The Good, Bad and Ugly of WSU Wrecking Texas Tech

That’s a power conference team?

Good day! Before we get to the usual inane ramblings, let’s check in on our friends from Lubbock.

You hate to see it.

Now, you may recall that both the Texas Tech Red Raiders and Washington State Cougars have ties to a certain revolutionary coach named Mike Leach. Leach did great things at both programs, leaving indelible marks during the process. But here’s where the paths diverge. Texas Tech ran Leach out of town, stiffing him millions of dollars in the process. After rebuilding WSU to respectability from the smoldering ruins of the Wulff era, Leach left WSU of his own accord in 2019 (after trying really hard to leave in late 2017!), and things ended about as well as one could hope, given Leach’s well-known intransigence.

Fast forward to Saturday when WSU inducted Leach into its hall of fame, shortly before the Cougs faced the Red Raiders on a lovely (and warm) Saturday night. In a game that wasn’t exactly reminiscent of a Leach-run offense, the Cougs took an early lead and never surrendered it, capitalizing on Raider mistakes and using their quarterback to run roughshod, setting a school record for QB rushing yards in a game.

But while Saturday’s game was won on the ground, WSU still leaned on its quarterback to get the job done, only with his legs instead of his arm. In the end, the school that honored the departed coach put a three-score beatdown on the school that tarred and feathered him to purgatory. Karma, on this night, was Wazzu’s boyfriend. (This is how I can tell if Emma read the article).

The Good

• Three straight seasons of a WSU win over a team from another power conference. I’m too lazy to look up whether that’s a first, but it’s pretty sweet.
• John Mateer, who you might recall plays quarterback, rushed 197 yards, a school record for that position. Did I mention WSU’s quarterback ran for almost 200 yards? With 9.4 YPC? Even as they were ripping his helmet off?! What in the name of Ricky Turner is going on around here??!!
• How ‘bout that opening pooch kick success! Pretty great! We will re-address this further down!
• Great tackle by Tyson Durant to force a punt on Tech’s first drive, after Tech faced 2nd-and-3. Durant also broke up a two-point conversion down the stretch.
• Am I the only one, besides Steven Ayers of course, who thinks John Mateer is ideally suited for the single wing? Let’s see it, Arbuckle!
• I have no idea how Kylany recovered that Pulalasi fumble, but it was YUGE. It was really nice of the refs to ignore the crown of the helmet hit to Pulalasi’s face on the play.
• Heckuva job by Gushiken to bust up a screen pass when Tech was threatening to score, forcing 3rd-and-29.
• If you’ve watched the highlights, or even if you haven’t yet, make sure to replay the first play of the second half to see Brock Dieu pull around and absolutely blast a poor defender. Beautiful.
• While third down defense was not great (Tech converted 10 of 19), WSU really bowed up on fourth down, allowing only one conversion in five Tech attempts. One biggie was Durant breaking up a pass at midfield when WSU led just 7-3.
• Even better was the next one, when Tech brought in Jalin Conyers for a 4th-and-1 try which the Cougs stuffed, led by Tanner Moku blowing up the play before Conyers could generate a push.
• One play later, Wayshawn Parker was making fools of the defense on a 43-yard bolt a beautifully-schemed counter), and WSU was never seriously threatened again. Man that kid is good.
• Stephen Hall had a hell of a game, playing solid coverage and leading the team with 11 tackles. When your top two tacklers are DBs – Durant was second with 8 – it’s usually a bad sign. But on this night, those two were really good. Durant also broke up two passes and tallied a hit on the quarterback.
• Josh Kelly made lots of great plays for WSU in 2023, and helped make a couple more for WSU Saturday, particularly when Taariq Al-Uqdah stripped him and damn near scored.
• While it was a bummer that Al-Uqdah didn’t pull off the scoop and score, it was pretty cool to see the Cougs in the I formation! Especially when Cooper Mathers blasted a hole open for an easy Schlenbaker TD.
• I’ve always wondered why more teams try the old “hard count/lull the defense to sleep/actually snap it” scheme on short yardage, and I’ll admit that I nearly had a stroke when we tried it, but it worked!
• Kyle Williams needs far more than one catch and two targets per game. That was criminal. But hey, that one catch was pretty great!
• Great quarterback hit by Quinn Roff to force a bad throw and interception to stop a Tech red zone possession.
• Credit to Ben Arbuckle for designing plays that work to the strengths of the players. He had a really good game plan.
• On the whole, WSU was the more disciplined team, collecting only three accepted flags, while Texas Tech amassed 10 for 80 yards, many rather costly. When you’re a team that has to win on the margins, stats like that can be a difference-maker.

The Bad

• Has the game ended yet?
• For real that took FOREVER. Not ideal when you’re watching from Central time!
• Saturday night. National spotlight. Power conference team in Pullman, which we know is incredibly rare. Not even 28,000 tickets sold. I was thinking that the “stripe the stadium” nonsense should have included the grounds crew painting a bunch of the empty bleachers to make it look better.
• Did somebody tell Devin Gardner that Saturday night’s dress code was “Pool table chic”?
• No, Tim Brando, you absolutely did not see any roadrunners on your drive from Spokane to Pullman. Not once. Never.
• There’s going to come a time, probably as soon as next weekend, when WSU will need its quarterback to win a game with his arm. We have scant evidence that he’s capable of it.
• Methinks Ben Arbuckle is going to have some pointed feedback for Mateer and his ghastly footwork, particularly on the touchdown throw to Williams. Has to get better.
• The receivers weren’t a lot of help on Saturday with the drops, either.
• As an old person, I know exactly why the ref needs to put on glasses to look at the replay screen. But still…THE REF NEEDED GLASSES TO WATCH REPLAYS.
• One of the reasons the game was interminable? The three stupid reviews of plays we all knew would not be changed.
• I don’t know if Tech’s offensive line is any good, but WSU’s defensive line was hardly able to generate pressure on its own.
• Never ceases to amuse me when teams overtly pad the stats and the end of a half or game. In Saturday’s case, it was Morton to Kelly for 20 yards on the last play of the first half. I do not understand why coaches risk another play and the chance of an injury for no reason other than to make a stat line look a little better.
• Hey, coach? I’m glad that the pooch worked when you caught them unaware. That doesn’t mean you needed to try it several more times.
• I loved the play when WSU had like 18 guys on the field, sacked the QB, and the announcers thought the flag was for excessive celebration.

The Ugly

• For nearly three years now, we’ve had to live through an inept placekicking situation. Three games last year – all losses – that were decided by three points included at least one missed field goal. The starting kicker is 8/18 for his career on tries from 40+. Not acceptable. Saturday included yet another botched PAT, as well as a missed kick that would have given WSU a 14-point lead in the second quarter. Three years of this. How are we not better at that position? How long will Dickert let this continue?
• Really gotta hand it to WSU’s special teams for its ironic use of “hands team.”
• The “what are we doing?” moment of the night came when WSU went from 1st-and-goal at the 1 yard line to 2nd-and-goal at the 16. Just a travshamockery of a play there.
• Texas Tech ran Mike Leach out of town in 2009. Since then, it has been churning through coaches who range from the inept (Matt Wells) to lying, grifting US Senators (Tommy Tuberville) and everything in between. Leach went 84-43 in Lubbock. The the four head coaches and three interim coaches since have gone 87-88. AD Kirby Hocutt, who has been in Lubbock since 2011 after being in charge of Miami’s athletic department during the Nevin Shapiro debacle, is largely responsible for Tech’s football inertia. Still, he somehow believes Texas Tech, a school that last won a conference title in 1994 – when it went 6-6! – and has never, ever finished on the Top 10, can be an “elite” (his word) program. So Tech paid Matt Wells $7M to go away after 2.5 years, and gave Joey McGuire a new six-year, $26M deal after one season when he went 7-5. 7-5! And after another middling season, Tech will probably pay him something like $16M to go away. Kirby, I’ve got bad news for you. You’re churning through coach after coach, chasing a ghost that will never appear. You can always visit WSU’s Hall of Fame to see the pirate your s ran out of town. But he’s ours, now and forever, and you ain’t getting him back.

Highlights!

Interviews!

This Week in Parenting

The Mighty Dolphins football team had an off week, so Team Kendall loaded up the family truckster and headed to the loveliest village on the plains for a weekend at Auburn. The reason for the trip was for the oldest to visit a college he might be interested in attending. Since he’s interested in joining the Air Force, I lined up a visit at the ROTC detachment. Oh, and there also happened to be a football game taking place. Total coincidence!

While the kiddo is still hoping to attend the Air Force Academy, he was pretty impressed by the town and the ROTC tour, but remained noncommittal. On the other hand, Mrs. Kendall was ready to sign her parent letter of intent on the spot! She is all in for Auburn. The town, the campus, the ROTC program, the whole package. I’m pretty sure she was ready to take to Instagram and declare, “No Interviews! Respect my decision! War MF’ing Eagle!”

For real though, Auburn is pretty cool, and there are far worse places to spend 4-8 years of one’s young life.

I mentioned that we attended the football game, which was against the Cal. Of course I traveled all the way down here to watch another Cal game. Unfortunately for the locals, the Bears came in, outplayed the Tigers, and left Jordan-Hare Stadium with a win. It was not a good look for a team and school that has cast its entire lot (seriously, Hugh Freeze’s name, image and likeness are everywhere, all the way down to the souvenir cups that read, “Freeze Warning” and eschew the school’s logo) with a coach who has accomplished next to nothing there.

Anyhoo, Team Kendall had an enjoyable weekend in Auburn, despite the home team’s loss and the innumerable number of the glitches at the hotel, which had been open for precisely one day when we checked in.

The permit-possessing teenager drove most of the way up, and all the way home (it’s about a 3:45 drive), and he only almost killed us once! I’ll consider that a win, although following street and highway signs does not seem to be his thing so far.

This past week the teenager brought home this giant packet filled with brochures and order forms for high school graduation rings. My first thought: “Hang on. People still buy those things? For real?” Then I saw the prices. The baseline was almost $400, and they topped out an over $1,700. $1,700! For showing everyone you graduated from high school! I’m here to tell you that one million/one million high school seniors would much prefer the money that went toward a ring they’ll wear twice ever to go toward college, life expenses, or straight into their bank accounts. Every one of them. I had no idea these still existed.

Elsewhere, we started up our annual NFL picks and fantasy teams this week, and I asked the kids what they wanted their team names to be for the pick ‘em pool. The youngest said, “I’d like to be the 69ers.” Um, no.

Part of the 12 year-old’s school work is independent reading, where he reads a book every few weeks and takes a quiz at school. So since he has very little homework to begin with, we mandate that he reads for 30 minutes per day during the week. Well last week, Mrs. Kendall got suspicious, and of course her mom instincts were correct. Turns out the kid’s chosen book was one HE READ LAST YEAR! The best part was that he tried to convince mom to let him continue with the charade. That did not go over well, and he now has a new book.

Back to Saturday, where the teenager went to hang out with a friend of his when Cal took a 21-7 lead and fans began to stream out of the stadium. The 12 year-old and I stuck with it until the end, and had in not been for dreadful QB play, Aubie may have tied the game. That was when the youngest declared his lone criterion for deciding on a college, “I want to go to a school with a good football team.” Welp, I guess he’s going to Ohio State. Yuck.

After the game at dinner, a solo Auburn fan sat at a table near us, at times doom scrolling, at times staring blankly as his beer sat in front of him. The human definition of “down bad.” He was in such a state that he hadn’t even been seated at the table, and moved to another one when the hostess seated someone who had actually put their name in. While at the second table, another couple sat down, and took enough pity on the young man that they let him sit with them. Misery does love company, after all. It was then that, as a token of his thanks, he ordered a round of shots for his new friends. We were getting set to depart, but the 12 year-old said he wanted to hang back, saying, “I gotta watch this guy get hammered.”

Welcome to college football fandom, son. It’s one hell of a ride.