- Moore's offense showed some pulse, but the Cougs still left plays on the field
PULLMAN – The beginning of this Washington State season, the gauntlet the Cougars would see to open the Kirby Moore era, was always going to be difficult to parse. They faced three Power 4 teams in their first four games. Two were on the road. One came on a short week.
The Cougars were expected to come away from that stretch with one win and three losses. Thanks to a 34-24 setback to Arizona here on Saturday evening, WSU has fulfilled that much, which is not an indictment on these Cougars. But it does bring up the question that may define the rest of this season.
How many of the problems WSU’s offense is facing are a product of the stiff competition, and how many are the product of self-inflicted wounds that the Cougars would commit against the Pac-12 foes coming up?
We won’t know that much until conference play arrives when WSU hosts Fresno State next weekend, but the early returns on the Cougars’ offense are far from encouraging. Think about this stat, which is now official after Saturday’s game: In three games against FBS competition, WSU has produced three offensive touchdowns and committed six turnovers. The Cougars have lost seven total.
Moore’s team was expected to lose the games it has. It’s the way the Cougs’ offense is costing the team, though, that raises cause for concern.
“We gotta make sure we have a plan that everyone’s on the same page,” Moore said, “going from the half to the third quarter, especially in a tight game like that where our defense is battling, and we gotta find more ways to create explosive plays. We had them in the first quarter, in the first half, and had opportunities there to score even more. And then in the second half, we didn’t. So we gotta look at the film and see where we went wrong.”
In this one, WSU quarterback Caden Pinnick completed 24 of 41 passes for 241 yards, one touchdown and one interception, which came in the first quarter. If an Arizona defender hadn’t bobbled the ball later in the first half, Pinnick would have thrown two. Those were two costly decisions. Consider the other turnover Pinnick lost, a fumble that happened because he tried to throw the ball while being dragged down, and you start to see some of the poor decision-making that has led to Pinnick’s total turnover number this fall: four.
The reason that trend looms large for WSU: Pinnick is committing turnovers because of listless decisions, not because Power 4 athletes are making spectacular plays. Remember his interception last week against FCS Duquesne, when he threw into what became triple coverage downfield? Those are the kinds of poor decisions that have created such a gaping hole in the Cougars’ offense.
It would be one thing if Pinnick was playing a solid brand of football and a freak Power 4 defender, the kind that Arizona and Kansas State can afford, used his strength to jar the ball loose. That would be forgivable. But that’s not what’s happening. It may be Pinnick’s first season of FBS ball, but he has been too slow to differentiate a good decision from a bad one, especially when he’s looking to stretch the field vertically.
That raises a fair question: How can WSU coaches help Pinnick avoid those kinds of turnovers? How can they help Pinnick make better decisions, like in the third quarter, when he slid and gave himself up one yard short of a first down?
“We’re all in this together,” Moore said. “So it starts with me, obviously the offensive staff. Just having that dialogue with him, whether it’s in practice on the headset, reminders, making sure he knows exactly the stipulations, or even there on the third down. We ran the quarterback, he slides. That’s an unfortunate one. It’s a QB-designed run, and so we got to make sure he’s on the same page with that.”
The other problem the Cougars are facing is consistency. Their first drive in Saturday’s game, an 11-play, 71-yard scoring series, was nearly flawless. It ended when Pinnick took a QB keeper 11 yards into the end zone, following a string of perfect blocks, capping a perfect series. If that’s the way the Cougs were going to play in this one, well, the Wildcats should have been on their heels.
But WSU’s offense hardly looked the same after that. In the third quarter, the Cougs put up these numbers: 3 points, 149 total yards, 44 rushing yards, two three-and-outs, four punts and three sacks taken, giving Pinnick 10 sacks taken on the season. That opened the door for Arizona to turn a three-point deficit into a four-point lead, adding two more scoring drives in the fourth frame.
The Cougs can rebound from this. They showed what their offense can look like on that first series, and by showing an increased willingness to take shorter throws, Pinnick looks more than capable of making adjustments. But the biggest one he’ll have to make to avoid meeting the same fate against Pac-12 teams is more about trimming things out of his game.
He’ll have to make better decisions, better calls on when to try to stretch the ball down the field and when to be OK with checking it down. Fresno State’s defense figures to give him more opportunities to show that kind of acumen. But it’s on Pinnick, Moore and offensive coordinator Matt Miller to put themselves in a position where those changes don’t become just possible, they become probable.
“Give Arizona credit; they have a unique scheme,” Moore said. “So there was different variations of zone, whether it was inside, outside. Obviously, the quarterback pin-pull there we scored on in the first quarter. So there were some ID things there. Give them a ton of credit with how fast and hard those guys played. But we gotta have an answer as well with protecting the quarterback and having some more opportunities in the pass game.”
- Moore takes over WSU playcalls, promises QB competition this week
PULLMAN – Washington State coach Kirby Moore will be calling the shots on offense moving forward.
Moore is taking over playcalling duties from offensive coordinator Matt Miller, Moore said Monday afternoon, making a big change as the Cougars’ offense struggles.
“I can’t wait to go to practice today,” said Moore, who called plays from 2023-25 at Missouri, where he worked as offensive coordinator. “Just look forward to, naturally, I’m gonna be on the offensive side the whole time. But with that, just working with our guys. They’re working their tail off, and we’re gonna put the best plan moving forward for Friday.”
It’s the first significant change Moore has made to remedy his team’s offense, which went without a touchdown in a 26-6 loss to Fresno State on Saturday evening. That was the second time the Cougars’ offense didn’t score a touchdown this season, a key reason why WSU (1-4) has started so slowly in Moore’s debut year, its offense ranking No. 133 of 138 FBS teams with just 247 yards per game.
The Cougars’ 19 points per game ranks No. 120 in the country. In four games against FBS competition this season, they have scored just three offensive touchdowns. They have eight total, which ranks No. 133 nationally, four spots up from last.
Miller, who Moore confirmed is still part of the WSU program, last worked at Boise State, where he served as wide receivers coach from 2020-24 and co-offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach in 2025. But Miller wasn’t calling plays for the Broncos last fall.
WSU has now lost nine turnovers on the season, including six from quarterback Caden Pinnick, who threw his fifth interception of the season in Saturday’s game. But it’s unclear which QB will take the field for WSU’s next game on Friday, a road test against Utah State: Pinnick, redshirt sophomore Julian Dugger or redshirt freshman Owen Eshelman.
Does that mean the Cougars’ QB situation is an open competition this week?
“Everyone’s gonna get reps,” Kirby Moore said. “I think that’s the most important thing. Everyone’s gotta make the reps count. We’ll see where it’s at on Friday, and we’ll play ball.”
Moore did not rule out the possibility of playing multiple quarterbacks, saying that “is probably still to be determined.”
“It really starts with the operational piece from an offensive standpoint,” Moore said of his QB evaluations this week, “whether it’s a protection check, whether it’s something with a motion. Obviously the defense is game-planning just as much as us, so there’s times where, yes, there’s a first read in a progression, but there’s times where we gotta check the ball down. We can’t make a bad play worse. So that’s the big emphasis. It’s gotta start in practice. We’ll go through that process. That’ll determine what happens on Friday.”
Dugger, who started his career at Pittsburgh, has seen little playing time at WSU since arriving ahead of the 2025 season. He completed 2 of 6 passes in short stints last fall, but he got more run in WSU’s Potato Bowl win over Utah State last winter, at one point breaking free for a 32-yard touchdown run.
Coming out of fall camp, Dugger seemed to be the team’s No. 2 quarterback, using a combination of athleticism and improved throwing to make a strong impression.
In his second year at the college level, Eshelman has yet to see the field at WSU. He seemed to be the Cougars’ No. 3 quarterback out of fall camp, though it’s important to note that on WSU’s depth charts throughout the season, an “OR” designation has separated Dugger and Eshelman.
Moore also added that Miller will be “super involved in what we’re doing on offense,” Moore said. “We’ll have a ton of dialogue. This whole thing’s still gotta be super collaborative.”
The last time Miller called plays was in 2019, his final season at FCS Montana State, where he worked as offensive coordinator and receivers coach from 2018-19. He took over playcalling duties late in the 2018 season and in the 2019 season, which followed his 2016-17 stretch, when he worked as receivers coach and recruiting coordinator.
Moore and Miller first connected as players at Boise State, where they overlapped from 2010-13.
“I think everyone on our staff is pouring into their players,” Moore said, “and Caden, rightfully, yeah, there will be even more dialogue with Matt and focusing on those guys. We’ve got a number of other guys who work with the quarterbacks and the receivers, and we gotta throw the ball better to be successful.”
Under Miller and Moore’s watch, the Cougars’ offense has floundered. For the first time since 2008, WSU has gone two games in one season without an offensive touchdown, which underscores the way many of the Cougars’ problems have run together. They’re averaging 2.8 yards per rush, which ranks No. 128 nationally, and they lost another turnover on Saturday on a snap mishap between Pinnick and center Noah Dunham.
In Saturday’s game, WSU running backs Kirby Vorhees, Maxwell Woods and Leo Pulalasi combined for 45 yards on 12 carries. In the second half, those numbers dropped significantly: Those three combined for just 13 yards on five carries. As a team, the Cougars posted negative-4 rushing yards in the second half.
In other news, WSU defensive ends Malachi Wrice and Mike Hughes are now considered “day-to-day” with injuries, Moore said. Wrice has missed the past three games, while Hughes hasn’t played since the Sept. 6 Apple Cup.
When healthy, those two have provided important depth behind defensive end starters Linus Zunk and Matyus McLain, the latter of whom turned in his best game of the season on Saturday against Fresno State, finishing with a half-sack and two tackles for loss.
- Moore to Cougs after Fresno dud: The noise is fair, the fix is on us
PULLMAN – At some point in the Gesa Field locker room, not long after his Washington State team managed just six points in an anemic loss to Fresno State on Saturday evening, Kirby Moore got his players together and left them with a message.
“We talked about, naturally, there’s gonna be noise, and rightfully so,” Moore said. “We gotta have a better product on the field. We all agree that we’re a better football team than that. The leadership group’s gotta step up, and the only way I know how to improve is to go back to work.”
Plenty of that will be in order for the Cougars, who are now 1-4 overall and 0-1 in Pac-12 play to begin Moore’s tenure. With this 26-6 setback, WSU’s offense now ranks near the bottom in the country in several key departments. With this sampling, keep in mind that there are 138 FBS teams this season.
• 11.8 points per game, No. 130
• 27% on third down, No. 133
• 287 yards per game, No. 133
• 18 sacks allowed, No. 129
• 11 red zone attempts, No. 125
Here are two more statistics that might best capture the Cougars’ struggles on offense. They’re averaging 2.8 yards per rush, which is No. 128 nationally. They’re also averaging 5.6 yards per pass attempt, which is two spots up from dead last in the country.
The eye-test backs up those trends. Quarterback Caden Pinnick, who threw an interception to bring him to six total turnovers on the season, hasn’t shown much acumen with the deep ball. Credit WSU coaches for game-planning around that, but they also aren’t getting much out of their running game, which could play a key role in opening up the field for their quarterback.
In short, that’s how you end up with this WSU offense, which has now gone without an offensive touchdown twice in one season. For the Cougars, that’s the first time that has happened since 2008, the first season of former coach Paul Wulff’s tenure. Wulff actually did visit Moore and coaches back in August, but in terms of on-field results, that’s not company anyone with WSU’s program wants to keep.
Here are five lingering thoughts from WSU’s loss to Fresno State.
1. Caden Pinnick’s pocket presence leaves a lot to be desired: Pinnick’s list of issues is quite lengthy, but this problem ranks somewhere near the top: He doesn’t look entirely comfortable in the pocket, whether or not he’s seeing pressure. He may have taken five sacks, but Pro Football Focus only dinged the Cougars’ offensive line for one, which does a great job of crystallizing the issue.
On one play late in the first quarter, Fresno State brought a blitzer up to the line of scrimmage a few seconds before the snap, and Pinnick seemed to be aware of that. The WSU player he was lined up against, tight end Jack Pedersen, even pointed to him. But defensive back Loyall Mouzon came unblocked just the same, and even with a second to get the ball out to running back Maxwell Woods in the flat, Pinnick elected to hold on to the ball and take the sack.
At the beginning of the third quarter, Pinnick also put on display what is becoming a bigger and bigger issue: He won’t throw the ball away. On this play, he does well to fake a handoff and make one defender miss, but he’s out of the pocket so he has a chance to throw it away and avoid a loss. Instead, he takes a sack for a loss of 10 yards. The Cougars punted three plays later.
Let’s fast forward to the end of the third quarter, when WSU was facing a 13-6 deficit. Backed up deep in their own territory, the Cougars go with a shotgun dropback for Pinnick, who gets great protection from his O-line. He chose to scramble from the pocket, which looked unnecessary, and checked it down for a short gain.
On that play, it wasn’t just Pinnick’s decision to bail from a clean pocket that presented a problem. That choice spawned another: Pedersen was called for holding. That’s the kind of penalty that quarterbacks put their blockers at risk of when they scramble from the pocket, causing blockers to become more visible to officials.
2. Matyus McLain turned in his best game yet: In his fifth game at the FBS level, the defensive end McLain looked like the best version of himself. For the game, he totaled four tackles, including a half-sack and two tackles for loss, playing a key role in the Cougar defense keeping the team in the game.
Late in the first quarter, McLain shot through the line of scrimmage and dragged down running back Rayshon Luke for a loss of four. Then, late in the third frame, he made back-to-back huge plays: He brought down Fresno State QB Jayden Mandal for his half-sack, sharing it with defensive tackle Jirah Leaupepetele.
Only moments later, he dropped back in coverage and made a key third-down tackle in space, highlighting the athleticism that makes him so dangerous in the pass-rush department.
3. Jack Stevens is back in business: It wasn’t long ago when WSU kicker Jack Stevens was mired in a long streak of misses, entering last week’s game against Arizona 1-for-5 on field goals. There was a lot wrong with the Cougars’ entire field goal operation, which caused one last week to get blocked, and a lot has changed since.
The most important centers on Stevens, who connected on two field goals in Saturday’s game, including a careerlong 50-yarder to tie the game right before halftime. He looked psyched afterwards. You can tell his confidence is returning, which could aid a struggling WSU offense.
Credit WSU coaches for making changes up front. They removed usual right tackle Jaylin Caldwell, whose failure to block anyone last week resulted in a blocked field goal, as well as offensive lineman Arion Williams, who were a part of that blocked field goal. They subbed in linemen Kyle Martin and Nick Bakken, which helped facilitate a cleaner operation.
4. Why did WSU almost completely abandon the running game in the second half? For the game, Cougar running backs Kirby Vorhees, Maxwell Woods and Leo Pulalasi combined for 45 yards on 12 carries. In the second half, those numbers dropped significantly: Those three combined for just 13 yards on five carries. As a team, the Cougars posted negative-4 rushing yards in the second half.
You read that right: In the second half of Saturday’s game, WSU’s stable of running backs – whose retention was hailed as one of Moore’s top offseason accomplishments – got only five tries to run the ball. The Cougars almost entirely shelved the running game, resulting in 18 passes for 70 total yards.
What’s even weirder is that Woods, who turned in a 7-yard carry early in the game, played only 12 snaps. In the second quarter, he ran backwards to look for more space, which became a 4-yard loss. Maybe that explains his low snap count, but considering his shiftiness and speed, there has to be a bigger role in the Cougs’ offense for Woods – and Vorhees and Pulalasi.
5. Did Julian Dugger or Owen Eshelman deserve a few garbage-time snaps? Pinnick never came out of Saturday’s game, not even in the final three minutes, when the game was out of reach. He had thrown an interception on the previous series, and with only minutes left in a blowout, it seemed possible for WSU coaches to give snaps to one of their other quarterbacks, Dugger or Eshelman.
Instead, Moore rolled with Pinnick, explaining that decision this way: “With where we were at, just the rhythm. Wanted to keep him going with the first group from an offensive line standpoint. But I think everything on offense, we gotta reevaluate.”
It’s clear that Moore wants to stick with his guy, wants to ensure that Pinnick feels like QB1. But Pinnick could still have been QB1 even if coaches gave the game’s final snaps to another quarterback, if only to demonstrate to fans that, yes, they are interested in trying new things.
As WSU prepares for its next game, a road test at Utah State on Friday, it’ll be fascinating to see how Moore talks about the way he’s handling Pinnick and the team’s QB situation.
