First look: Looking for second-straight upset, Washington State hosts No. 19 Wisconsin

PULLMAN – Here’s a first look at Washington State’s home-opener against No. 19 Wisconsin on Saturday.

What is it?: Washington State, coming off a 50-24 thumping of Colorado State last weekend to open the season, kicks off its home slate against No. 19 Wisconsin. It’s a rematch of last season’s game in Madison, where WSU pulled off a 17-14 upset.

Where is it?: Gesa Field at Martin Stadium in Pullman.

When is it?: Kickoff is set for 4:30 p.m. local time.

Where can I watch it?: ABC will broadcast the game.

Who is favored?: As of Monday evening, Wisconsin was a 61/2-point favorite, according to VegasInsider.

How did the Cougars fare last week? In a matchup against Colorado State, which profiled as an improved team, WSU racked up 50 points in a lopsided victory. Quarterback Cameron Ward logged a career day, completing 37 of 49 passes for 451 yards and three touchdowns, working around a pair of fumbles to lead the Cougs to their sixth season-opening win in seven tries.

Washington State’s defense, which looked a little leaky on Colorado State’s opening drive, forced the Rams into a field goal to open the game. After that, safety Jaden Hicks snared a pick-six, Jackson Lataimua grabbed his own interception and held the Rams scoreless outside of the fourth quarter.

To Dickert, though, CSU’s 21-point fourth quarter was cause for some concern.

“You freeze the film at, what was it, 36 to 3, at the start of the fourth quarter, and we gotta learn how to finish,” Dickert said. “So a lot of good things, a lot of things we left out there. I think it grabbed our attention this morning, and we’ll be a better team because of it.”

Parsing the end of blowouts is always a little tricky. At that point in the game, Washington State had already secured a giant lead, so in went the backups . That, in large part, is why the Rams pulled off a kickoff return touchdown, plus two more scores.

Back when Dickert was a defensive coordinator (Wyoming in 2019 and at WSU from 2020-2021) he built habits around situations like these. If his team was up big late and the opponent scored a time or two because the backups were in, Dickert’s wife, Candice would pipe up.

“You’re gonna be crabby, aren’t you?” she would say.

“And most of the time I was,” Dickert said. “I’ve improved in my old age. I think you really take them as learns. I think you really do. So when we walk into that special teams meeting, we’re gonna have their full attention because of what happened. And yes, it didn’t cost us this game. But we need to be better to make sure it doesn’t cost us a game down the future.”

Scouting No. 19 Wisconsin… Good luck making sense of Wisconsin’s offensive outing last week. In the Badgers’ 38-17 win over Buffalo, new offensive coordinator Phil Longo’s first game, running backs Braelon Allen and Chez Mellusi posted 141 yards and 157 yards on the ground, respectively. All told, Wisconsin logged 314 yards rushing for four touchdowns.

“I’m not sure there’s a better two tailbacks on the same team in the country,” Dickert said.

It’s tricky, though, because those numbers belie Wisconsin’s new approach on offense. Longo and WSU offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle would likely get along. Longo wants to build an Air Raid offense in the Badgers’ program, installing a system that encourages receivers to find open space and pushes quarterback Tanner Mordecai to find them.

The Badgers did plenty of that on Saturday. Mordecai, a transfer from Southern Methodist, connected on 24 of 31 passes for 189 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. For the most part, he played it safe, finding receivers Will Pauling and Tucker Ascraft for intermediate completions. It wasn’t exactly the electric outing some expected, but Mordecai’s teammates felt good about smaller details of his outing, according to the Athletic.

Longo’s system, which he calls the “Don’t Blink” offense, is built on simplicity and efficiency.

“Balance to us is not 40 runs and 40 passes,” Longo told Coach and Coordinator Media back in February, shortly after first-year head coach Luke Fickell hired him as offensive coordinator. “Balance to us is the distribution of the football to all of the weapons that we have in the offense. Here (at Wisconsin), we’ve got two really good ones, and we’ve got a really good running back room. What we want to do is increase how effective we can be in the passing game so that defenses have to defend the full field and all five skill players. That’s really the goal of the Air Raid here at Wisconsin.”

“This is not the Wisconsin team that I know growing up,” Dickert said. “So biggest thing, new staff, they brought in new schemes and systems that they’re still getting comfortable with. But the identity of Wisconsin football is there: Big, fast, tough, play aggressive, play with tons of effort. So the core of what’s always been perennial top-15 program is there, and they’re getting used to new roles, new coordinators.”

In Wisconsin’s defense, Washington State will get an opponent that just defended a rather peculiar offense. Last weekend, Buffalo quarterback Cole Snyder completed 26 passes – to 12 different receivers. The Badgers fared decently in that department, allowing just 193 passing yards between all those guys, but sorting out how that defense will matchup with the Cougs’ offense is difficult.

Some names to watch, at the very least: Linebacker Jordan Turner (though he will miss Saturday’s first half because he was ejected for targeting in the second half of the Buffalo game), outside linebacker Darryl Peterson (five tackles last weekend) and nickelback Jason Maitre.

What happened last time? Who can forget? In a homecoming for Dickert, a Wisconsin native, the Cougars marched into Camp Randall and upset the Badgers, again ranked No. 19 at the time. WSU running back Nakia Watson scored both of his team’s touchdowns, and on defense, the Cougars bottled up Allen, a key reason why WSU pulled off the win.