Washington State Cougars Preview 2022: Season Prediction, Breakdown, Key Games, Players
Washington State Cougars Preview 2022: Previewing, predicting, and looking ahead to the season with what you need to know and keys to the season.
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Washington State Cougars Preview
Head Coach: Jake Dickert, 3-3, 2nd year at Washington State
2021 Preview: Overall: 7-6, Conference: 6-3
Keys To The Season
Season Prediction, What Will Happen
Top 10 Players | Washington State Schedule & Analysis
Washington State Cougars Preview 2022
Washington State has been to six bowl games in the last seven seasons, with 2020 and that weird four-game campaign the lone outlier.
Cal can’t boast that. Stanford can’t make that claim. Oregon State can’t, either, and neither can USC or UCLA.
Washington hasn’t been to a bowl game in the last two seasons – granted, 2020 had something to do with that – but Washington State also had its share of adversity last year and figured it out.
Washington State hasn’t been a Pac-12 powerhouse, but it’s been solid, it finds ways to come up with enough wins to have successful seasons, and it only looks to get better with an upgraded offense to go along with some sneaky-good parts on D.
The Pac-12 is far better when Washington State is doing Washington State things with a high-powered offense rolling in high-scoring games, and that’s exactly what’s going to happen this year.
The conference needs a good Wazzu in this current expansion climate, and it’s about to get it.
List
Washington State Cougars Top 10 Players: College Football Preview 2022
Washington State Cougars Preview 2022: Offense
Last year Western Kentucky went from meh to magnificent offensively by getting all of the key parts from the Houston Baptist attack. Washington State’s 2021 offense was mediocre – even with the Pac-12’s second-best passing game, and now it’s about to be jump-started.
Welcome to the Incarnate Word attack.
Former UIW head coach Eric Morris comes in as the new offensive coordinator after his team finished sixth in the FCS in total offense, second in scoring, and averaged 360 passing yards per game. He’s bringing along …
Cameron Ward. He’s a good pro prospect passer who threw for 4,648 yards and 47 touchdowns last year for UIW and ran for a score. It’s his offense to run now with former starting quarterback Jayden de Laura going to Arizona.
Ward also gets one of his key targets to throw to. Robert Ferrel caught 74 passes for 815 yards and nine scores last year. He’ll join the mix with De’Zhaun Stribling back after catching 44 passes and and Donovan Ollie returning after a 26-catch season – those two are 6-2ish big targets who can work in a variety of ways.
The passing game will control the offense – it’s Washington State – but the ground game should be effective. Longtime all-around playmaker Max Borghi is done, but former Wisconsin Badger Nakia Watson should take on a bigger role along with good-looking freshman Jaylen Jenkins.
The line will do some shuffling. It struggled to keep defenses out of the backfield, and it didn’t do enough for the ground game when the O gave it a shot.
Center Brian Greene left for Michigan State, but Konner Gomness is a veteran who can step in. Guard Jarrett Kingston will likely move to tackle, and Northern Colorado transfer Grant Stephens will try to step in for all-star Abraham Lucas.
Washington State Cougars Preview 2022: Defense
The defense was good at not breaking after bending. It was the best in the Pac-12 in red zone defense, it wasn’t bad in the secondary, and it was solid on third downs, What it was really, really good at was taking the ball away, coming up with a Pac-12 high 29 takeaways.
The secondary is undergoing an overhaul, but the Cougars are set on …
The defensive line. The Wazzu front four has a First Team All-Pac-12 end in Ron Stone, a fellow all-star in Brennan Jackson on the other side, and a good rotation in the interior. The pass rush has to be stronger, but the experience and options should make this one of the team’s improved strengths.
The linebacking corps loses longtime star Jahad Woods and running mate Justus Rogers, but Daiyan Henley is coming in from Nevada after a 94-tackle, four-interception season at Nevada, and Travion Brown is a 230-pound veteran who can handle the middle.
The secondary isn’t starting over, but it’s getting a slew of new parts around third-leading tackler and All-Pac-12 nickel back Armani Marsh.
Jordan Lee made 142 tackles with a whole lot of big plays for Nevada over the last three seasons. He’ll step in at one safety job, and former Utah State Aggie Sam Lockett comes in from the JUCO ranks to make a push for the other spot.
Cam Lampkin made 72 tackles with ten broken up passes as a corner for Utah State. He’ll combine with 6-3 veteran Derrick Langford at corner.
Keys To The Season
Season Prediction, What Will Happen
Top 10 Players | Washington State Schedule & Analysis
Washington State Cougars: Keys To The Season, Top Game, Top Transfer, Fun Stats NEXT
Washington State Cougars: Keys To The Season, Top Game, Top Transfer, Fun Stats
Washington State Cougars: Key To The 2022 Offense
Be Washington State again throwing the ball.
No one’s asking for a return to the Mike Leach era of winging it all over the place with the occasional 500-yard passing day, but the offense could use some more 300-yard performances – there was just one last year – and fewer mistakes after giving up 13.
The offensive line has to be stronger, the ground game needs to average over four yards per carry, and more drives have to end in scores after struggling in the red zone.
The new parts to the mix, though, need to create a more dynamic attack – they will.
Washington State Cougars: Key To The 2022 Defense
The run defense has to avoid the disaster.
The pass rush has to be better, and more tackles for loss would be nice, but the bigger need is keep the 200-yard rushing games to a bare minimum.
Overall the Wazzu defenses haven’t been too bad against the run over the years, but a few bad games here and there end up screwing everything up.
Last year the run defense allowed a too-high 4.6 yards per carry, and it was wildly inconsistent.
It got gouged by Oregon and, to a point, Arizona, and allowed ten yards to Washington. It got hammered by Oregon State, and then was a brick wall against Stanford.
The Cougars allowed 200 rushing yards or more five times and lost four of them, and they’re 1-8 in their last nine since 2019 when giving up that many.
By the way, there’s a trip to Wisconsin early on.
Washington State Cougars: Key Player To The 2022 Season
OT Grant Stephens, Sr.
The offensive line should be okay. It’s not going to be a killer, and it has to be stronger in pass protection, but the starting five will get the job done if the tackle situation is set.
New Seattle Seahawk Abraham Lucas was the star at right tackle last year, and now 6-4, 295-pound Grant Stephens comes in from Northern Colorado to try working as a key part of the puzzle. As long as he can hold down the job, the other four up front should be set.
Washington State Cougars: Key Transfer
QB Cameron Ward, Soph.
You want your next college football superstar? The 6-3, 220-pound Ward might just be it if he can translate the production from his time at UIW over to Wazzu.
The 6-3, 223-pound FCS start threw for 2,260 yards and 24 touchdowns with four picks two years ago, and last year was even better hitting 65% of his passes for 4,648 yards and 47 touchdowns with ten picks.
He’s a big-time pro prospect with the mobility to go along with the arm and the decision-making ability to make the O explode.
Washington State Key Game To The 2022 Season
Oregon, Sept. 24
Can the Cougars make a big statement in the Pac-12 opener?
They have a road trip to Wisconsin early on, but that’s the only game outside of Washington until the date at USC in Week 6.
The last win over Oregon was in 2018, but that was part of a four-game winning streak in the series – it’s not like the Cougars haven’t been able to get past the power program before.
Pull off the upset, and with Cal coming up next there’s a good chance to be at least 4-1 going into the USC game as a part of three road games in four dates.
Washington State Cougars: 2021 Fun Stats
– Opponent Scoring: 1st-3rd quarters 188. 4th quarter 127
– Fumbles: Opponents 29 (lost 14) – Washington State 11 (lost 5)
– Total Yards: Washington State 4,922 – Opponents 4,904
Offense, Defense Breakdown
Season Prediction, What Will Happen
Top 10 Players | Washington State Schedule & Analysis
Washington State Cougars Season Prediction, What Will Happen NEXT
Washington State Cougars Season Prediction, What Will Happen
Just how good can the Washington State offense be?
The program went through all the drama of losing its head coach last year – along with an inconsistent offense that didn’t always help the cause – to go 7-5 in the regular season before the bizarre performance in the Sun Bowl loss to Central Michigan.
So why can’t a team with what appears to be a much, much better offense do even more?
It’s possible, but there are a slew of 50/50 games that have to go the right way to come up with a winning season.
Set The Washington State Cougars Regular Season Win Total At … 6
Missing Colorado hurts, but not having to play UCLA in the no-division format is a plus.
Outside of – possibly – USC, there isn’t a killer road game, but Oregon State, Stanford, and Arizona would all be lean-win if those games were played in Pullman. They’re going to be dangerous on the road.
Going to Wisconsin is rough – especially for a team with a sketchy run defense – and while Oregon, Cal, Utah, Arizona State, and Washington are all home games, none of those are a guarantee.
New quarterback Cameron Ward is too good and the offense will be too strong to not get to a bowl game, but it’s going to be a fight to get there. It’ll be a fun season, but it’ll be dramatic.
Offense, Defense Breakdown | Keys To The Season
Top 10 Players | Washington State Schedule & Analysis
