- Caden Pinnick is a good dude. That doesn't fix the QB room
LOGAN, Utah – Caden Pinnick seems like a thoughtful young man. He’s poised and articulate, eloquent and respectful, understanding of his role within the ecosystem of his team and what his struggles mean for the bigger picture.
There is little doubt about this: He will go on to be successful in life, wherever that takes him, and he will look back at his tenure as Washington State’s quarterback as a time when he learned a lot about himself. There may even come a time when he laughs about it, secure enough in himself to shake his head and smile.
But after Pinnick’s latest performance, an inability to guide WSU to anything resembling a credible offense in a stunning 17-16 defeat to Utah State on Friday night, his coaches may not be doing right by him – or by the program – in continuing to roll him out there every weekend. It’s the third straight loss for the Cougars, who have four offensive touchdowns in five games against FBS competition in head coach Kirby Moore’s debut season.
“It’s really unfair for these guys to come out and bust their butt every week of practice, and for me not to pick it up on my end,” said Pinnick, who was made available to the media for the first time in three weeks. “When I look back on it, there’s a lot of things I can control, whether that’s calming people down and just (saying) things will be all right. We’re gonna get this drive going.”
At the center of it all is Pinnick, who completed 23 of 36 passes in this loss. In years past at WSU, if you read that the quarterback finished with those numbers, you would think he racked up 300 or 400 yards. You’d think he passed for two or three touchdowns. You’d think that even if the Cougars lost, they played an exciting brand of football, at the very least entertaining fans who watched in person or on TV.
This WSU team is not checking any of those boxes. Pinnick totaled only 156 yards. He didn’t throw for any touchdowns. His team lost, and with the exception of a long touchdown rush from running back Leo Pulalasi in the second quarter, this was not entertaining football. If anything, it was boring and unimaginative, a vanilla product from a rotten offense.
WSU, which totaled only 64 total yards of offense in the second half, never looked to have any offensive rhythm in this game. That would be a problem in a vacuum. But the games are played on the field, which is where things have looked even worse for the Cougs, who have now lost 11 total turnovers on the season. Their quarterback either can’t or won’t stretch the field vertically. They can’t avoid penalties, racking up 13 for 113 yards in this game. And they can’t get any consistency from their running backs, whose offseason retention was hailed as one of Moore’s top accomplishments in his first few weeks on the job.
This forces Moore to answer some tough questions. Here is one posed to him: What makes him want to keep sticking with Pinnick at QB, rather than look at quarterbacks Julian Dugger or Owen Eshelman?
“Well, first, again, we gotta evaluate everything on offense,” said Moore, whose team blew a 16-3 halftime lead. “That’s the most important thing, in the second halves, why we’re doing what we’re doing from an execution standpoint. Because there’s not just the quarterback. There’s runs that break, and you get called for a hold. So you gotta look at what went wrong there, and there was opportunities throughout the offense to score in the second half.”
Moore has something of a point. In the second half, WSU had a 19-yard rush wiped out by a holding call against right tackle Jaylin Caldwell. In the fourth frame, Pinnick’s 19-yard pass was erased by another hold against Caldwell. And in the third frame, running back Maxwell Woods’ long 37-yard rush was called back on an illegal shift penalty, and you might disagree with that call, but it fits into the picture that these Cougars painted here on Friday night: They committed far too many penalties to win this game.
Plus, late in the fourth quarter, tight end Jack Pedersen coughed up a critical fumble. Three plays later, Utah State running back Javen Jacobs was prancing into the end zone, prompting fireworks to erupt on the other side of Maverik Stadium, putting the Cougars into the kind of situation they have not yet shown they can take advantage of: respond on offense.
Did Moore think about calling a timeout on that play to have the officials review the catch, which looked a bit iffy on replay? Utah State coach Bronco Mendenhall did so on the Pedersen fumble, which was not ruled as such on the field.
“They review, they say, every touchdown,” Moore said, “and they don’t back up for you to kick the extra point until someone, the replay guy upstairs, confirms it. And they said they confirmed it.”
Then there was the fumble from Pinnick, which led to Utah State’s first touchdown, a pass from quarterback Grady Brosterhous to receiver Eli Wood. It was the seventh turnover of the season for Pinnick, who has thrown five interceptions and lost two fumbles. He may not have thrown an interception in Friday’s game, his first time this season avoiding that fate, but his turnover problems have followed him around all season.
The opponent has not mattered. He’s turned it over against Washington and Kansas State and Duquesne and Utah State. He showed a bit more restraint on Friday night, but the results don’t make him look like a measured quarterback. They make him look like a quarterback who doesn’t trust himself, who doesn’t have the confidence he needs to provide anything resembling a spark for an offense that needs it more than it needs oxygen.
“It’s not really talked about a lot, but as a quarterback position, everything is you,” Pinnick said. “I’ve been having to just take time and really just find comfort with my teammates, because, like I said before, nobody knows what happens inside of these walls.
“A lot of Twitter warriors or Instagram demons can come out and put their own opinion, but truth be told, like I rely on these guys more than anything. It makes me emotional and breaks my heart when we have outcomes like this. But I really just lean on these guys to get me through tough times.”
They are tough times indeed for Pinnick, who is under massive pressure as a 20-year-old playing FBS football for the first time , doing so at an institution that has become famous for producing prestigious quarterbacks. It’s OK if Pinnick does not fit that bill. It’s not if coaches continue to operate like he does.
- Moore's homecoming was nice, but WSU's offense is now the problem
PULLMAN – Kirby Moore rode into this new era under a gorgeous sky, the sun glimmering down at the Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport, where a host of supporters waved crimson Washington State fans to welcome their new coach home. Moore sat shotgun in a white Jeep Wagoneer rolling through the gate, making its way to the road, before he hopped out and shared a short message with the fans gathered.
“Thank you guys. Appreciate you coming out,” Moore said, wearing a crimson crewneck and khaki pants. “Excited to be home and build this thing. I’ll see you at the press conference on Tuesday.”
That was on Dec. 14 of last year, shortly after Moore was hired as the Cougars’ 36th head coach. Fans were excited for a number of reasons, but this one ranked near the top: They were ready to see a fun, high-powered offense return to their program. Moore had just completed three seasons as Missouri’s offensive coordinator, and after a season short on impressive offense, they were ready to see something more imaginative back in place.
Some of those same people were likely in the stands Saturday evening at Gesa Field, the site of WSU’s unsightly 26-6 loss to Fresno State, showering Moore and the Cougars with boos. They hurled untold amounts of invective. This, an offensive showing devoid of touchdowns and replete with mistakes, wasn’t the product they were promised. In fact, it was the furthest thing, an outing so gruesome that it harkened back to some of this program’s darkest days.
“They deserve better,” Moore said “There’s Cougs who travel and alums and people in the Northwest who travel from all over to get here, and they deserve a better product on the field.”
Where to start with this WSU offensive outing, which played a key role in the Cougars’ loss to open Pac-12 play? Quarterback Caden Pinnick, who took five sacks, threw an interception and wasn’t ready for a snap, resulting in two more turnovers. His team has now lost nine on the year For the second time this season, WSU failed to score an offensive touchdown. The hosts converted just 3 of 14 third-down chances, dropping their season totals to 16-for-59, which is just 27%.
Think about it this way: In four games against FBS competition, the Cougars have three offensive touchdowns. They have eight turnovers.
Here on Saturday, the Cougs never got anything going on offense, not even in garbage time, after the Bulldogs had secured the final margin with a hair over three minutes to play. A sampling of the miscues: Pinnick threw a third-down pass behind tight end Jack Pedersen. Receiver Daniel Blood dropped what would have been a conversion. Center Noah Dunham might have been at fault for the aforementioned snap mishap. Wideout Branden Ganashamoorthy ran a route short of the sticks, leading to a punt, one of the eight Max Dean sent away on the night.
This was the kind of loss that forced Moore to answer some uncomfortable questions after the game. The big one: Is he sticking with Pinnick at quarterback?
“I think you wanna look at every play,” Moore said, “and see if it’s scheme, if it’s personnel, or if there’s a way that we need to look at why that play went right or it didn’t go right, and we gotta mark that on every play.”
What makes Pinnick the right QB to start WSU’s next game, a road test against Utah State next Friday?
“I think everything, we gotta reevaluate. Obviously it starts with me as the head coach,” Moore said. “On offense, we gotta find ways to score more than six points. I think that’s the most important thing. We gotta score. Tuesday in the staff meeting, we said we needed to score 27 to win this game. If we score 27, we win this game, and we didn’t do that.”
You might notice that Pinnick has not been quoted in this story yet. That’s because he was not made available to the media after Saturday’s game, despite a request from The Spokesman-Review. No WSU offensive players were made available, which is the first time that’s happened this season.
It’s a bit of a strange look from Pinnick, even if he wasn’t the one who decided he wouldn’t talk. Earlier this season, after delivering a remarkably short postgame after a loss to Kansas State, Pinnick followed up on the next Monday and admitted his mistakes. “As quarterback of this team and university, it’s my job to give this team and institution some pride and belief,” Pinnick said then. “My frustrations from the past two weeks crept up on me.”
At the time, it registered as a particularly mature moment from Pinnick, who is just 20 years old. He was commended accordingly. Now, after he hasn’t spoken after WSU’s two straight losses, it feels weird. If he wants to be regarded as the poised leader that admitted when he was at fault, he has to keep talking after the hard moments.
But that’s only the tip of the iceberg for WSU, whose entire offense is up for re-evaluation, Moore said. He wouldn’t specify whether Pinnick would be a part of that, whether coaches would look at quarterbacks Julian Dugger or Owen Eshelman, so that much is unclear. What is much more apparent is that as currently constructed, this Cougar offense is in no place to make a bowl game, much less finish in the top half of the Pac-12 standings.
We could spend this entire column going over the superlatives, the numbers that might make you wince. The Cougars totaled just 182 yards of total offense. They went 0-for-2 on fourth down. In the second half, they put up just 66 total yards, a number that reflects WSU’s offensive line’s inability to protect Pinnick just as much as it does Pinnick’s inability to make downfield throws and stretch the field vertically.
Still, perhaps the most striking thing from it all is this: WSU has not made the proper adjustments or played to Pinnick’s strengths. Way back in fall camp, the Cougars’ offense looked similarly listless. At one point, after one scrimmage, WSU’s offense looked bad enough that offensive coordinator Matt Miller sounded the way you would expect him to after this loss, not after an August scrimmage.
“Not to the standard,” Miller said. “Starting with me, I gotta be better. Gotta lead better. Gotta prepare a better plan for the guys for them to go execute it. So everybody’s gotta look themselves in the mirror.”
From that point on, WSU’s offense has languished under all the same problems, from fall camp to Week 1 to Week 5. Pinnick can’t avoid turnovers, which he now has five of, and he won’t throw the ball away when he’s in trouble, even though Moore publicly emphasized the importance of that earlier in the week. The Cougars’ offensive line can’t protect him long enough, leading him to take sacks, and now the counter is at 13. And WSU’s running backs can’t create enough separation, especially in Saturday’s game, finishing with a combined 45 rushing yards between Maxwell Woods, Kirby Vorhees and Leo Pulalasi.
So if you’re looking for reasons to criticize this WSU offense, start there: The Cougars have not improved in any material way from fall camp to Week 5 of the regular season. They’ve taken steps forward, but they’ve often followed with two steps back. Pinnick hasn’t been all to blame – WSU receivers Darrius Clemons and Blood, tasked with stepping up in the absence of injured star Tony Freeman, combined for six catches for 62 yards on Saturday – but at the heart of the operation, he bears the biggest responsibilities.
Will he have those same responsibilities next week? That much has yet to unfold, but coaches should have at least entertained the possibility by subbing in Eshelman or Dugger in garbage time, if only to get a peek at their abilities in game settings. Even if they did that, Moore could be truthful in saying Pinnick is the team’s quarterback. He could stick with him. But the least Moore and Miller could have done was give Dugger or Eshelman a chance.
“With where we were at, just the rhythm,” Moore said, explaining his decision to stick with Pinnick the whole game. “Wanted to keep him going with the first group from an offensive line standpoint. But I think everything on offense, we gotta reevaluate.”
Is there any hope for WSU, any light at the end of the tunnel? You might have to squint, but it’s there: Activate their running game and take pressure off Pinnick. Limit his menu of throws to short and intermediate routes. And ride their defense, which turned in an excellent game, keeping the team in the game until the fourth quarter, shining brightly.
Back in December, the sun shone even brighter on Moore as he smiled at fans at the airport. Now the clouds have converged over the operation, forcing him to make serious changes if he wants to pry them open and welcome the sunshine back to Washington State’s proud football program.
- 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.”
