Inside how WSU turned a lifeless rushing attack into a robust part of its offense

PULLMAN – When Leo Pulalasi was a kid, barely seven years old growing up in the Tacoma area, he had to brave a barrage of blocking shields. He would be out at a field with his dad, Michael, who would hold out a padded shield and have his son run through it, simulating breaking a tackle on the field.

“I was like, no, not the bag, please,” Pulalasi laughed. “I used to be so scared of the bag. You learn to face your fears, man, you can overcome anything.”

At the time, a younger Pulalasi might not have understood the point. Why is my dad having me run through this random object? All these years later, though maybe it is not just Pulalasi thanking Michael. Perhaps it is the entire Washington State offense.

In WSU’s last outing, a 22-20 road loss to a top-20 Virginia squad, Pulalasi made his father look like a genius. For his part, he may have only registered 24 rushing yards on three carries, but that came out to eight yards per carry. Maybe the most impressive stat: Pulalasi forced a whopping four missed tackles on just three attempts, lowering his shoulder and watching Cavaliers bounce off his shoulder pads, dive hopelessly at his ankles.

Pulalasi’s stellar showing underscored the larger effort from WSU’s rushing attack, which totaled 143 yards on 35 carries, good for an average attempt of 4.1 yards. Kirby Vorhees led the charge with 45 yards, quarterback Zevi Eckhaus followed with 33 yards and a touchdown and Angel Johnson came off the bench for the first time in his Cougar career, totaling 33 yards on five carries – 6.6 yards per rush, another hyperefficient number.

The Cougs (3-4) faced nothing resembling the same success in Saturday’s second half, picking up only 30 rushing yards in a near-fruitless effort, which paved the way for the Cavaliers to use a 12-0 fourth-quarter surge to complete their comeback. WSU has lots of questions to answer about that development, which was also made possible by one of Eckhaus’ two interceptions on the night, which took place in the fourth frame.

But it is true that WSU’s rushing offense, nearly lifeless in four straight games to open the season, has now eclipsed the century mark in three straight games: 158 yards against Colorado State, 127 yards against Ole Miss and 143 yards against Virginia. The Cougs’ offensive line has looked energized and physical, a promising development for that unit considering the injuries that have come its way, which has unlocked a part of their offense and allowed them to hang with Power 4 teams on the road.

“I’d say it’s just a mindset aspect,” Pulalasi said. “We knew we was way better than we was in the beginning of the season, like I said, so we changed our mindset. Came to practice every day wanting to get better and better and better, and that’s what we’ve been doing.”

One adjustment that coaches have made to make this possible: They made Vorhees the team’s starting running back. He may have been outsnapping Johnson in four of five games headed into Saturday’s affair, and coach Jimmy Rogers said he viewed Vorhees as the starter anyway. But he had not played that kind of role until the Cougs visited the Cavaliers, who did not look like they had any answers for Vorhees and Co., at least not in the first half.

On the night, Johnson forced five missed tackles, Pulalasi missed four and Vorhees forced two, which comes to a total of 11. That ties for the Cougars’ most all season, which they set in a win over Colorado State last month. With a reduced role, coming off the bench to provide some wiggle, Johnson looked like the best version of himself.

Another interesting development has to do with the formations WSU is running the ball out of. Against Virginia, the Cougars showed several formations that included two to three running backs. Eckhaus might fake a handoff to one running back and hand it to another. In those sets, WSU brought in heavier personnel, giving the unit some extra brawn up front.

The Cougars have done it to compelling results. Against Virginia, 15 Cougars earned a Pro Football Focus run-blocking grade above 60, which is an average mark. Maybe that might not sound impressive at first blush – it is average, after all – but they have only reached that number of positive grades once before this season. Above all, it might speak to the development of Rogers’ vision, a run-first approach.

“I would say that every time you get bigger in your personnel, and running backs and tight ends are a part of that, the defensive play call shrinks,” Rogers said. “If you don’t show that all the time they don’t know what to expect, because we could break the formation with Maxwell (Woods) and Angel and Kirby all out wide too. So structurally, from a formation standpoint, you could be really multiple, and the defensive calls shrink naturally.”

But this is also reality, too: Even in these last three weeks, when the Cougars’ ground game has looked best, they have not been able to keep things rolling for a full game. In a win over CSU, WSU logged 123 rushing yards in the first half, 35 in the second. In their loss to Ole Miss, the Cougs posted 47 rushing yards in the first half, 80 in the second, a more encouraging showing. But in this loss to Virginia, WSU registered 113 rushing yards in the first half, then only 30 in the second.

What’s going wrong? Part of the calculus involves the Cavaliers’ personnel, which is far deeper and more NIL-rich, allowing them to sustain full-game efforts and wear down WSU as the game unfolded. Against Colorado State, it also involved the Cougs’ approach, which with a three-score lead, was to kill the clock and sustain drives. They succeeded on those fronts.

So even as WSU’s schedule lightens up, at least ostensibly, the group will need to find ways to keep running the ball for full games. If the Cougars do so, maybe they can send a thank-you card to Pulalasi’s dad, who helped pave the way for this.

“In the beginning of the season, a lot of people, they didn’t really see much,” Pulalasi said, “and then as the weeks went on, we definitely got better and better and better. And y’all have seen it against Ole Miss and Virginia, we kept showing it. We plan on improving the rest of the year.”