Expect more of same from Cougs
PULLMAN — It may not be fair to expect Washington State to run the ball 61 times for 321 yards every week. Nor would it be reasonable to bank on running back Jerome Harrison to carry the ball a school-record 42 times for 247 of those yards.
But you can be awfully sure that, in the aftermath of that dominating ground-game performance at UCLA last weekend, the Cougars will at least give the running game a chance to lead the way when they travel to No. 20 Arizona State this week for a second straight road game.
“We played well. We played very physical and aggressive,” offensive line coach George Yarno said. “The running game got going well and we just kind of fed off of it.
“Our kids enjoyed it and it was good to have that success because we’ve lost some games.”
In fact, the Cougars had lost four straight games before that 31-29 win, and not one of them had much resembled what transpired in Pasadena. Not once during the skid did WSU possess the ball for more than 27:45, and twice the team just barely managed 21 minutes of possession time on offense.
That all changed because of Harrison and the ball-control offense the Cougars executed successfully on Saturday. WSU had the ball for 35:51 against the Bruins, and ran 88 plays on offense in the process.
One concern following the game was Harrison’s health, as the junior college transfer hadn’t gone for more than 20 carries before UCLA. In postgame interviews, the running back said he felt pretty good, and on Wednesday he reaffirmed that the unusually heavy workload didn’t have any negative aftereffects.
“I thought I was going to spend all Sunday and this week in the training room,” Harrison said. “But I went in there Sunday, got iced up, and that was the end of it. I healed pretty quickly.
“Forty-two carries, getting up on your own, that will take a toll. But my offensive line and wide receivers helped me up on every play and that really took a lot off my body.”
WSU is quick to admit that part of the reason for their success was the lackluster run defense brought to the table by UCLA. The Bruins entered that game giving up 218 yards a game on the ground, and they looked every bit as troubled as the statistic would suggest going up against the Cougars.
Arizona State, meanwhile, has not been spectacular, but at 124.3 yards allowed a game has been much more stout. So while the Cougars will almost certainly test the ground game to see if last week was a fluke or a harbinger, they may not rely upon it as heavily as they did earlier.
“I think you try to prepare to beat every team by attacking what you think you can do,” Yarno said. “Every week is a little different, but we definitely have some momentum, and our kids are excited and feel a bit more confident. I think that helps us going into this week now. Can we do that same thing again? I don’t know. They’re pretty good.”
Notes
The Cougars practiced without pads for the Wednesday session, repeating a strategy they used last week before traveling to UCLA. … The practice also had a mystical element added by a bank of fog that hung over campus for much of the day. The fog grew thicker as practice progressed, and by the final snaps it was difficult to see clearly over more than 50-60 yards. … Defensive tackle Bryan Olson returned to practice Wednesday after missing the day before with the flu.