A GRIP ON SPORTS • Just because it is a Sunday morning and the ultra-serious NFL beckons, does that mean we shouldn’t have some fun? No way. College football’s weekend was fun, the Seahawks’ home game with the Dolphins holds potential for more and there is the always tragicomic exercise of making fun of Pac-12 football officials to be had.
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• The CW broadcast crew Friday night in Pullman caught on to something that others around the nation are just beginning to understand: Just how good the quarterback room at Washington State was last season.
The top three guys in Ben Arbuckle’s classroom every day were, in order, Cam Ward, John Mateer and Emmett Brown.
And where are they now? We all know, right? They are scattered, using their newly granted transfer-portal freedom in the appropriate way – to better their situation. All of them did, actually.
How’s that again? It’s simple. Mateer stayed, sure. But maybe only because Ward left. We will never know. And Brown, who was without a scholarship, left to see if he was as good as Arbuckle thought – talented enough to start a lot of places but a step behind Ward and Mateer.
Everyone has been right.
Ward, who flirted with declaring for the draft, is probably making more money in NIL as the University of Miami’s latest quarterback savior. He’s also flirting with the status of Heisman favorite. He’s certainly a contender, one who helped his cause Saturday in the Hurricanes’ 50-15 rout of South Florida.
The night before his two WSU quarterback-class mates were doing their thing in Pullman. Yes, Mateer’s Cougars won, but the 54-52 final score showed Brown’s abilities as well, as San Jose State’s flirtation with victory rested mainly with his right arm.
The lines:
– Mateer was 26-of-46 passing for 390 yards, with four touchdowns and two interceptions. He also ran for 111 yards on 18 carries (and rushed for a TD as well).
– Brown was 35-of-54 for 375 yards, also with four touchdowns and two interceptions. He lost nine yards rushing due to sacks – and former roommate Quinn Roff’s final strip sack that determined the outcome.
– Ward yesterday? He was 24-of-34 for 404 yards, throwing three touchdowns and an interception. He gained 43 yards on five rushing attempts.
Add it up and the trio was 85-of-134, threw for 1,169 yards, 11 touchdowns and five picks. They combined – this is mostly Mateer’s doing of course – for 145 yards rushing on 28 carries (5.2 yards per attempt) and added two touchdowns.
We’re darn sure we could search the college football archives from here to Halloween and not find a day like that for three former teammates. Ever. And three teammates who shared notes, pencils and playlists as recently as the year before.
Arbuckle is just 29 years old. But the Cougars’ offensive coordinator will look back at the 2023 season as he begins collecting Social Security and rank the WSU group as the best quarterback room he ever coached.
• Yes, Tua Tagovailoa is not going to play for the Dolphins today. Skylar Thompson will be Miami’s starting quarterback. Advantage, Seahawks?
Maybe. It’s a new era in Seattle and maybe Mike Macdonald’s defensive scheme won’t be torn apart by a backup as often happened to Pete Carroll’s group the past few years.
If the trend continues, we’re going to suggest the Hawks send bubble wrap to every opponent on their schedule, with instructions on how to keep their starters healthy.
• We will finish with a few words we wrote Friday night. They ended on the cutting room – read, our living room – floor as the end-of-game heroics bumped them from the rotation. They are about the weird flavor of the game’s officiating, what with some odd flags and even odder replay reviews.
Anyhow, here is what we wrote. One note. We wrote it before the missed call on the Cougars’ game-winning two-point conversion that was overturned, correctly, by the replay official.
“One thing hasn’t seemed to change in this year of Pac-12 transition. The officiating leaves something to be desired at times.
Twice replay stepped in on first-half plays, one a targeting call and one non-call on a fumble. On both, CW officiating analyst Michael Mothershed, a former Pac-12 referee, watched the replays and came up with opinions that were diametrically opposed with what was ultimately decided.
The targeting? Mothershed felt it was obvious. The replay official, who was not identified by the CW crew, thought otherwise. The non-call ultimately cost the Cougars points as they failed on an ensuing fake field goal.
The fumble? Replays seemed to show a scrambling Mateer lost the football before hitting the ground. No official saw it that way. Nor did they see Mateer’s head whip around on what looked to be a face-mask grab as he went down.
Mothershed thought for sure replay would rule the play a fumble and a Spartans’ recovery. Nope. Referee John Love announced the call of Mateer being down stood. It seemed a good compromise as Love and the replay official may have seen the missed penalty as they reviewed the play.”
One other aspect of this. The seeding of Big Ten and Big 12 officiating crews with former Pac-12 officials. It’s another part of realignment that has snuck under the radar. Case in point: USC’s visit to Michigan. For those of us who follow such things, it was a little off-putting to see referee Chris Coyte, a Pac-12 mainstay who left before last season, wearing the white hat in the Big House, as Gus Johnson loves calling Michigan Stadium.
The 110,702 must have been enamored of Coyte’s crew as well, considering the host Wolverines were flagged just three times for 25 yards. Then again, the Trojans were hit with six penalties, but only for 32 yards.
The let-them-play mantra showed in the physical nature in the secondaries, where contact was the norm and excessive hand-fighting was seemingly encouraged. Is there any wonder there was little in the way of offense? And that the lack of supervision of the secondaries was a win for the Wolverines?
• OK, one more thought and it is officiating-adjacent. There is a problem we’ve noticed watching the CW broadcasts. The announcers talk over the referee’s announcements way too often, a faux pas that has to stop.
When something odd happens on the field, vis-à-vis flags and such, we want to know what the reasoning was. The outcome too. The referee talks with us. Tells us. It is nice of them. The announcing crew needs to respect that and let them be heard.
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WSU: The trap week is over. Now there’s another trap ahead in Boise on Saturday night. A tougher one with a greater reward. The Broncos are listed by most everyone as the frontrunner for the fifth automatic berth in the CFP playoffs. Washington State is not a member of an eligible conference, under the playoff rules, so they can’t grab that away from Boise State. But they can cement their at-large credentials with a road win over the seeming frontrunner. … It’s those playoff hopes that Jacob Thorpe addresses today in this column. And what the Cougars have to do to earn a berth. … It’s a bit early for Greg Woods to look ahead. Instead, he dissected the game-saving drive Mateer and the Cougs put together to tie the game at the end of regulation. … We can pass along another look from San Jose as well. … Jon Wilner’s mailbag, which is on the S-R site today, covers a lot of conference ground. … Elsewhere in the (new and old) Pac-12, the Mountain West and the nation, John Canzano enjoyed his college football weekend, even with all the realignment weirdness. … Wilner returns with his look at Saturday’s madness, which also mentions Friday’s Coug win. …The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel has his thoughts as well. … If you didn’t watch any of James Madison’s win over North Carolina, you missed a lot. Of points, mainly. … Tennessee may be really good. The Volunteers sure looked like it in Norman last night, as they handed Oklahoma its first SEC loss. … Oregon State raised the Pac-12’s record against Power 5 opponents to 3-1 with a convincing 38-21 victory over the Big Ten’s Purdue in Corvallis. … The Beavers’ rushing attack was overpowering. … There was some luck involved as well. … Washington opened Big Ten play by hosting Northwestern, a school that is also hard by a lake. The Husky defense swamped the Wildcats and earned a 24-5 victory. … The ending of the Colorado win over visiting Baylor was incredibly silly – and impressive. … The Utah win at Oklahoma State to open Big 12 play was also impressive in a completely different way. … The gut-wrenching USC defeat was because Lincoln Riley falters under pressure? He should have made the tackle on the long Michigan run we guess. … UCLA came close at LSU. … Arizona State did too at Texas Tech. … California defended Florida State well enough to win. But the Bears’ offense and field goal kicker came up short (or wide, if you prefer) and host FSU won 14-9. … Former Cal coach Sonny Dykes got tossed in TCU’s loss at SMU. … What the heck did we learn from Stanford’s 26-24 victory at Syracuse on Friday? … In the Mountain West, Boise State tuned up for the Cougars by rolling over a previous WSU opponent, Portland State 56-14. … Fresno State won again, topping New Mexico on the road. … Hawaii looked better in topping visiting Northern Iowa 36-7. … Colorado State picked up a much-needed win over UTEP…. Wyoming was blown out again, losing 44-17 to North Texas. … Utah State also struggled, coming apart in the second half against Temple.
EWU: It may be another long year for the Eagles. Nevada, which had struggled through its first four games under first-year coach Jeff Choate, walloped them in Reno 49-16. Dan Thompson was there and has a game story as well as a notebook. Eastern fell to 1-3 with the loss. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Montana fell behind by 17 points but rallied and topped visiting Western Carolina 46-35. … Montana State, at No. 3, is the top-ranked Big Sky school. The Bobcats played like it, routing Mercyhurst 52-13. … Idaho State is improved as the Bengals’ 38-28 homecoming win over Southern Utah shows. … Northern Colorado is struggling once more, falling to Stephen F. Austin 48-7. … Weber State dominated on defense and routed Northwestern State 49-0. … Sacramento State also shut out Texas A&M-Commerce. … UC Davis prepared for Big Sky play with a dominating win over Utah Tech. … Northern Arizona could not hold onto the ball and fell to Incarnate Word.
Idaho: The Vandals continue to find a way to win. Only a top-10 FBS school, Oregon in Eugene, has been able to stop UI from that pursuit. The FCS’s 19th-ranked team, Abilene Christian, tried Saturday in Texas and came up short against the fourth-ranked Vandals. Colton Clark has more in this game story. … The Vandals have a number of players from Oregon.
Whitworth: Are we in the midst of a golden age for Pirate football? Sure seems like it. Saturday in the Pine Bowl, they won for the 13th time in their last 14 games, holding off always tough Chapman University – a former employer of ours in our (much) younger days – 35-28. Greg Lee was there, soaking in the near-perfect September weather and writing this game story. … James Snook has a whole bunch of photographs on the same link.
Preps: Football is almost a third of the way through its schedule and Dave Nichols is ready for some pronouncements. He has them in his latest Friday Night (High)lights column. … Dave also has a roundup of Saturday’s action which covers a variety of other sports.
Chiefs: A split. That’s what Spokane ended up with after losing 3-1 Saturday night in Prince George. The road trip continues this week. Dave returns with this coverage.
Reign: Seattle’s playoff hopes took a hit with the Reign’s road loss in Houston.
Mariners: Goodness, Julio Rodriguez is hot at the plate. And Randy Arozarena made a catch the younger set would term fire. Add it up and the M’s and their resurgent offense won 8-4 over the Rangers and made up a little ground in the wild-card race. Time is running short but there is still an opening to the postseason. … Cal Raleigh is making a case to be considered the best catcher in baseball.
Seahawks: Win and the Hawks are in the NFC West driver’s seat. For a while anyway. … The offensive line has to come together for Seattle to continue to win. … The captains vary week-to-week. Here’s why. … There is a lot to watch today. And to bet on. We might be inclined to favor the under today but that’s just us. And we are an awful gambler. … Sam Farmer sees it the other way, which makes sense.
Kraken: The preseason slate is about to begin with Seattle facing Calgary.
Storm: Before we get to Seattle’s postseason hopes and schedule, which begins today … oh, wait, we just did … let’s touch base with a couple standout WNBA players with area ties. We start with Courtney Vandersloot, the former Gonzaga star who hopes to help New York win a title. And then we head to Indiana, where Central Valley High grad Lexie Hull is a big reason why Caitlin Clark and the Fever are the team no one wants to play in the postseason.
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• We have a pork loin marinating on the counter. The pickles, swiss cheese, sweet ham, mustard and bread are ready. The sandwich press is clean. Yep, we’re making Cubanos for the game with the Dolphins. Miami Cuban sandwiches to be precise – and appropriate. Until later …
