Takeaways: WSU’s turnovers were only part of problem in blowout loss to North Texas

A disastrous Week 3 for Washington State ended in a 59-10 loss to North Texas on Saturday afternoon at DATCU Stadium in Denton, Texas. There’s not really anything nice to be said about the Cougars’ performance – one of the most embarrassing results for the program in recent memory and a humbling moment for first-year WSU coach Jimmy Rogers, to say the least. Here are three observations from the Cougs’ first loss of the year.

Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers

The Cougs committed FIVE of them in the first half, and that sloppy ball security pretty much buried them.

Aided by a constant supply of short fields, North Texas only needed 13 plays and 93 yards of offense to score five of their first-half touchdowns. The Cougs had only committed one turnover coming into the game.

WSU redshirt sophomore quarterback Jaxon Potter, who played a sharp game last weekend in a win over San Diego State, looked unprepared in this one, completing 16 of 23 passes for 139 yards and three interceptions before being benched.

He airmailed a pass on the Cougars’ first drive and had it picked and returned 60 yards to the WSU 12, resulting in an easy UNT touchdown. Potter overthrew another pass on WSU’s first drive of the second quarter and had it intercepted. Later in the second, Potter completely misread the Mean Green defense and threw an interception right to a defender over the middle. That takeaway was returned 43 yards to the Cougar 12, resulting in another quick TD.

WSU running back Kirby Vorhees also lost a fumble early in the second quarter. The Cougs eventually went with backup quarterback Julian Dugger late in the first half, and he fumbled it away on his second touch while trying to pull the ball on an option play. In all, North Texas scored 28 points off the turnovers and went into the halftime break leading 42-3 in what many fans were calling one of the most upsetting halves of football in WSU history. It was North Texas’ largest halftime lead in program history against an FBS team, and the most points WSU had allowed in a half since giving up 50 in the second half of its devastating loss to UCLA in 2019.

Lacking an identity

WSU had maybe a handful of nice plays on offense, and the Cougs only showed a semblance of offensive rhythm on two or three drives. Otherwise, their identity still seems to be a mystery.

The running game was bottled up to the tune of 64 yards on 28 carries, and WSU totaled 275 yards against 410 for UNT.

Potter relied mostly on short passes, and hit one 43-yarder, but he couldn’t really find any openings for chunk gains. And when the Cougs went with Dugger, the run-first backup QB, that backfired. He fumbled immediately and later absorbed two sacks before being benched for senior Zevi Eckhaus, whom many WSU supporters assumed would win the QB job in the preseason. Thrust into a lost cause early in the fourth quarter, Eckhaus didn’t have a chance to show much. He completed 7 of 10 passes for 72 yards and had a 2-yard rushing touchdown with 2 minutes remaining. It’s hard to gauge a garbage-time effort, but perhaps it’s time the Cougars experiment with the upperclassmen. It couldn’t hurt, right?

Defensively, WSU was hamstrung by turnovers, of course, but the Cougs still seemed to have trouble covering open spaces in the passing game and tackling when Mean Green ball-carriers got around the edges. UNT freshman quarterback Drew Mestemaker looked like a superstar. He was protected well and constantly lingered for several seconds in the pocket before throwing comfortably to wide open pass-catchers. North Texas had 10 “chunk” plays – passes of 15 or more yards and rushes of 10 or more yards.

Not to add on, but WSU also had a special-teams mishap in the first half when punter Ryan Harris had trouble with the snap, then had his kick blocked and downed at the WSU 30-yard-line, resulting in another quick UNT touchdown.

What now?

To put it lightly, it’s time for WSU to do some deep reflecting.

What’s their identity? What’s their strength under their first-year coach? Do they have a strength? Do they switch up the personnel, the scheme? What’s with the quarterback situation? Is it the roster composed of so many FCS newcomers, or the coaching? Was it simply a bad case of the turnover bug that bit them and demoralized them here? In any case, they need to be better at responding when it comes to adversity, or it’s going to be a long year on the Palouse, and the outlook heading into the first season of the reconfigured Pac-12 in 2026 will not be a rosy one.

With a somewhat favorable schedule, the Cougs were projected to likely post a winning record and keep spirits high during their last season in conference-less limbo. Now, as panic sets in, one can’t help but wonder how many wins they’ll have left, and what the future will look like as they enter a new conference.

It’s worth noting that they just got blasted by a team that wanted nothing to do with the new Pac-12. Third-year UNT coach Eric Morris, formerly the offensive coordinator at WSU in 2022, dismissed the new Pac-12 this offseason, calling it “the old Mountain West.” Ouch.