‘It’s burning my soul’: WSU is the nation’s second-worst tackling team. Can the Cougars turn that around?

PULLMAN – Jimmy Rogers could only manage a halfhearted smile, a chuckle at how south things have gone. It was Monday afternoon, and seated at a table at his weekly news conference, Washington State’s head coach was talking about one of his team’s bigger issues.

What’s the deal with the tackling problems?

On the season, WSU has missed 102 tackles, which is the second most nationwide. Two of three players in the country with the most missed tackles are Cougars. The team has played six games, to the tune of a 3-3 record, and the problem has persisted throughout most every game.

So when he was informed that the Cougars’ missed tackles total rank so low in the country, Rogers could only laugh a little. “You didn’t have to tell me that,” he quipped.

“Yeah, we’re terrible right now at tackling,” Rogers said.

“What do I think leads to it? Poor technique in tackling, breaking down too far away, not keeping your leverage on the ball, not having the right foot up on contact, not trusting the guy inside of me, being out of control and not maybe giving up what it could be – 2 to 3 more yards – if I just slow my tempo slightly.”

In a world of football guys, Rogers might take the cake. He is the football guy. More specifically, he’s a defense guy. He spent 12 years on the defensive side of the ball at FCS South Dakota State before becoming head coach, and even at that point, he always gravitated more naturally to defense.

It’s a big reason why, when he accepted the job at WSU, he projected a defense-first, run-heavy mentality.

But at least on the tackling front, that has not come to fruition, at least not yet. That’s why on Monday, Rogers was so up front about the Cougs’ struggles in tackling .

“It’s burning my soul,” he said.

In WSU’s 24-21 loss to then-No. 4 Ole Miss last weekend, Rogers’ soul must have been ablaze. In that one, the Cougars whiffed on 21 tackles, including seven from linebacker Caleb Francl and another three apiece from linebacker Anthony Palano and safety Tucker Large. Safety Matt Durrance missed two, while six other Cougars missed one each.

On the season, Francl has now missed 16 tackles, which is second most nationally. Right behind him with the third-most missed tackles is Palano, who has missed 14 – while missing one game and avoiding any tackles in another, meaning he’s reached that total in just four games.

Those are two of WSU’s three starting linebackers. They figure prominently into the Cougs’ game plan each week on defense.

They’re connecting on plenty of tackles, to be sure, but their misses are costing their team too.

Some of those are to be expected. No team is perfect at tackling. Even PFF’s top-rated tackling team, North Texas, has missed 40. And it’s been hard even for SEC teams to bring down Ole Miss running back Kewan Lacy, who forced 14 missed tackles in Saturday’s game, bringing his season total to 47, which ranks No. 3 in the country.

But the struggles the Cougs (3-3) are facing in the tackling department are extreme. The only team to miss more tackles in the country is Eastern Michigan, which is 2-5 in the MAC. Far too often, Cougars players are lunging for tackles, running too hard, running too slowly – sometimes all of the above.

“My feet are a big part of how I can make tackles. Not dropping our head,” Rogers said. “Each player is kinda different on the mistakes which they show in tackling. It’s trying to improve the individual, so that they can be at their best. Certain players have a tendency of dropping their head right now, and their eyes are down and they’re just dive-bombing. Some players are stopping too far away, with their feet spread. My hands drop, my feet will drop, and my base will widen with it.”

One tackle that WSU did make on Saturday will actually cost the group. Veteran safety Cale Reeder was disqualified for a targeting penalty, which he picked up trying to bring down Lacy. Reeder led with his helmet, but Lacy also lowered his, leading to a helmet-to-helmet collision. As a result, Reeder will also have to miss the first half of the Cougars’ next game, a road test at No. 18 Virginia.

Can the Cougars turn this problem around before it costs them more games? They would do well to find a way. The Cavaliers are averaging 217.5 rushing yards per game, and to slow that down, WSU will need to tackle efficiently.

Rogers said this is an issue that can be corrected midseason.

“That would be one thing that shows up constantly, that if we put our attention to it, you can work on those things throughout a season and get better at it,” he said.

“We gotta continue to just press them on taking away the space initially, having the right foot up, keeping my eyes up, keeping my leverage point, understanding that help is coming, and if I don’t have help outside of me, I have a sideline. Those are the things that are killing us right now defensively. Because a lot of times we’re there. One guy, at times, when the quarterback has to run, has to make a space tackle. There’s 11 people on offense, and when the quarterback’s running, one of those guys has to make a tackle. At times, we have failed to do that.”