First look: WSU kicks off season by hosting nearby Idaho, first Battle of the Palouse in three years
PULLMAN – Here is a first look at Washington State’s season opener against Idaho on Saturday.
What is it?
To kick off a second and final season outside a traditional conference, Washington State is hosting nearby Idaho to renew the Battle of the Palouse, which spent the previous two seasons on hiatus. The Vandals were picked to finish fifth of 12 teams in the Big Sky preseason media poll this season, the program’s first under new head coach Thomas Ford.
WSU leads the all-time series 73-17-3.
Where is it?
Gesa Field at Martin Stadium in Pullman.
When is it?
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. local time.
Where can I watch it?
The CW will broadcast the game.
Who is favored?
As of Monday afternoon, WSU was around a 13.5-point favorite in most sportsbooks.
Starters align, or do they?
On Monday afternoon, WSU released a Week 1 depth chart, but it doesn’t reveal much. There is an “OR” at every single position, from quarterback to kicker, underscoring Rogers’ insistence on protecting every competitive advantage available.
But it is worth noting the importance of the first player listed at each position. Those are the players likely to start, based on observations from fall camp. The only exceptions might be tight end, where Michigan State transfer Ademola Faleye took a majority of first-team reps, and at wide receiver, where it’s possible Devin Ellison earns a starting nod. But even in those cases, both tight end Trey Leckner and wideout Jeremiah Noga are still likely to see meaningful snaps this season
How did the Cougars fare last season?
WSU started hot, opening the season with an 8-1 flourish to earn an AP poll ranking as high as No. 19 and a College Football Playoff spot at No. 18. But from there it was rough sledding for the Cougars, who dropped each of their final three games of the regular season, then showed some fight with a depleted roster in a loss to Syracuse in the Holiday Bowl.
In back-to-back weeks early in the season, WSU blew out Big 12 foe Texas Tech and took down archrival Washington in Seattle, where the Cougs earned their first Apple Cup victory in three years. In his first year starting, quarterback John Mateer captured the attention of the country – but his team was too one-dimensional to avoid dropping forgettable games to New Mexico, Oregon State and Wyoming to end the regular season.
Sandwiched around the bowl game, WSU lost several important pieces. Mateer entered the portal and bolted for Oklahoma, where offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle also took his talents, and head coach Jake Dickert departed for the same job at Wake Forest. That led to even more Cougar coaches and players to hit the portal, including their top three defensive linemen and starters at linebacker, wide receiver, cornerback, running back and offensive line.
That led WSU to look to South Dakota State and hire coach Jimmy Rogers, who went 27-3 in two seasons with the Jackrabbits, including one national title as head coach and one as defensive coordinator. Rogers brought with him 16 SDSU players and even more class of 2025 prospects who were previously committed to the Jackrabbits.
Since then, the Cougs added all kinds of pieces via the transfer portal, adding up to 74 total newcomers on this Washington State roster. That includes two new quarterbacks, Pittsburgh transfer Julian Dugger and Rutgers transfer Ajani Sheppard, as well as former SDSU running backs Angel Johnson and Kirby Vorhees.
Scouting Idaho …
This offseason, the Vandals brought back a familiar face for their head coaching vacancy: Thomas Ford Jr., who coached Idaho’s running backs in the 2022 and 2023 seasons. It’s the second head coaching gig for Ford, who was previously the head man at British Columbia’s Simon Fraser from 2018-19, before taking a job as an offensive quality control coach at Washington from 2020-2021.
Ford spent last season coaching running backs at Oregon State, but that gig lasted less than a full year before he opted to accept the Vandals’ head coaching job.
Early in UI’s fall camp, Ford named a starting quarterback: redshirt sophomore Joshua Wood, a transfer from Fresno State. Listed at 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds, Wood appeared in all 13 games last season, finding his niche as a situational quarterback. He saw real action against NIU in the Idaho Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, where he completed 16 of 23 passes for 180 yards and a touchdown.
Wood, the son of former WSU standout and 1988 Aloha Bowl hero Victor Wood, redshirted his first year in 2022 and missed the 2023 season with an injury. A dual-threat athlete, Wood is a native of the Tacoma area, where he initially committed to Eastern Washington out of high school before flipping to Fresno State.
The Vandals lost several key cogs over the offseason – including former coach Jason Eck and top playmakers like quarterback Jack Layne, edge rusher Keyshawn James-Newby and wide receiver Jordan Dwyer – so their program has several unknowns. But Idaho also returns 56 players, second most in the Big Sky.
Among that group is veteran offensive linemen Nate Azzopardi and Charlie Vliem, fifth-year senior defensive lineman Sam Brown and running back Elisha Cummings.
Key pieces in Idaho’s defense also include junior college transfer safety Tim Jackson, linebacker Isiah King and defensive tackle Zach Krotzer, the latter two of whom made the Big Sky Preseason All-Conference team. On offense, names to watch also include tight end Gabe Hoffman, a transfer from Eastern Michigan, as well as running back Art Williams.
What happened last time?
WSU and Idaho’s last meeting came in 2022, when the Cougars needed a last-minute goal-line interception to erase the Vandals’ game-tying touchdown and secure a 24-17 win. In his first game at WSU, Cam Ward completed 26 of 41 passes for 228 yards and three touchdowns, giving Dickert his first win as the Cougs’ full-time head coach.
WSU appeared to take control in the fourth quarter with a two-score lead, but after Idaho clawed within one score, former kicker Dean Janikowski misfired on a chip shot that would have pushed his group’s lead back to two scores. But on the ensuing Vandal drive, former linebacker Daiyan Henley picked off UI QB Gevani McCoy’s pass at the goal line and extinguished the threat.