#14
Arizona
(Homecoming)
WSU 30
Arizona 7
|
#14 |
Arizona (Homecoming) |
WSU 30 |
Cougfan.com - Posted Oct 1, 2003
Arizona 101
An in-depth
look at the Wildcats
By MATT MOORE
Cougfan.com Analyst
DING-DONG, MAC is gone. After two-and-a-half frustrating seasons, the John Mackovic experiment is over at Arizona. What this means for the Cougars is that the apparent cream puff Wildcats, just became an unknown factor. Will they fold up shop for the year or will they rally under a new coach?
The
answer remains to be seen, but people shouldn’t be led to believe that the
Wildcats are traveling all the way to Pullman just to pay a visit to
Mike
Price. This team has some
fight left in them, as evidenced by last week’s overtime battle with No. 19
TCU.
Arizona has lost four games this season, but they haven’t been to patsies.
LSU,
Purdue,
Oregon, and TCU are all top 25 teams, and have only two losses between them. So
the Wildcats can justly claim that much of their woes are the result of a lethal
schedule (and, of course, Mackovic).
Who:
Arizona
Wildcats (1-4) v No. 14
Washington State Cougars (4-1)
Where:
Martin Stadium, 2 PM
TV:
No live
Line:
Cougars by 28
Taking
the helm of the sinking ship is first year defensive coordinator Mike
Hankwitz. He achieved some
notoriety in coordinating
Texas A&M’s stout defenses of the last six years and
Colorado’s defenses for a six year stretch that spanned their national
championship campaign. He is an
unknown factor as a head coach but was highly respected as a coordinator.
Part of his problem will be dividing the workload with one less coach on
hand. It is hard to tell exactly
how involved Mackovic was with the team’s operational details, but at least on
the offensive end, there may be a leadership void, as he handled the
play-calling.
WSU
enters the game coming off one of the more noteworthy blowouts in school
history, slamming the Oregon Ducks 55-16 on the road.
But did the Cougars shoot their wad last week or is there more fuel left
in the tank? History suggests that
the Cougs could be due for a letdown and a team like Arizona, which is overdue
for some good luck, could be the team to hand it to them.
Nonetheless, most fans and sports writers will follow conventional wisdom
and assume that since Oregon destroyed Arizona, and WSU destroyed Oregon, this
game is in the bag. Has anyone else noticed that it never seems to work out that
way?
Overview:
The Arizona offense hasn’t scored more than 10 points since opening week.
Preseason injuries and academic casualties left them thin heading into
the season and now they are just struggling to survive.
They’ve shuffled through quarterbacks, running backs, and receivers
without finding a combination that works thus far.
A patchwork offensive line has proved equally ineffective at both pass
and run blocking, giving Hankwitz plenty of options for failure.
Strategy:
The Cougars should expect to see a highly conservative offensive package
out of the Wildcats, who will look to avoid giving up the big turnovers in an
effort to keep this one close. Arizona
would love to run the ball but hasn’t been able to for the better part of two
seasons. The running backs are
there, but the line is not. If the
Cougs start to suffocate them, Arizona will look to the deep ball to get a
puncher’s chance at victory.
Players
to Know:
Kris
Heavner, QB: The
Wildcats aren’t without talent, it’s just undeveloped and it starts with the
Quarterback. Freshman Kris Heavner
got his first start last week in an effort to pump some life into the lethargic
Arizona offense. He performed
surprisingly well against a stout TCU defense, passing for 276 yards included
three long bomb plays. Unfortunately,
he also surrendered four interceptions. Expect
Heavner to take the heat off himself a bit by operating a more fundamental,
control-oriented offense.
Clarence
Farmer, RB:
Farmer led the conference in rushing back in 2001, but suffered a season ending
knee injury in 2002 and very public battles with Mackovic ever since.
Farmer is still a viable rushing threat, but after watching him on tape
this week Coach said, “he isn’t the same Farmer I remember.”
He currently leads the Wildcats in touchdowns with just two.
Mike
Bell, RB:
Bell has to share burden (literally) of rushing the ball for Arizona. Like
Farmer, he is a viable running back when he gets blocking, but if the line
isn’t working for Farmer, it won’t be any different with Bell.
Ricky
Williams, WR:
Heavner seemed to find a favorite target in Williams last week, who caught 5
balls for 131 yards. And in doing
so officially made WSU the only program in the country without a standout
receiver named Williams.
Brian
Ealy, WR:
Ealy became Arizona’s possession receiver once Andre Thurman failed to
make grades. He leads the team in
catches but most have been for short yardage.
Like most of the Arizona receivers, he relies on his speed to make plays.
Brandon
Phillips, OT: Arizona’s
top offensive lineman was lost for the season with a knee injury against Oregon,
adding further problems to an already demoralized Wildcat’s offense.
Several other Wildcat linemen have also battled knee problems making
their line very thin.
Overview:
The Arizona defense was utterly humiliated for three straight games heading into
last weekend. LSU, Oregon and
Purdue had combined to score 159 points between them.
But the Arizona defense looked quite different last Saturday—they
actually had one. In fact the
Wildcats nearly kept TCU out of the end zone, except for a fluke 98-yard pass
play at the end of the first half. All
indications are that it was less a matter changing tactics and more a result of
just playing harder. The Wildcats
were fired up last week, and WSU should expect nothing less this week.
Arizona is hoping to build off the success it had against TCU, which was
a lesson in bend but not break defense. Hankwitz
is still in the process of converting Arizona’s double eagle flex into a 3-4
defense. The 3-4 has traditionally
given the Cougars trouble (UW runs one), as linebackers in zone coverage can
take some of the hot routes away. Cougar quarterback
Matt
Kegel has faced plenty of nickel and 4-3 packages this season but not a
true 3-4. It will be interesting to
see how he responds.
Strategy:
As
with the offense, expect the Wildcats to play conservative as hell and focus on
fundamental schemes that worked against TCU.
The good news about the 3-4 is that it can be sometimes easier for teams
to run against. Arizona has
surrendered an average of nearly 200 rushing yards per game, so the Cougars
should focus their attack there. If the ‘Cats can’t stop the run, the Cougs
should have an easy time of it. In
passing situations, Arizona is most likely to try and mimic
New Mexico in their attempts to contain the deep ball.
Kegel should expect defensive backs to play deep, but the ‘Cats have
been torched so badly this year I’m not sure how worried he should be.
Regardless of whether it is on the ground or in the air, WSU should try
and go for the jugular early. Arizona folds like a cheap tent when they get
behind.
Players
to Know:
Darrell
Brooks, FS and
Clay
Hardt, SS: As
to be expected with the league’s most flammable defense, the safeties are
their leading tacklers. Heck, even
one of the second string safeties ranks in the top four on this team.
Carlos
Williams, DE:
Williams is UofA’s leader up front. The
three down linemen in Arizona’s 3-4 set essentially look and act like
defensive tackles, averaging 292 pounds. This normally serves to stuff up the
middle, but often does so at the expense of defensive speed and pass rushing.
Michael
Jolivette, CB: Jolivette
is widely hailed as one of the top cover corners in the country.
But when with opposing quarterbacks have a 151.1 passing rating against
your secondary, it’s difficult to single anybody out for praise.
Joe
Siofele, ILB:
The 260 pound senior is still trying to fill the void left by former
All-American
Lance
Briggs. He has played
fairly well, but doesn’t have a lot of talent around him.
THE
WILDCATS ON SPECIAL TEAMS
On
top of everything else the kicker for Arizona has been abysmal this season.
Senior
Bobby
Gill has hit only 2 of 5 attempts so far, indicating that even if UA
manages to force a kickers duel, they are in trouble.
The rest of their special teams are sound.
FINAL
THOUGHTS
My overall premise for optimism in the Oregon game was that in the Pac-10, we know how to beat our own. Well, that goes both ways, folks. Any Pac-10 team is capable of beating any other if they are focused and catch a few breaks. WSU needs to take this game seriously. Though the ‘Cats and Cougs have both shown sporadic success in the last 10 years, Arizona has dominated the series. Seven of the last ten meetings have gone to the Wildcats, and there have been some heartbreakers. Five of the Arizona wins came by a single score (one of which wasn’t a score at all!). The Cougs are heavily favored in this game and rightfully so, but we aren’t so good that we can take anybody lightly. Something tells me Arizona isn’t as bad as everyone has pegged them either; or they won’t be now that Mackovic is gone. WSU needs to put up one more good fight heading into their bye week, both to ensure another Pac-10 victory and to make sure they won’t be too rusty for the trip to Stanford in two weeks.
Lewiston Tribune Online - 10/02/03
PULLMAN -- If you're looking for a statistic that reflects Washington State's new aggressiveness on defense, the most obvious choice is turnover margin: The Cougars lead the nation in that category, with 13 interceptions and nine fumble recoveries.
A more obscure place to look is "blocked kicks," a statistic not kept on a national or conference level but generally a pretty good indicator of the Cougars' defensive speed and tenacity -- even when they're getting help from the offense.
Jason Hill, a true freshman receiver, made a textbook block of an Oregon punt last week as the Cougars pushed their five-game total in the blocked-kicks column to six, their highest in numerous years.
Hill came from the far right side of WSU's alignment, diving toward punter Paul Martinez and nimbly slapping the ball off his foot. Jeremy Bohannon snagged it and scored from 4 yards out, creating a 38-2 lead late in the second quarter. WSU won 55-16.
Cougars coach Bill Doba described Hill's block as "clinic."
"We're taking that to the national convention to talk about punt-blocks. That was a beautiful job on his part."
Defensive end D.D. Acholonu had pulled off an earlier punt-block, the first Oregon had allowed since 2001 and the third in Acholonu's career.
The Cougars' 6-1 edge over their opponents in blocked kicks includes three place-kick deflections by freshman tight end Cody Boyd.
This flair for ambushing opponents' special-teams exploits has been a strength of Washington State's for almost a decade, since its superb 1994 defense keyed a 5-1 edge over opponents in blocked kicks and punts. The Cougars have blocked 30 during that span, to their opponents' 19.
CENTER OF ATTENTION -- In his 12 years as an offensive line coach, George Yarno had experienced only one lost fumble resulting from a center snap.
In the second quarter against Oregon, he witnessed two. "He was not a happy camper," Doba said.
Yet the WSU assistant realizes there were extenuating circumstances, chiefly the bruised nerve that had sidelined senior starter Mike Shelford.
Yarno alternated sophomores Riley Fitt-Chappell and Nick Mihlhauser at center, and each was involved in an exchange fumble with Kegel.
A major factor, no doubt, was the noise generated by 57,473 at Autzen Stadium. And nobody on the Cougar roster except Shelford has played much center in past seasons.
With Shelford still questionable for the Cougars' home game Saturday against Arizona, Yarno is looking at Mihlhauser, Fitt-Chappell or possibly junior transfer Keola Loo to play center.
"Snapping the ball and blocking and doing all those things isn't as easy as everybody thinks," Yarno said. "We've got to keep working on it, to make it more natural. I expect there won't be any balls on the ground this week."
Quarterbacks and centers, practicing their exchanges, were the last players off the practice field Tuesday.
TIED UP IN KNOTTS -- Wearing a cast on his right hand and forearm, WSU offensive lineman Billy Knotts doesn't look as if he could hold a can a Coke, let alone a 300-pound defensive tackle.
An official during the Oregon game disagreed: Knotts, seeing his first action of the season at Oregon, was whistled for a holding penalty.
"I was like, 'I've got only one hand. How can I hold?' " Knotts said. "He said, 'Yeah, but you hooked him.' "
The senior lineman broke his thumb in a preseason scrimmage and missed the Cougars' first four games. Last week he had a pin removed and donned two casts, a soft one covering a hard one. He started at right guard against Oregon and played most of the game. He is scheduled to start again Saturday.
Lewiston Tirbune Online - 10/03/03
When more than 40 football players requested a meeting with the University of Arizona president last November to voice grievances about coach John Mackovic, it was mainly an upperclass revolt -- seniors and juniors who spoke of harsh tactics and probably clung to fond memories of their previous coach.
So it was notable this season when younger players, Mackovic's own recruits, began to grumble as well.
When quarterback Nic Costa, for example, suddenly slipped from first to third on the depth chart after the first three games, he was quoted as saying, "I still haven't been told the reason. I just want to be treated with some respect."
The phrasing sounded familiar.
In any case, it wasn't exactly shocking when Arizona fired Mackovic on Sunday after the Wildcats' 1-4 start. Promoting defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz to interim head coach, the Cats will strive for a fresh start Saturday when they play Washington State at Pullman.
In a phone interview this week, Costa said he doesn't expect immediate changes on the Arizona depth chart or in the playbook. He is presumably the third-string quarterback and the starter is presumably true freshman Kris Heavner.
Yet Costa has noticed a change in emotional climate under Hankwitz, a collegiate assistant for three decades who is making his head-coaching debut.
"He is different and the same as coach Mac," the sophomore from western Oregon said. "He's strict in his regimen, but he's very passionate and fired up. He gets the guys excited."
Older players in the program noted the stark contrast between the sharply dressed, well-spoken disciplinarian, Mackovic, and his predecessor, Dick Tomey, who dressed informally, invited the team to backyard barbecues and was generally considered a player's coach.
Mackovic, who turned 60 on Wednesday, had been head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs in the 1980s and still exuded a businesslike air that smacked of the National Football League.
Costa, an extremely fast 5-foot-11 quarterback out of Aloha High near Portland, chose Arizona over several other Pac-10 suitors, as part of Mackovic's first recruiting class in 2001.
In several ways, he still speaks highly of the coach. He takes issue with teammates who, in that meeting with school president Peter Likins last November, accused Mackovic of verbal abuse during games. These remarks, after all, were uttered in the heat of battle, and perhaps sounded harsher in light of the Wildcats 3-7 record at the time.
"Since we're losing, everyone blows those things out of proportion," Costa said. "I'm sure there are a lot worse football coaches out there, who are more strict and more harsh verbally on their players, but they're winning football games, so no one seems to care."
Costa points instead to a general communication gap. He describes Mackovic as "a very respectable and very genuine person who ... tried to get to know his players to the best of his ability. I say 'his ability.'
"A lot of the players would have loved a coach who talked to players more individually, in less of a football sense. And throughout his three years here, he did get better at becoming more of player's coach. He's very knowledgeable, very intelligent about the game of football. He's always three moves ahead. ... It's just that, for some reason, he couldn't get what he was thinking across to his players."
There was a contradiction, Costa said, between the strategy formulated during the week by the Arizona coaching staff and Mackovic's actual decisions on game day.
"Players didn't know what to expect, so we didn't know what we were doing out there -- what our purposes were. Everybody wants to win, but we didn't know how we were going to go about doing that.
"There was a lack of communication that stemmed from the top. It couldn't be fixed."
The Wildcats played surprisingly well Saturday in a 13-10 loss to Texas Christian. "We realized we couldn't play for a coach," Costa said. "We realized we had to play for each other."
They had an inkling their coach would be fired, and they knew it was true as soon as athletic director Jim Livengood summoned them to a team meeting Sunday. The public announcement came later. As of Wednesday, Costa said, the players hadn't seen or heard from Mackovic.
Perhaps more surprising than the firing, from a Washington State perspective, was the news Monday that Likins would refuse to consider Mike Price as Mackovic's permanent replacement, which the Wildcats hope to name by December.
Price, the former WSU coach, would seem a logical choice for the job, not only because of his ties to Livengood, who had hired the coach at Washington State in 1989, but because Price is known as a player's coach whose tactics are antithetical to Mackovic's.
"Yes, we've been hearing that also, and we know our athletic director was at Washington State and would hire Mike Price anytime, anyplace, anywhere, because he is a very good football coach and he would be a very good fit here," Costa said.
From Arizona's view, however, Price's brief tenure at Alabama last winter and spring, when he was fired for alleged social escapades, is cause for wariness. Controversy is the last thing the Wildcats want.
"With everything that happened at Alabama, whether it's true or not, there's still a lot of speculation surrounding him," Costa said. "I mean, the past three years, there probably hasn't been a school in the country that has had as much controversy as we've had.
"We need to look past that. We need to look forward."
NOTES -- The WSU-Arizona game is close to being a sellout. Fewer than 400 tickets were available Thursday, and fewer than 350 student passes. Also, the only tickets available for a Cougars home game against Oregon State on Oct. 25 are student passes and expensive donor tickets, which go on sale Oct. 20. ... Cougars offensive tackle Sam Lightbody (knee) and tailback Chris Bruhn (ankle) are expected to play Saturday, but center Mike Shelford is doubtful with his bruised nerve. His replacement will be Nick Mihlhauser.
Lewiston Tribune Online - 10/04/03
PULLMAN -- If the oddsmakers are correct, Washington State can spot Arizona four touchdowns today and still eke out a half-point victory. It's enough to put a Cougar to sleep.
On the other hand, Washington State players appeared surprisingly level-headed after their 55-16 rout at Oregon last week, in a game both lulling and cautionary.
If the Cougars want to avoid nodding off today, they need only recall images of flustered, unfocused Ducks, a week after they'd systematically beaten Michigan.
"This gives the team a lot of confidence, but at the same time we're going to be focused," WSU cornerback Jason David said, less than an hour after the Ducks game. "That might have been Oregon's problem, after getting a big win against Michigan and kind of getting kind of beside themselves. One thing coach Doba told us in the locker room (afterward) was to lock it in. That's what we say -- 'Lock it in.' This win is over. We've got to start working on Arizona already."
A day after those comments, Arizona gave Bill Doba another reason to lock it in: The school fired its embattled coach, John Mackovic, and perhaps eased some of the dissension associated with the Wildcats' 1-4 start.
"It creates a problem for us," Doba said, "because you don't know who's going to show up. The kids that liked him might be depressed; the kids that didn't like him are going to be fired up. ... This is an opportunity for them to say it was the coach's fault, not ours, and come in and play better. It makes them look better."
The Cougars (4-1, 1-0) hope to get a jolt from their near-sellout Homecoming crowd at Martin Stadium. Kickoff is 2 p.m. for the Pac-10 Conference game.
In reviewing video of Arizona (1-4, 0-1), the Cougars played down the disasters -- the Cats lost to Louisiana State by 46 points, to Oregon by 38 and to Purdue by 52 -- and queued up the club's 13-10 loss to Texas Christian last week.
"They're a talented team," Doba insisted. "I don't know how to say it, but in a couple of their ballgames they got behind early and didn't really play hard." Against TCU, "they were in the game the whole time and the guys just played hard."
Doba can relate to one small aspect of Arizona's situation: The Wildcats' interim coach is Mike Hankwitz, 55, who, like the WSU boss, offers the perspective of a defensive coordinator, getting his first crack at a head-coaching role after numerous years as an assistant.
Of course, Doba, 63, had more time to brace for his official debut, which came this season against Idaho. But he had only two weeks to prepare for his awkward dual-coaching role with Mike Price in the Rose Bowl last season.
"He's got to be kind of reeling right now -- I know I was," Doba said of Hankwitz. "I was really relaxed until two hours before kickoff. Then I could hardly talk. It hits you all of a sudden."
There's reason to believe Arizona will feed off the tumult of the past week: Last November, four days after players complained about Mackovic in a bizarre blood-letting with school president Peter Likins, the Wildcats shrugged off their 3-7 record and surprised California 52-41 at Berkeley.
"No one expected that -- not even us," Arizona backup quarterback Nic Costa said. "This whole thing had happened on a Tuesday and the repercussions happened on Wednesday and Thursday. Then we got on the plane and I was thinking, 'Wow, we've got to play Cal, an up-and-coming team, and all this crap has taken place.' I was hoping the score wouldn't be too bad. I was hoping we'd make it respectable. And we went in and won."
The only bigger shock would be the Wildcats winning today.
NOTES -- Hankwitz this season has scrapped the Wildcats' once-beloved flex defense in favor of more conventional tactics. He came to Arizona this year after six years as defensive coordinator at Texas A&M. ... Donor-section tickets for the WSU home game Oct. 25 against Oregon State are available immediately, contrary to notes in this space Friday.
Arizona Daily Star - 10/04/03
 AP file photo  Matt Kegel is second in the Pac-10 Conference in passing at
256 yards per game. |
* Passing game: True freshman Kris Heavner will get his second consecutive career start at WSU. He was shaky, but effective, last week against TCU. Despite throwing three interceptions, Heavner passed for 276 yards on 14-of-29 passing with a touchdown. It appears sophomore Nic Costa will be the backup, followed by redshirt-freshman Ryan O'Hara. For WSU, senior Matt Kegel has not been a significant drop-off from Jason Gesser. Kegel is second in the conference at 256 passing yards per game. He has eight touchdowns and only three interceptions in five games.
* Running defense: Arizona has allowed 200 or more rushing yards in each of the last three games, including 206 on 56 tries last week by TCU. The Cats are still thin up front, but better tackling against the Horned Frogs kept them in the game. The Cats have allowed 11 rushing TDs compared to only five for the UA offense. The Cougars are 16th nationally against the run, holding opponents to 84.6 yards per outing. In last week's 55-16 rout of then-No. 10 Oregon, the speedy WSU defense allowed only one run longer than 8 yards.
* Passing defense: Bad sign: Arizona rover Clay Hardt dropped an interception that would have clinched a 10-7 victory over TCU last week. Good sign: Hardt worked every day after practice this week on catching the football. It is that kind of dedication that has helped the Cats show incremental progress. With only three interceptions in five games, Arizona needs to step it up and get some hands on the football. WSU had seven interceptions last week alone in their big victory at Oregon. CB Jason David and SS Virgil Williams lead the way with three picks apiece, and the Cougars are averaging four sacks a game.
* Special teams: Arizona punter Danny Baugher enjoyed a career day against TCU with a 47.6-yard average on eight kicks to move him into 30th nationally with a 42.6-yard average. His backup, James Molina, replaced injured Nick Folk and performed admirably on kickoffs in the TCU game. Drew Dunning is a weapon at place-kicker for the Cougars. He is 15 of 17 on field goal tries and leads the nation with three field goals per game. He's also sixth in the nation at 12 points per game. The Cats also will have their hands full with slippery return man Sammy Moore, who is averaging 31.9 yards per kickoff return with one TD.
* X-factor: Arizona has logged a spirited week of workouts in the wake of the John Mackovic firing. Although the Cats cannot change much along the lines of offensive or defensive schemes, the attitude seems to have stepped up a notch. The UA will need a positive outlook if it is to tame the Cougars, a team built on speed and physical play that appears to be among the league's elite early in the Pac-10 race.
* Records/rankings: Arizona (1-4, 0-1 Pac-10) is unranked; Washington State (4-1, 1-0 Pac-10) is ranked 14th in The Associated Press media poll and 15th in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll.
* Series: Arizona leads 20-11, but the Cougars have won the last two meetings, both in Tucson. The Cats won three of the last four games in Pullman, including their last visit to Martin Stadium in 1999, 30-24. Those four games in Pullman were decided by an average of five points. WSU won last year in Tucson 21-13.
* Arizona will not reverse its fortunes in a week under interim head coach Mike Hankwitz. What the Wildcats are hoping for is a renewed attitude as they go on the road in a return to Pac-10 play against quarterback Matt Kegel, left, and the Washington State Cougars. Riding a four-game losing streak, Arizona faces its third ranked foe in four games. It is unclear how much Hankwitz will shake up the personnel, but look for HB Clarence Farmer to get more touches. Freshman QB Kris Heavner should be better in his second career start, and the UA defense is riding the momentum of a solid outing last week against TCU. The Cougars, however, have too many weapons.
* Line: Washington State by 29
* Star prediction: Washington St. 31, Wildcats 21
* Mike Hankwitz (Michigan '70) is in his first game as interim head coach for Arizona following John Mackovic's firing last Sunday. Hankwitz, a veteran of 34 years of coaching, will retain his duties as defensive coordinator. Bill Doba (Ball State '62) is in his first year at Washington St. (4-1) and first year overall. It is Doba's 13th year with the WSU program, and he was defensive coordinator the last nine years. He took over when Mike Price left last year to take the Alabama job.
* John Mackovic deserved to be fired:
"He deserved it last season, when players complained to athletic director Jim Livengood about Mackovic. … After more than two seasons, 12 consecutive Pac-10 home losses and a lot of unhappiness on his team, Mackovic is gone. … The next question: How many job-hungry head coaches will make their interest in the Arizona job known in the next two months?"
- Michael Rosenberg, Detroit Free Press
* Mike Price should be a candidate at UA:
"What's wrong with this picture? (Mike) Price should be in it, in high-definition on a plasma screen. … But it is not going to happen. … As for Price, he planned to go to (today's) Washington State-Arizona game at Martin Stadium but has decided against it.
Reached (this week) in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Price said: "I don't want to bump into (Arizona AD) Jim Livengood or a newspaper guy from Arizona and have to react to that. It would be too much of a distraction. It's all about the football game, not a job search."
- Jim Moore, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
ESPN RECAP - 10/04/03
PULLMAN, Wash. (AP) -- Washington State coach Bill Doba had no explanation for the Cougars' sluggish start.
"I don't know if they were up, or down, or whatever, but I thought they were pretty lethargic," Doba said after the Cougars (No. 15 ESPN/USA Today, No. 14 Associated Press) beat Arizona 30-7 on Saturday.
Jonathan Smith looks for an opening. He caught an 11-yard TD pass in the fourth quarter.
Matt Kegel threw two touchdown passes and Jason David returned an interception for a score for Washington State (5-1, 2-0 Pac-10), coming off an impressive victory last week at Oregon.
"I thought the defense played hard all game," Doba said.
David, a senior cornerback, agreed that the game was uneven.
"You come off a great win and it's tough to just let go of it. And I don't think we played a great game," he said. "We stayed focused and came out in the second half and played the game we wanted to play."
Washington State dominated Arizona (1-5, 0-2) in the Wildcats' first game since head coach John Mackovic was fired last Sunday. Mike Hankwitz is coaching the team on an interim basis.
The Cougars rolled up 513 yards of offense to Arizona's 198. Although Washington State had a 294-65 advantage in yards, the Cougars held only a 13-0 halftime lead.
"It was a tough week because of all the changes, but I think our players responded and tried to do everything we asked of them," Hankwitz said. "I am pleased overall that we came up here and fought into the fourth quarter."
Washington State held Arizona to just 65 yards rushing and the Wildcats were 0-13 in third-down conversions. The Cougars, who intercepted seven passes last week against Oregon, were able to grab only one against the Wildcats.
Kegel completed 18 of 32 passes for 315 yards, spreading passes among nine receivers. He was intercepted once.
Kegel sprained his throwing shoulder in the second quarter, but stayed in the game until it was well in hand.
"He got hurt in the second quarter, so he has some ice on that shoulder," Doba said. "He played through some pain. I thought Kegel was courageous."
He hit Devard Darling for an 84-yard scoring pass in the first quarter, then connected with running back Jonathan Smith on an 11-yarder in the fourth quarter.
The Cougars scored twice in the fourth quarter.
David stepped in front of a pass from Kris Heavner to Gilbert Harris and raced 34 yards to the end zone.
"It kind of went through my hands and hit my facemask and it was about to become another interception I was going to drop," David said, "but I made sure I caught it this time and took off."
Kegel completed Washington State's scoring when he hit Smith in the end zone on the 11-yard pass. The drive started after Mike Bell fumbled on the Arizona 20 and Eric Coleman recovered at the 19.
Drew Dunning hit field goals of 22, 38 and 23 yards in front of a homecoming crowd of 34,923.
The Cougars' first touchdown came from the Washington State 16, when Kegel hit Darling in stride down the right sideline and the 6-foot-3 junior stepped over linebacker Aaron Wagner, who fell.
Arizona didn't score until the third quarter, when Nic Costa hit Matt Padron with a 5-yard scoring pass to complete a 58-yard drive. The Wildcats gained possession after Washington State's Chris Bruhn fumbled.
Bruhn was filling in for Smith, who sprained his left ankle just before the half, and Jermaine Green, who bruised a rib early in the game.
Heavner completed 18 of 35 passes for 128 yards.
Arizona's defense deprived the Cougars of a score at the start of the second quarter. Michael Jolivette stepped in front of Kegel's pass in the end zone to spoil a 64-yard drive.
Washington State's defense did not record a sack for the first time in 23 games.
The Cougars were hit with a dozen penalties for 89 yards, several negating long gains. Arizona was flagged four times for 38 yards.
"It's nice to win 30-7 and not be satisfied," Doba said. I give Arizona credit. We warned our kids that they were going to be better here today than they were on video all week."
Lewiston Tribune Online - 10/05/03
Tribune/Kyle Mills
Washington State's Will Derting (left) and Don Jackson bring down Arizona. The
Wildcats managed just 65 yards rushing.
PULLMAN -- With nine minutes left, Jason David tried a little possum act. He suckered the freshman quarterback into an unwise pass toward the Washington State sideline, then pounced on the ball so quickly that he needed to patty-cake the thing twice -- the second time off his facemask -- as he soared for a 34-yard touchdown.
Until then, this was a pretty normal game.
In other words, it was nothing like the previous week.
The Cougars' estimable defense exchanged its wacky, turnover-inducing persona for garden-variety domination Saturday as Washington State gradually subdued Arizona 30-7 before 34,923 at Martin Stadium.
David's interception made the score 23-7 and seemed to snap the Cougars back into their predator mode -- the one that had keyed their 55-16 rout at Oregon.
Erik Coleman recovered a fumble on Arizona's next play from scrimmage, and Matt Kegel shrugged off the Cougars' red-zone willies to toss an 11-yard TD pass to Jonathan Smith.
"You could tell -- once I got that interception, both sides started to roll," David said. "That's something we've been playing off -- turnovers. Once we get turnovers, it's hard to stop us."
It's a measure of the Cougars' high ambition that they seemed slightly disappointed in this performance -- not just in their offense, whose only TD in the first three quarters came on a freaky-looking 84-yard pass from Kegel to Devard Darling, but also in their lack of defensive spectacle.
All the D did was hold Arizona to 198 yards of offense, nine first downs and a 0-for-13 showing in third-down conversions.
But no sacks. And no takeaways until those two in the final nine minutes. That was a little discomfiting to a team that leads the nation in turnover margin and views its defensive aggression as a prime reason for its 5-1 record, 2-0 in the Pac-10 Conference.
Besides, the Cougars had expected a somewhat easier afternoon against the struggling Wildcats (1-5 and 0-2), who were under new leadership after firing coach John Mackovic a week ago.
"It was a tough week because of all the changes," Arizona interim head coach Mike Hankwitz said, "but I think our players responded and tried to do everything we asked of them. I am pleased that we came up here and fought into the fourth quarter."
Washington State coach Bill Doba said the Wildcats seemed to gain a spark from their coaching upheaval.
"They weren't jumping up and down crazy like I thought they might be," he said. "But in the third quarter, they came back -- they haven't done that in the past. They kept battling, until Jason David's interception. That took the starch out of them."
One reason the Cougars forced fewer turnovers was they pass-rushed less recklessly, knowing Arizona true freshman quarterback Kris Heavner might be confused merely by the threat of blitz. When the Cougars did rush with their linebackers, Arizona often cut them off admirably.
"A lot of our package was (designed) to rush them with our front four and not blitz them much," defensive end Isaac Brown said. "And make him read coverages. A young guy, coming out of high school, can only have seen so many coverages. We forced him into bad decisions."
Washington State got its first proof this wasn't the Oregon game when linebacker Don Jackson batted a Heavner pass into the air in the second quarter and -- surprise -- a Cougar didn't intercept and run for a touchdown. A 309-pound offensive lineman, Kili Lefotu, caught it instead.
By that time, Jackson and his teammates were getting used to narrowly missing sacks of Heavner.
"We always had pressure on him, but we weren't bringing our feet -- you know what I'm saying? -- the little stuff you're supposed to do," Jackson said. "We weren't going to the right shoulder. For the next game, we're just going to practice -- turnover, turnover, turnover. And hopefully it will go better."
It was already getting better by the fourth quarter, starting with David's hide-and-seek act on third-and-8. Heavner sidearmed the ball for fullback Gilbert Harris, then saw the senior cornerback break from the shadows.
"We were in zone pressure and I don't think the quarterback saw me because I was hidden behind the tight end," David said. "But I knew they were going to throw short because they didn't need that many yards. When he threw, I just jumped out in front of it."
Without breaking stride, David bobbled the ball once with his hands, once with his facemask, then grabbed hold. And the Cougars were finally off and running.
Arizona
0
0
7
0 -- 7
Washington St.
13
0
3
14 --30
First Quarter
Washington St.--FG Dunning 22, 9:39
Washington St.--Darling 84 pass from Kegel (Dunning kick), 5:59
Washington St.--FG Dunning 38, :00
Third Quarter
Arizona--Padron 5 pass from Costa (Gill kick), 9:38
Washington St.--FG Dunning 23, 1:26
Fourth Quarter
Washington St.--David 34 interception return (Dunning kick), 9:02
Washington St.--Smith 11 pass from Kegel (Dunning kick), 7:38
A--34,923.
UA WS
First
downs
09
24
Rushes-yards
21-65 42-161
Passing
133
352
Comp-Att-Int
19-36-1 22-37-1
Return
Yards
41
65
Punts-Avg.
11-43
6-43
Fumbles-Lost
4-1
2-2
Penalties-Yards
4-38
12-89
Time of Possession
26:19
33:41
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING--Arizona, Bell 11-40, Farmer 6-13, Henry 2-7, Heavner 2-5. WSU, Smith 20-83, Bruhn 13-67, Green 4-9, Kegel 5-2.
PASSING--Arizona, Heavner 18-35-1-128, Costa 1-1-0-5. WSU, Kegel 18-32-1-315, Swogger 4-5-0-37.
RECEIVING--Arizona, Relford 4-39, Ealy 4-23, Harris 3-36, Fleming 3-5, Padron 2-17, Williams 2-10, Lefotu 1-3. WSU, Smith 4-69, Bienemann 4-49, Jordan 4-34, Harvey 3-46, Darling 2-98, Boyd 2-31, Martin 1-11, Bruhn 1-8, Lunde 1-6.
Cougfan.com - Posted Oct 5, 2003
What They're Saying, 10/5
Our weekly
compilation of quips and quotes
By the Staff of Cougfan.com
RELIVE THE GLORY that was the Cougars’ 30-7 victory over the Arizona Wildcats. Notable quotes and notes as sportswriters lend their view on what took place in Martin Stadium on a sun-drenched Homecoming Saturday.
“They
accumulated some amazing statistics - allowing the Wildcats past midfield only
once, limiting them to 198 total yards, surrendering no third-down conversions -
and after the game were almost apologetic for not doing better.”
- Don Ruiz, Tacoma News Tribune
“Kegel
played in pain much of the game. He injured his throwing shoulder in the first
half when he fell on it. He reinjured it on a keeper in the third quarter when
he hit strong safety
Gary
Shepard, who limped off the field.”-
Craig Smith, Seattle Times
“…and
while that sort of multiple personality disorder is bound to cause some
consternation both for the coaching staff and the players themselves, it is
pretty damned pointless to beat yourself up over being 5-1 and ranked 14th in
the country.”
- John Blanchette, Spokesman Review
“At
this time last year, Doba was a career defensive assistant, 61 years old, closer
to retirement than becoming anyone's idea of a celebrity. On Saturday, Doba's
Cougars beat
Arizona 30-7, improving their record to 5-1, making them the favorite to (a) win
the Pac-10 championship and (b) add to Doba's new-found celebrity.”
- Greg Hansen, Arizona Daily Star
“It
was
Jason
David’s third career interception return for a touchdown, a WSU record.
And this one couldn’t have come at a better time.” Carter
Strickland, Spokesman-Review.
“On
a day when the offense sputtered at times and was better at producing yards
instead of points, the defense held the Wildcats to 198 net yards and allowed
the visitors to cross midfield only once, on Arizona's third-quarter touchdown
drive.”-
Craig Smith, Seattle Times
“Lost
in all the angst were a number of nuggets -- that WSU outgained the Wildcats
513-198, that quarterback
Matt
Kegel had another 300-yard game despite hurting a shoulder in the first
quarter, that the Wildcats went 0 for 13 on third downs.”
-
John Blanchette Spokesman
Review
“As
WSU and Arizona go their separate ways, almost all of the heavy lifting will be
done by Hankwitz. If Doba can't get to the Rose Bowl with the talent in his
locker room, he's going to get an earful from the suddenly spoiled Cougar
Nation.” - Greg
Hansen, Arizona Daily Star
“The
high powered Cougar offense was running up and down the field, throwing from
sideline to sideline, but found it difficult getting into the end zone at Martin
Stadium.” -
John Moredich, Tucson Citizen
“This team, full of playmakers, didn’t make that many plays against one of the worst teams in the nation. There were no sacks for the first time in 23 games. There were few high-flying offensive plays. There wasn’t the typical quick avalanche of points that buries the opponent. The No. 1 team in the nation in takeaways didn’t have any until the fourth quarter. Shoot, for the first time in five games, there wasn’t even a personal foul on Washington State.” - Carter Strickland Spokesman Review
“It's a measure of the Cougars' high ambition that they seemed slightly disappointed in this performance -- not just in their offense, whose only TD in the first three quarters came on a freaky-looking 84-yard pass from Kegel to Devard Darling, but also in their lack of defensive spectacle. All the D did was hold Arizona to 198 yards of offense, nine first downs and a 0-for-13 showing in third-down conversions.” Dale Grummert, Lewiston Morning Tribune
Lewiston Tribune Online - 10/06/03
Tribune/Kyle Mills
Freshman tight end Cody Boyd looks for running room against Arizona safety Lamon
Means after making a fourth-quarter catch for Washington State. Despite the
Cougars' 30-7 win Saturday, they are still searching for offensive consistency.
PULLMAN -- Back when the Washington State football team was absolutely abysmal, it was always amusing to visit a campus where football was a big deal -- Washington, say, or Michigan -- and listen to its fans grouse about 23-point victories, and quibble about occasional missed blocks, and fret endlessly about some Saturday of reckoning in their near future.
Now we have Washington State fans doing the same thing. And no one's blinking an eye.
Which, of course, means football in Pullman has become a big deal.
It happened so gradually over the past six years that these grander expectations stole into the picture without a sound. They are amusing perhaps only to fans of the downtrodden Arizona Wildcats, who lost to the Cougars 30-7 on Saturday and were mediocre in a way that didn't even look familiar. Has it been that long?
On this warm Homecoming afternoon, the first reminder that the Cougars were indeed a big deal came before kickoff, as fans herded like cattle through the too-narrow gates of sold-out Martin Stadium. A little dazedly, many of them stopped to watch the members of a cryptic religious group that had set up figurative soapboxes on all sides of the stadium, handing out fliers about "the law of mask" and extolling in loud voices the value of self-awareness.
You never saw that sort of thing when the Cougs were drawing 22,000.
By "self-awareness," these orators doubtless meant something other than an unflinching acknowledgment of the shortcomings of your favorite football team.
But that's not a bad place to start.
The Cougars and their fans went to the Rose Bowl in 1997. They went again nine months ago. They would like very much to return to Pasadena this year, and they use these aspirations as a measuring stick for the team's every endeavor.
If the Cougars' 55-16 romp at Oregon the previous week had left them room for self-delusion, this Arizona game wasn't so kind. Far from being delighted with their 23-point margin of victory and their 352 passing yards, the Cougars seemed to think their offense isn't playing well enough at the moment to ensure a conference title, their dazzling defense notwithstanding.
Specifically, they seem to lack whatever combination of deception and power is required to score touchdowns consistently in the red zone. Ten years ago in this program, that would seem like quibbling. Now it was a subtext of postgame interviews.
Quarterback Matt Kegel didn't think the diagnosis "red-zone problem" did the matter justice. "I think it's a whole damn field problem," he said. "We're awesome one moment and bad the next."
Not surprisingly, some of the more compelling remarks came from Mike Levenseller, the 46-year-old former Cougar receiver who began calling WSU's offensive plays this season, and whom no one would accuse of a lack of self-awareness. Levenseller never fails to evoke some sense of the real game -- not the fans' game or the writers' game, but the game experienced by coaches and players. When his words fail to convey this, his eyes get it right.
On this occasion, the Cougars had just put up 30 points, and here was the offensive coordinator being asked for an accounting. He gave one. Yes, the offensive line is jumping offsides too often. Yes, the short-yardage plays lack consistency. But the means of improving these things are less than obvious.
"It's not going to do any good to whip their heads off," he said. "How do you punish them? Do you wear them down so bad that they can't play for you?"
Somebody asked about Kegel's throwing motion. Does it seem too deliberate at times? Yes, it does.
"When (the receiver) is open, you have a tendency to baby the ball into a spot, instead of just ripping it," he said.
"Aiming," said a veteran columnist.
"Exactly. Well, aiming is the old term." Levenseller looked at the writer's grayer-than-gray hair and smiled. "That's your term."
"You're looking at a guy who played for Amos Alonzo Stagg," the writer said.
But Levenseller wasn't willing to concede a single moon to this fellow.
"Every week I've got to come up here and answer questions about the red zone," the coach said with a sigh. "I'm an old soul."
NOTES -- Even with the Cougars' open date this week, senior tailback Jermaine Green is termed doubtful for their next game, at Stanford on Oct. 18. His ribs were bruised in the first half against Arizona.... A chief reason Kegel appeared to be "babying" the ball was the partial dislocation of his throwing shoulder. The injury doesn't appear serious, but the Cougars will probably prohibit him from throwing this week.... The Cougars won't practice until Thursday, and they will devote Saturday to a rookie scrimmage.