It marks the third straight year WSU has had an offensive lineman on one of the AP All-American teams. Former left guard Cody O’Connell was a first-teamer in 2016 and a second-teamer in 2017.

Ernie Kent’s team failed on the promotional front Sunday against Montana State, and certainly on the basketball front, falling to the Bobcats 95-90 in front of 1,807 fans at the Toyota Center in Kennewick.

Cougars coach Mike Leach talks about the team's second bowl practice, joining quarterback Gardner Minshew on the awards circuit and USC's hire of Kliff Kingsbury.

The fifth-year graduate transfer became the eighth player in WSU history to finish in the top-10 of the Heisman voting when the final numbers were released Saturday evening, shortly after Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray was announced as the recipient of college football’s top award.

Campbell’s playbook may not mirror Leach’s, but the 39-year-old ISU coach still knows a fair amount about the coach he’ll be opposing at the Dec. 28 Alamo Bowl (6 p.m. PT, ESPN) in San Antonio.

WSU placed three other players on the AP All-Pac-12 teams. Senior left tackle Andre Dillard was named to the first team offense, while senior defensive end Logan Tago and junior safety Jalen Thompson were both named to the second team defense.

Washington State’s Mike Leach and Iowa State’s Matt Campbell held a joint press conference Thursday morning in San Antonio. Here’s everything the coaches of the Dec. 28 Alamo Bowl had to say.

Charged by a 22-point outing from their top scorer, Robert Franks, and 20 more from C.J. Elleby, a freshman who continues to look more comfortable in a crimson jersey, WSU improved to 5-2 on the season and increased its overall series lead on Idaho to 71-49.

Mike Leach and Gardner Minshew may not have drawn it up exactly like this when the seventh-year Washington State coach recruited his next starting quarterback over the phone last spring, but by the end of the Cougars’ historic 10-win season, it was inevitable that the pair would be in the running for some major Pac-12 Conference awards.

For the 114th time since 1906, the Cougars (4-2) and Vandals (3-4) will link up Wednesday night with regional bragging rights on the line. Tipoff at Beasley Coliseum is set for 6 p.m. and the game will air on the Pac-12 Networks.

A dozen Washington State football players were recognized on the Pac-12’s All-Conference teams Tuesday afternoon and it may just be the start of what could be a banner day for the Cougars program.

PULLMAN – The college football season will span across 14 weeks next year, meaning Washington State and each of its 11 Pac-12 Conference peers will have two bye weeks rather than one in 2019. The Cougars are preparing for their fourth consecutive bowl game under Mike Leach – the Dec. 28 Alamo Bowl against Iowa State – but they got a glimpse of next season when the Pac-12 announced its full 2019 schedule Tuesday morning.

Despite turning heads in his first and only season as the Cougars’ quarterback, Gardner Minshew missed out an opportunity to become the school’s second Heisman Trophy finalist – and first since Ryan Leaf in 1997 – when the top award in college football whittled its list down to three players Monday evening on ESPN’s NFL Countdown Show.

Comfort was the lone WSU player to earn a spot on the 25-man first team, but four Cougars were named to the second team: running back Clay Markoff, defensive lineman Nick Begg, defensive lineman Karson Block and linebacker Peyton Pelluer.

The WSU quarterback beat out four other finalists: West Virginia’s Will Grier, Missouri’s Drew Lock, UCF’s McKenzie Milton and Michigan’s Shea Patterson.

Similar to other coaches, Mike Leach has hundreds of thousands of dollars in incentives wrapped up in his employment contract.

Fans can party it up every bit as much – and maybe better – on the Riverwalk as they can in Buckhead or Old Town Scottsdale. And better still? They can feel insulted by it all.

Hours after WSU learned it would be playing the Cyclones in the San Antonio-based bowl game, the Cougars opened as a 1 1/2-point betting favorite to beat their Big 12 opponent. The line moved to 1 point later in the day.

WSU (10-2, 7-2) will appear in its fourth consecutive bowl game for the first time in school history on Dec. 28 when the Cougars take on Big 12 opponent Iowa State (8-4, 6-3) in the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio. The game will kick off at 6 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN.