Pac-10 Week 10 Notes and Observations: Washington State Cougars

By Dave Consolazio, November 11, 2009 8:10 am

Washington State Cougars 1-8 Overall (0-7 Conference)

This Week’s Score: Arizona 48 – Washington State 7

Next Week’s Opponent: UCLA

Even moral victories seem to be eluding the Cougars these days.

It is hard to muster up much hope for the future when the talent discrepancy is so abundantly clear. After a disastrous 16 minutes and 32 seconds of football that saw the Cougars down 31-0, the Wildcats put the playbook away and just ran the ball. They only threw it five times in the remaining 43 minutes and 28 seconds.

And run, run, run they did. With their backups, no less. The Wildcats racked up 294 yards on the ground on 54 carries, and completely dominated time of possession 41:19 to 18:41. There really wasn’t anything they didn’t dominate. Especially special teams, in which the Cougars gave up both a kick return and a punt return for touchdowns.

There just wasn’t any offense to be had when the Cougars did have the ball. Jeff Tuel went an underwhelming 5/10 for 23 yards while getting mercilessly hurried and sacked with the offensive line defenseless against Arizona’s attack. Tuel’s six sacks led to two lost fumbles as well.

Paul Wulff started Marshall Lobbestael in the second half (likely to spare his young quarterback his life), who fared a bit better going 7/11 for 103 yards, highlighted by a 64-yard touchdown reception by Jered Karstetter midway through the 4th quarter. That was the only highlight of the game for the Cougars, which came with the game already well out of reach at 48-0.

What is there left to say? I feel bad for Paul Wulff; convincing potential recruits to play here after this season is going to be a pretty monumental task.

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