WSU’s Jimmy Rogers on ironing out kinks in offense: ‘There’s a fine line between it all’

If Washington State’s offense reaches the next step, if the Cougars snap out of the second-half lulls and the stagnant runs and the occasional turnover to beat Oregon State and earn bowl eligibility this weekend, Jimmy Rogers thinks it will look something like this.

The Cougars will head into Saturday’s game with some ideas to attack the Beavers’ defense based on what OSU has shown in the two games since the teams met earlier this month. Then, inside the game, offensive coordinator Danny Freund and others will generate new ideas based on what the Beavs’ defense has shown on recent plays.

“There’s a fine line between it all,” Rogers said, “because you’d hate to do things when you start to reach for creativity, but you didn’t need to get to that if something was working. So we need to make sure that we’re balanced in both and put our guys in position to have success. So that’s kinda where we’re at right now.”

For WSU (5-6), the topic bears exploring because of the problems facing the team’s offense lately, which are forcing the Cougars to try and earn their sixth win in their regular-season finale. The most recent installments came last weekend, when WSU managed only three points in the second half of a loss to No. 21 James Madison, prolonging what has turned in to a concerning trend for this group.

By now, you know the Cliff sNotes: WSU has produced a total of six points in the second half of their last three road games, all losses for the Cougs, who don’t look like the same team away from home. That much has been established. What’s new is Rogers’ perspective on the whole matter, with a couple days to digest what has been plaguing his club.

On Monday, a few days away from his final regular-season game of his first year at WSU, Rogers went into a little detail on his relationship with Freund. The two men shared only one season together, which was last season at South Dakota State, when the Jackrabbits finished 12-3 and earned a trip to the FCS national semifinals.

But it’s also worth noting that even in that season, Freund wasn’t calling plays for SDSU. Those responsibilities belonged to Ryan Olson, South Dakota State’s co-OC and offensive line coach. So while Freund and his unit are still ironing out the kinks on the road, it’s also true that Freund hasn’t called plays since 2023, when he wrapped up his 12-year stint at North Dakota, where he helped lead the Fighting Hawks to five FCS playoff appearances.

“It’s continuity and trying to figure out ways to have success with a bunch of players with different skills sets and not just trying to do the same thing over and over. At times, we’ve gotten away from things inside of games that we’ve had success,” Rogers said.

“We just kinda got stagnant, and they did a good job of stopping some of the things that we had done early on in the game,” Rogers said. “And nobody’s more frustrated than him, as far as maybe the lack of production that we’ve had in the second half of games. We just need to continue to stay aggressive and trust in our players and not just expect things to happen. We gotta make sure that we’re putting our players in position to have success. I know he’s trying hard at that. The whole offensive staff is. It’s about finding a niche and a culture on your side of the ball, and he’s working really hard to do that.”