What’s the secret sauce of WSU’s offense? Look no further than YAC

PULLMAN – There’s a saying that goes around the Washington State wide receivers room that the Cougars tell each other to remind themselves of their capabilities:

If you get tackled by one person, get out.

In other words, the Cougs are trying to fight through tackles for extra yardage, to force opponents to gang tackle them. By pushing each other to make the catch and find space, they drill the saying into their heads, helping them put it into practice during games.

As WSU (4-1) comes out of a bye week and prepares for a road test against Fresno State this weekend, the approach has figured prominently into the success of the Cougars’ offense, which is averaging 7.7 yards after the catch this season – the program’s most since at least 2011, the first year of Pro Football Focus data.

That isn’t just the best mark among recent WSU teams. It’s among the best in the country this year. The Cougars’ 7.7 yards after catch are more than seven of the top-10 teams in this week’s AP Top 25, including No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Oregon, No. 4 Penn State and No. 5 Georgia. It’s also only three-tenths worse than top-ranked Texas and sixth-ranked Miami.

That trend has fueled much of WSU’s offense, which has scored 70, 37, 24, 54 (double overtime) and 24 points this season, the last of which came in the Cougars’ loss to Boise State on Sept. 28.

As redshirt quarterback sophomore John Mateer struggles a bit with his deep throws, head coach Jake Dickert and offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle have solved some of those issues by asking him to complete shorter passes, and WSU’s receivers are turning them into big gains.

But it started with wide receivers coach Nick Edwards, who is in his second year at WSU. In his first year, he dedicated much of his coaching to establishing fundamentals with his receivers – working on releases off the line of scrimmage, on routes, on blocking, on making catches in tight windows. That’s part of the reason the Cougars’ YAC last season was 6.4, a full yard less than this fall.

“And as we progressed, it was going to be an emphasis on that,” Edwards said. “Some guys have it naturally, but there’s other guys that don’t do it as naturally. They just need to be taught and be aware of it.”

It has resonated deeply with senior receiver Kyle Williams, whose reputation as recently as last season was almost one-dimensional: He was a deep-ball threat. He excelled on that front, finishing the season with an NFL-caliber PFF grade of 98.1 on deep receptions, but he wanted to prove he was more than just a deep threat. He totaled an average YAC of just 5.3.

Through five games this season, Williams has bumped that number to 9.0, by far a career high. Some of that is skewed by his outing in the Cougars’ 70-30 season-opening rout over FCS Portland State – he zoomed past several defenders for 106 YAC in that game alone – but even so, he has turned himself into a multidimensional receiver this fall.

In his showing against Boise State a couple of weeks ago, he did haul in a 33-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, but he also tallied 72 YAC, including eight per reception.

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Those videos speak to another positive trend in Williams’ season: He’s breaking more tackles, which has unlocked his ability to gain yards after the catch. In 12 games last season, Williams forced just five missed tackles, per PFF. Through five games this year, Williams has already forced eight, putting him on track to set a career-high in that department.

“It’s been big in my mentality,” Williams said. “I just wanna keep showing people that I can do everything. I’m a complete receiver. Don’t just hold me off and just expect me to run deep. I can get the ball to create explosives.”

“I think you’ve really seen that,” Dickert said. “Against Boise, he took a couple bubble screens and took him for 15-yard gains, made people miss. I think he’s really improved in that category. So it’s just another credit to a veteran guy that we’ve identified something he can go out and get better at, and he worked diligently to go do it, and he’s seeing the results.”

Williams isn’t the only Cougar setting career bests in that area. So is senior Kris Hutson, a transfer from Oregon, where he put up 6.8 YAC in 2022, his best mark in four seasons there. This fall, he’s averaging 8.1 YAC, No. 7 nationally among receivers with 45-plus targets.

On several occasions this fall, Mateer has missed Hutson on deep passes, so they’ve remedied that issue by letting Hutson unleash his speed in space. Against Boise State, Hutson totaled nine catches for 126 yards, his second time hitting the century mark this fall. He didn’t do it by going deep. He did it by turning short catches into long gains.

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“The speed is a lot of it,” Edwards said.

But Hutson has always been fast, which is a key reason why he landed at Oregon to begin with, and he never averaged the kind of YAC he’s putting up at WSU. So what’s different about him now? That, Edwards says, has to do with the extra work he puts his receivers through.

In practice, Edwards has the receivers run all manner of drills to emphasize YAC. In the film room, Edwards will hit the pause button when receivers make the catch and point out how they can elude tackles and push the ball upfield.

“Here’s your toolbox to make a guy miss,” Edwards says. “If it’s a stiff-arm, if it’s a cutback, reading (the defender’s) demeanor of his angle, right? We do a good job of watching tackling cut-ups of the guys to see how they tackle. And then we just try to prepare for that, same thing that we’re trying to prepare for press.”

Edwards’ tutelage has helped more receivers find an extra gear in their games. Redshirt junior Josh Meredith, playing his first season of meaningful action, has collected 19 catches for 285 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Of those receptions, he’s averaged 6.5 YAC, including about 8 yards on his touchdown reception in the Apple Cup.

He’s shown his ability to avoid tackles on several other occasions this fall. Here are a couple clips.

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Fox

In this way, Ewards and the WSU receivers might not be getting the credit they deserve for the way their offense has flourished this season. Their offensive line is struggling, which has made things harder on their quarterback, who in turn hasn’t found the touch on his deep throws.

They’ve steadied the ship by simplifying the offense. Turns out, the Cougs’ wideouts have had the secret sauce all along.