Cougar Chalk Talk: WSU’s offense continues to hold back success early in the season

September 28, 2021 9:33 PM

Alex Crescenti,

Posted: September 28, 2021 9:33 PM

Updated: September 28, 2021 9:57 PM

by Alex Crescenti

PULLMAN, Wash. — It’s hard to believe, but we’ve made it a quarter of the way through the college football season already.

For the Washington State Cougars, it’s been four games they mostly would like to forget. What was once thought of as one of the highest-powered offenses in college football has really come back down to earth.

Through four games this year the Cougars are passing for 235 yards a game, which ranks 6th in the Pac-12 and 62 in the nation. The rushing game continues to trail behind (119.3 yds/g), which isn’t anything new for the program, but there has been a bigger focus on the run since Nick Rolovich took over. Scoring has been the Cougar’s biggest weakness. They are only scoring less than 24 points a game, which ranks 10th in the conference and 100th in all of the FBS.

The total offensive production is also the lowest it’s been since the 2010 season, during the middle of the Paul Wulff era. Since then Washington State has never failed to average a season with below 355 yards per game, until now.

On Saturday, the team was only able to put up 318 yards of offense and 13 points against Utah, something the coaches say won’t cut it

“Six points in the half and 13 points total is not good enough, and that’s not why we’re here,” said Head Coach Nick Rolovich in the post-game press conference.

With eight games left to play, all but one are putting up more points than the Cougars at this point in the season, making a bowl game extremely difficult to achieve at this point.