TV take: Cougars head coach Jimmy Rogers makes impression on broadcast booth
About 10 days ago, the Washington State Cougars could look at their football schedule and see their next two opponents had yet to lose a game in their Power Four conference.
In their first chance, they came close. A three-point loss at Ole Miss, who was ranked fourth nationally. Then came Saturday’s matchup with Virginia, 5-1 overall but 3-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. And ranked 18th in the Associated Press poll.
The result? The same, in that Virginia took a 22-20 decision, powered by a safety with 2 minutes, 41 seconds left.
And different.
As with just a few minutes left, it looked as if the Cougars — the 17.5-point underdog leading by 10 — would earn the upset.
ACC and Pac-12 broadcast partner, The CW Network, had the game with Thom Brennaman doing the play-by-play, Will Blackmon as the analyst and Wes Bryant on the sideline.
What they saw
• For much of the game, Blackmon, a longtime NFL defensive back, seemed a Jimmy Rogers’ convert. From the first UVA possession, which was a three-and-out. He appreciated how the Cougars’ defense was flying around. How hard they hit. Their aggressive, close-to-belligerent attitude.
And, of course, the results.
“That’s just incredible,” Blackmon said in the third quarter, which ended with Virginia having just 175 yards of total offense. “They are staying home, playing their assignments, not falling for anything and, then again, tackling.
“They are holding on (and) letting their teammates rally.”
At the half, in which Washington State (3-4) led 17-7, Virginia was 1 of 7 on third down. A good number, sure, but consider the Wahoos came in eighth in the nation, converting 54% of their third-down attempts.
Virginia converted their first third-down attempt in the third quarter, part of a nine-play, 46-yard drive that ended with Will Bettridge’s season-long 47-yard field goal. The final mark? Five of 15. It was enough. As was a 126-8 edge in fourth-quarter yards.
• Yes, Blackmon and Brennaman raved about the Cougar defense. But maybe not as much as they praised Kirby Vorhees’ running style.
Not his stats – the sophomore finished with 45 yards on 16 carries – but how he posted them. Often Vorhees was met either in the backfield or at the line of scrimmage. And made something positive happen.
Except with the game on the line.
Vorhees made an ill-timed fair catch call on the UVA kickoff following its tying field goal with 2:55 left. On the opposite side of the field from Leyton Smithson, who caught the kick at the 2-yard line, Vorhees moved his right hand above his head, though he was not looking at the ball.
Three plays later – including another penalty – Vorhees took a deep handoff from Zevi Eckhaus, was met by two Cavaliers before he could get out of the end zone and lost the ball. It turned into a safety, giving UVA its first lead.
• Another subject of the crew’s adulation? Rogers’ influence and the players who followed him to Pullman from South Dakota State.
As Brennaman said at the end of the third quarter, “they are all over the place.”
Just like the defense. Until the last few minutes.
• AJ Vaipulu had one awful fourth-quarter possession. The right guard was called for back-to-back false starts followed by a hold. Those mistakes eventually had a huge impact, as Eckhaus threw his second interception trying to pick up the third and long.
• Virginia quarterback Chandler Morris was tackled by Bryson Lamb late in the first half and, according to Blackmon, might have aggravated a shoulder injury first suffered in a win over Stanford. After a wild throw two plays later, he went into the medical tent for a short stint, before emerging.
He didn’t look as if he was comfortable. At that point he was 6 of 12 passing for 58 yards. He finished 15 of 25 for 179, including 56 on a 97-yard fourth-quarter scoring drive that cut the Cougar lead to 20-17.
On the other side, Zevi Eckhaus finished 18 of 27 for 183 yards, though he was just 1 of 4 for 6 yards the final 15 minutes.
“Everybody has (had a good night) for Washington State,” Brennaman said in the fourth quarter. Just before Virginia flipped the script.
What we saw
• Because the NASCAR race was in overtime – as a person who rarely exceeds 30 miles per hour, I was unaware that was a possibility – the game began on fellow Nexstar Media Group-owned channel NewsNation, with the broadcast starting 12 minutes late.
Instead of Brennaman’s voice, which sounds similar to Eastern Washington’s Larry Weir, Vice President J.D. Vance could be heard giving a speech to a group of Marines.
• Brennaman is a longtime professional, with one unprofessional mark on his resume. He’s working for The CW doing ACC football games in part because of a hot-mic moment in 2020, when he was heard uttering a homophobic slur during a Reds’ game against the Royals. That utterance cost him his spot doing NFL games with Fox and his spot with the Reds. It also led to one of the more well-known sports-related memes ever.
While apologizing on air, Brennaman interrupted himself to call a Nick Castellanos home run. His “as there’s a drive into deep left field by Castellanos” interjection has been used by millions around the world.