No. 25 WSU gets road test against Oregon State, who coach Jake Dickert says is ‘not our buddy’

Several days before his Washington State team’s next challenge, a road test against fellow Pac-12 member Oregon State on Saturday afternoon, Jake Dickert wanted to make one thing clear.

“I’ve never gotten into the ‘they’re our buddy,’” Dickert said. “Oregon State is not our buddy. They would have left us as fast as we would have left them.”

No. 25 WSU’s head man was referring to the alliance the Cougars and Beavers have formed as the conference’s only holdovers from last year’s realignment, which dissolved the Pac-12 as we know it, prompting the schools’ fans and administrators to join forces and stick together. It’s birthed a unique type of pact.

It just won’t be present this weekend at Corvallis’ Reser Stadium, the site of WSU and OSU’s upcoming clash, set for 4 p.m. on The CW. Dickert might understand why the schools have formed a friendship, operating in lockstep to rebuild the conference, but that won’t help the Cougars win Saturday’s game and move closer to the best bowl game possible.

“It’s a team that wants to beat us, and we want to beat them just as much as they want to beat us,” WSU receiver Kyle Williams said. “So it’s no friendly competition. The outside noise, the media might say it. But when we’re two different teams, practicing in two different states, it’s like, you want to win. So it’s no friendly competition.”

What will help WSU top OSU? The Cougars can start by capitalizing on a depleted Beaver offense. OSU’s quarterback situation has been in flux ever since a blowout loss to Cal last month, when starter Gevani McCoy was benched for junior Ben Gulbranson, who finished the game and started the Beavers’ next contest, a loss to San Jose State.

But Gulbranson has since sustained an injury. In OSU’s 28-0 loss to Air Force last week, McCoy started again, but after one series, he was pulled for true freshman Gabarri Johnson. This season, Oregon State quarterbacks have totaled only four touchdown passes. McCoy has more interceptions (6) than touchdowns (3).

It’s unclear who will start Saturday, which means Dickert and defensive coordinator Jeff Schmedding will have to keep all three quarterbacks’ tendencies in mind. They’re expecting the Beavers to mix in more rushing action for running back Anthony Hankerson, who has totaled 198 carries for 889 yards and 14 touchdowns.

“Obviously last week’s challenge is completely different than this week’s challenge,” Dickert said, referring to WSU’s loss to New Mexico last week. “(Hankerson) should touch the ball 30 times, and how do you stop them in a physical phone booth, and creating some schemes and some ways to limit what he can do. It’ll be more of a downhill tailback run approach, I believe. They’ll mix in (Johnson) for some QB run stuff. So you gotta be ready to adapt.”

The Cougs aren’t exactly coming off a promising showing against a mobile quarterback. In their loss to the Lobos last weekend, they were gashed by UNM quarterback Devon Dampier, who tallied 193 yards and three touchdowns on 28 carries. It was clear he was more comfortable running than throwing, and especially on UNM’s game-winning drive, WSU couldn’t find many ways to slow him down.

That’s part of the reason Dickert indicated this week he’ll be involving himself more on defense against OSU. The Cougars yielded too many points for his liking in their previous two games, 28 in a win over Utah State and 38 in a loss to New Mexico, so he said he’ll be taking “a little bit of a different approach” to managing WSU’s defense this weekend.

“I’ll probably watch a few more of the iPads on the sideline so I can see exactly what’s happening,” Dickertt said, “so I can give my input, ideas, all that type of stuff.”

On offense, WSU will look to keep things rolling from previous outings. Quarterback John Mateer leads the country in total touchdowns with 38, including 26 passing and 12 rushing. He’s been at his best recently, posting five total touchdowns apiece against New Mexico and Utah State, capitalizing on his speed with his legs and improving his accuracy with his arm.

He’s had to adapt his game as the season has unfolded. Early on, when opponents didn’t know his game very well, he was free to scramble from the pocket and run designed QB runs to his heart’s content. Now, as teams commit extra defenders to keeping him contained in the pocket, he’s dialed back that part of his game and leaned on his touch through the air.

It’s yielded some of his best games of late. From WSU’s win over Texas Tech on Sept. 9 to its victory over Fresno State on Oct. 12, his completion percentage hovered around the 50% mark. He hit 70% of his passes in a loss to Boise State, but that number dropped to the 50s against Washington and San Jose State, and his interceptions piled up.

Now he’s turned that around in a meaningful way. For the last month, Mateer’s completion percentage has soared to the 70% range: 85% against Hawaii, 70% against San Diego State, 75% against Utah State and 69% against New Mexico. He hasn’t lost a single turnover in any of those games, either.

“Experience, number one. You get experience out there, you get more comfortable,” Dickert said. “Number two, I thought it was big on that first bye week, we really settled into what John’s good at. I think you’re seeing that now. He was really good at the big ball last week, and we haven’t hit on some of those things. And just him feeling more comfortable in our scheme of what we’re asking him to do.”