSU had a front-row seat to watch Nix’s resurgence. Up 12 with less than seven minutes to go, the Cougars’ defense watched Nix lead the Ducks all the way back, handing out a one-yard score and a 50-yard strike. That helped Oregon erase that deficit and stun Washington State.

For Nix, that outing underscored the way he ascended back into his spot as one of the best players in the nation, the 34th-best according to PFF. When the Cougars travel to Eugene, they’ll have to generate pressure against Nix, whose 82.3% adjusted competition percentage (which accounts for dropped passes, throw-aways, spiked balls, batted passes and passes where the QB was hit while they threw the ball) ranked second in the country.

Week 8, at Arizona State: WR Elijhah Badger

Badger is dangerous for many of the same reasons McMillan is: Badger stands 6-foot-2, and entering his third year in the Sun Devils’ offense, he looks poised for a serious breakout year.

Among the more notable snubs on the preseason All-Pac-12 teams, Badger snared 77 passes for 927 yards and seven touchdowns last fall. The interesting part is this: His longest reception only went for 39 yards. As the struggling ASU benched quarterback Emory Jones for Trenton Bourguet midway through last season, Badger never quite caught on as a long-range threat.

WSU will need to keep things that way to leave Tempe with a win.

Week 9, vs. Stanford: TE Benjamin Yurosek

Who will Washington State send to defend Yurosek? That may go a long way in determining who wins this one. Yurosek is one of the nation’s best returning tight ends – the sixth best according to PFF – and at 6-foot-4 and 240 pounds, he’ll be a force no matter how the Cougars defend him.

WSU might be wise to contain him in the Cardinal’s passing attack, which is where Yurosek is most lethal. He broke out in 2021, hauling in 43 receptions for 658 yards and three touchdowns, and while he slowed a bit in 2022, he’s back for his third year in Palo Alto.

Week 10, at Cal: RB Jadyn Ott

Last fall, when WSU trounced Cal in a 28-9 win, Ott logged these numbers: 17 carries, 70 yards, one touchdown.

But even those numbers may come off a tad deceiving. Ott scored his touchdown, a two-yard jaunt, in the third quarter, and the Cougars put the game away shortly afterward. The truth is that for as well as the Cougs’ offense played, their run defense was even better, limiting Ott like they did Allen at Wisconsin.

A preseason All-Pac-12 second-team pick, Ott profiles as one of the conference’s best backs. WSU will counter with a defensive line that looks like a strength of the defense early on, with linemen Nusi Malani and David Gusta surrounded by edges Ron Stone Jr. and Brennan Jackson, which could be enough to treat Ott to another slow outing.

Week 11, vs. Colorado: DB Travis Hunter

You might remember Hunter from December 2021, when he committed to Jackson State, becoming the first five-star prospect to pledge to an FCS school. Since then, he followed coach Deion Sanders to Boulder, where he’s become a receiver/cornerback hybrid who earned preseason All-Pac-12 first-team honors at defensive back and special teams, plus honorable mention at receiver.

That’s what will make him so dangerous when he and the Buffaloes visit Pullman: How will the Cougs contend with his athleticism – and his versatility? WSU’s receiver corps is deep, with what feels like a thousand transfers who figure to make impacts, so how will Hunter match up with them?

Week 12, at Washington: QB Michael Penix, Jr.

As the Pac-12 crumbles, this year’s Apple Cup might be the last. It also might be one of the more interesting ones of late: A year after torching WSU’s secondary for 485 yards and three scores in Pullman, how will Penix fare in Seattle, where he’ll get another crack at Washington State?

PFF’s No. 18 player in the country this season, Penix and the AP preseason No. 10 Huskies will roll out a deadly receiver duo in Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan. The Cougars will counter with Hicks, one of PFF’s top-rated safeties in the nation.

Can they contain Penix, who led all of Power 5 last fall with 4,641 yards? To win what could be the final Apple Cup ever – at least the last one in Seattle – the Cougars will have to.