- Owen Eshelman and Branden Ganashamoorthy made the scoreboard hurt a little less
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Branden Ganashamoorthy insisted the sunlight was no problem. When he strode open toward the Oregon State end zone, he said, all he saw was the ball. He tracked it in the air, on its descent, into his hands as he fell onto the black turf for six.
“When you’re in those moments,” Ganashamoorthy said, “it’s almost like tunnel vision. Everything kinda slows down. The amount of tennis balls, the amount of footballs I’ve caught. I feel like I can catch those balls almost blind.”
In his Washington State group’s 48-30 loss to Oregon State, the Cougars’ fourth straight loss, Ganashamoorthy enjoyed the best outing of his career: He logged 11 catches for 147 yards and the one score, which came on a 40-yard pass in the second quarter, pulling the Cougs to within 27-10.
It amounted to a huge day for Ganashamoorthy, an indicator of what he’s capable of. It also went a long way in illustrating how he accomplished it, finding a sharp rapport with quarterback Owen Eshelman, who made his first start. By his number, you would never have known it: He completed 32 of 49 passes for 289 yards, two touchdowns and one meaningless interception in garbage time. He also totaled 11 carries for 147 yards and another touchdown, racking up the second-most yards in one game by a WSU QB in program history.
A redshirt freshman from Oklahoma, Eshelman shattered expectations for his first real game action. He looked willing to air it out deep, which the Cougars didn’t get from Caden Pinnick, who started each of the first six games of the season. He made the right reads in the pocket, bailing at the right times to scramble for yards on the ground. And he made a fantastic decision on his rushing touchdown, pulling the ball and jetting straight into the end zone, cruising in for a 20-yard score.
“We just had a much better rhythm,” WSU coach Kirby Moore said of Eshelman’s outing and what it provided to the team. “That takes all 11 being on the same page, whether it’s communication, whether it’s in the run game, the RPOs, obviously the pass game. It’s about landmarks and alignments there with the receivers and guys winning versus man and the quarterback trusting them. Today it was much better on first and second down. Third down, obviously did a better job in the second half than the first half.”
“It was definitely excitement,” Eshelman said of his emotions headed into his first start. “Obviously Oregon State’s been playing really good football, and to have the opportunity to come here and showcase what our offense is capable of … There’s that Cougar mentality that we’re just gonna keep swinging, and I thought that showed up tonight, even with some missed opportunities. I was just really proud of all of our guys. We kept swinging, kept swinging, kept swinging, and making the most out of opportunities.”
In this one, Eshelman and the Cougars’ offense was hardly perfect. They converted just 7 of 17 third downs, and through three quarters, the number was 0-for-9. They still are getting almost nothing from the running back trio of Maxwell Woods, Kirby Vorhees and Leo Pulalasi, who combined for only 26 yards on 13 carries. Under a coach like Moore, who unlocked Missouri’s rushing game to incredible results in his three years as the Tigers’ offensive coordinator, that will raise eyebrows for all the wrong reasons.
The Cougars also slogged through four three-and-outs, but their biggest problems didn’t center on things they did. They were about things they didn’t. On two spots in the first half, fourth-and-1 from the Beaver 48 and fourth-and-3 from the Cougar 49, Moore chose to punt. In both scenarios, Oregon State turned those into long touchdowns, both on the very next play. Chalk those up to misses for Moore and his game management.
“No, I’ve got a ton of confidence in our defense,” Moore said about whether he regretted punting on those plays. “Obviously, when you punt the ball and they have the ball inside their 15-yard line, you get a stop, you’ve got great field position. That didn’t happen. Give them credit. They’ve got good players. They executed and made plays.”
But overall, WSU’s offense looked far more capable than it ever has this season. The Cougars’ 30 points are their most against FBS competition all season. Outside of Eshelman’s late interception, a truly meaningless development, they avoided turnovers for the first time all season. It’s clear that Eshelman is the right quarterback for this team.
With Eshelman at the controls, and with Ganashamoorthy playing one of his favorite targets, a few more wins could be on the docket for this group.
“With the new change at quarterback, obviously, I would say just meshing together,” Ganashamoorthy said. “Now that we have that set, Owen at quarterback, I’d say meetings and everything can start to flow a little bit easier. Practices and everything, with his leadership, I think everything will come together when it does.”
- Kirby Moore finally had something to say, and it wasn't about a tie
CORVALLIS, Ore. – After each of his Washington State team’s first five games of the season, Kirby Moore strode up to the postgame microphone and sounded neutral. He sounded the same after his group’s loss to Utah State and after its win over FCS Duquesne. He talked like a coach whose team had just played to a tie.
After WSU’s 48-30 loss to Oregon State here on Saturday night, the Cougars’ fourth straight loss, he talked like a coach who was furious. He was far more animated, much more visibly frustrated with the way things had unfolded. He had never shown so much emotion, low as the bar is for the usually vanilla Moore.
Here’s a sampling.
What did you think of Owen Eshelman’s play in his first start?
“We had a much better rhythm,” Moore said. “I thought the first couple drives we had some chances there didn’t execute, and then finding completions, obviously extending plays. Thought there was some tempo elements to the offense, and we gotta keep building on that.”
Do you wish you would have pivoted to him sooner in the season?
“We’re not looking in the rearview mirror,” Moore said. “We gotta keep building on where we’re at right now.”
Regardless of what you think of those answers , understand this: Moore had never looked so fired up after a game. He looked comfortable expressing both his likes and dislikes, looked confident in explaining his decisions, questionable as some were. He looked more like a head coach.
Pair that with his decision to bench Pinnick and roll with Eshelman and you wind up with this conclusion from Saturday’s game: WSU grew up. The Cougars entered their next chapter with this game. They started the right quarterback. Their coach is beginning to look and sound more like a guy who believes in his system.
It’s a significant development for WSU, even if it’s true that these things took too long to happen. Did coaches wait too long to start Eshelman? Probably. Did Moore take too long to sound so convicted? Also likely. But Moore is a first-time head coach, and these are lessons he had to learn at some point. Give him credit for being open enough to apply them midseason.
Moore almost certainly knows that he stuck with Pinnick for too long, same as he knows that it was a mistake to punt it away on two fourth-and-short situations around midfield, both of which immediately led to long Oregon State touchdowns. He didn’t acknowledge either after the game – it’s not fair to expect him to, given the way that would affect cohesion in the locker room – but you can see him learning the right lessons. That matters for the Cougs, even in what is turning into a lost season, now at 1-6 overall and 0-3 in Pac-12 play.
Here is his response to whether he regretted punting it on fourth-and-1 from the OSU 48, then punting again on fourth-and-3, both of which turned into OSU touchdowns on the very next play: “No, I’ve got a ton of confidence in our defense. Obviously, when you punt the ball and they have the ball inside their 15-yard line, you get a stop, you’ve got great field position. That didn’t happen. Give them credit. They’ve got good players. They executed and made plays.”
Two things can be true. One: Moore understands he should not have punted in those spots, and if a similar situation arises next weekend against Boise State, expect him to go for it. Two: He expressed confidence in his defense, which is key to keeping this season from going completely off the rails. Sometimes you just have to back your guys, even if it sounds silly to the rest of the world.
Now let’s get to Eshelman, who looked electric in his first career start, completing 32 of 49 passes for 289 yards, two touchdowns and one meaningless interception in the final seconds with the game out of reach. He also carried 15 times for 136 yards and one more score, earning the second-most rushing yards by a WSU QB in program history. If you didn’t know this was Eshelman’s first start, and your friend told you mid-game, you’d call them a liar.
As he made play after play, as he connected with Branden Ganashamoorthy for a 40-yard touchdown pass and as he glided 20 yards into the end zone in the second half, you might have had this thought: Why didn’t they go with Eshelman sooner? Why did they stick with Pinnick so long?
All of those thoughts are normal to feel, and heck, there’s probably some level of truth in them. Eshelman looked tremendous in this game. He aired it out for a long touchdown. He made a great read to score with his legs. He oozes talent and potential. The Cougars probably have one or two more wins with Eshelman at the controls.
Still, keep this in mind: Eshelman was not clearly WSU’s best quarterback coming out of fall camp. At that time, he looked less like a guy who could have pulled this off and more like a second-year freshman still learning the ropes of playing QB at the FBS level. Which was totally fine. Tons of quarterbacks aren’t ready to play at this stage of their careers.
During fall camp, Pinnick was pretty obviously the team’s best quarterback. He had some turnover problems, but because Eshelman didn’t look ready and because Julian Dugger didn’t pose enough threat with his arm, Pinnick felt like the right choice. That’s why it was no surprise when he was announced as such.
You can also squint and see the logic in rolling with him as long as Moore did. Pinnick looked static and turnover-prone in all six games he played, but as the struggles became clear and Moore took over playcalling duties ahead of the Utah State game, maybe coaches wanted to see how he looked with Moore calling plays. If he didn’t look any better, the thinking might have gone, pivot away from him then. That’s what coaches did.
Now, about that logic. Against FBS competition, Pinnick never really looked sharp. After he lost two turnovers in a 26-6 loss to Fresno State, it was probably time to bench him. At that point, it was clear that the opponent wasn’t the one causing Pinnick to play so poorly. It was his decision-making, his inability to stretch the field, his lack of willingness to even look at passes downfield, and all of that had a downstream effect on the Cougs’ offense. It hearkened back to the Paul Wulff days, which is not a conversation Moore wants to be in.
Besides, Moore isn’t paid to learn lessons. He’s paid to win games. He made a mistake riding with Pinnick for so long. Based on the results, Moore probably made a mistake pursuing Pinnick in the first place.
But these are things Moore was always going to have to take time to learn. As a first-time head coach, he was going to need to learn how to identify the right quarterback. He was going to need to learn when to pivot away from that guy. He was going to need to learn that, when you’re 1-5 and 18.5-point underdogs, you don’t punt it from midfield and take opportunities away from your new – and very capable – quarterback.
In hiring a first-time head coach, WSU brass implicitly acknowledged all of that, too.
With Eshelman at the controls, the complexion of the rest of this season changes a bit for the Cougars. They don’t look like a team that can beat Boise State next weekend, but they do look like one that can beat San Diego State, Colorado State, even Texas State on the road. Maybe they would be gunning for bowl eligibility in those games if they had gone to Eshelman sooner. But Eshelman is here now, and that’s the right call from Moore.
- Eshelman and WSU need the offense to show up if they want to beat Oregon State
PORTLAND – When he thinks back, Keith Brown can still remember the first time he started a game at the college level. This was five years ago, Washington State’s veteran linebacker recalls, back when he was playing for Oregon and the Ducks walked into Columbus to take on a top-five Ohio State club.
A true freshman, Brown made two tackles in that game, helping his Ducks upset the third-ranked Buckeyes.
“You’re just kinda excited when it happens,” Brown said earlier this week. “At least for me, when it happened for me, I felt like I was so prepared for the game that I wasn’t nervous. Owen’s a true competitor. He’s very locked in, so I’m sure it’s the same for him.”
That would be redshirt freshman Owen Eshelman, who is taking over at quarterback for WSU, which is set to take on Oregon State at 3 p.m. Saturday on USA Network in Corvallis, where the Beavers opened as 17.5-point favorites. It’ll be the first start for Eshelman, who is taking over for signal-caller Caden Pinnick, whose struggles in the passing game contributed in a big way to the Cougars’ floundering offense.
To help WSU (1-5, 0-2 Pac-12) earn its first FBS win of the year and end a three-game slide, Eshelman and the Cougars’ offense will have to be much better than they have been all year. The Cougs are averaging just 12.6 points per game, which is just seven spots up from last in the country, and their minus-6 turnover margin ranks No. 129, meaning only four other teams in the nation have a worse mark.
Those are all key reasons why WSU coach Kirby Moore decided to bench Pinnick and pivot to Eshelman, who has played just two snaps in his college career, which came in garbage time against FCS Duquesne earlier this season. Listed at 6-foot-3 and 204 pounds, Eshelman’s best qualities center around his live arm and sharp accuracy, which could unlock a gear that WSU has yet to find in its offense.
A former three-star product of Norman North High in Oklahoma, Eshelman takes over at a tough spot for WSU. Off to their worst six-game start since 2010, the Cougars need a string of wins to save their bowl streak, which stands at 10 times in the last 11 full seasons. Moore has already made a couple changes to turn around this offense, including taking over playcalling duties ahead of his team’s previous game, a road loss to Utah State last weekend.
The only problem for the Cougars: They’re taking on a Beaver team that ranks among the hottest in the country. Thanks in large part to quarterback Braden Atkinson and freshman wideout Jesse Legree, Oregon State (4-2, 2-0) ranks fifth nationwide with 522 yards per game of total offense, coming off a 66-14 home dismantling of San Diego State. In short: The Beavs’ offense is electric, and the Cougs’ defense will get perhaps its tallest task of the season.
“He’s a really good player,” Moore said of Legree, who leads the country with 12 receiving touchdowns, including three apiece in his last two outings. “You see him with the ball in space, obviously taking the top off a number of times as well. I think it’s about playing team defense. Obviously, communication is gonna be really important: Where he’s at, whether he’s in the slot, whether he’s outside, left, right. The pass rush has to help out the coverage. The coverage has gotta help out the pass rush. I think Coach (Trent) Bray is doing a good job right now with our guys, making sure they’re all on the same page.”
It’s also a homecoming for Bray, an Oregon State alum who coached 11 years at his alma mater, including the full 2024 season and part of the 2025 campaign before being fired amid the Beavers’ 0-7 start to the season. In fact, the OSU connections on this WSU team number far more: Receiver Darrius Clemons and cornerback Jalil Tucker each transferred from Oregon State, true freshman Lance McGee was committed there before flipping to the Cougars and chief of staff Dan Van De Riet worked with the Beavers’ program in different capacities for 20 years.
Plus, this year, WSU and OSU won’t just be playing for bragging rights. The schools will also be playing for a new trophy, a new rivalry rock, which has yet to be named. The trophy isn’t official – it’s more of a fan and alumni-sponsored push than a school-sanctioned tradition – and the winner won’t hoist it at midfield like other trophies. But it does add a layer of intrigue to the WSU and OSU series, which will play installment No. 112 on Saturday afternoon.
“Hey,” Brown said earlier this week, “let’s go win the rock.”
To do that, the Cougars will have to find a way to slow down Atkinson and the Beavers’ offense, which nobody outside two Power 4 opponents have done so far. Atkinson, who ranks first nationwide with 376 passing yards per game, has tossed 21 touchdowns against just two interceptions. He’s thrown seven of his scores on deep passes, according to Pro Football Focus, highlighting the way he’s able to stretch the field.
It’s not exactly promising news for this WSU defense, which has played exceptionally well all season and kept the team in games, a remarkable feat in the face of the Cougs’ scuffling offense. But if the Cougars have shown one weakness on defense, it’s that they’re susceptible to allowing explosive plays, like a long touchdown pass against Utah State last weekend and a 75-yard touchdown rush against Kansas State last month.
Even if Bray and the Washington State defense can produce a few key stops, there’s also the matter of Eshelman and the WSU offense. Can the Cougs score enough to keep pace? In his first real college action, can Eshelman get it going through the air? Even if he throws an interception, though, his offense might be better for the bold approach. With Pinnick at the controls, WSU’s offense never looked capable of stretching the field.
Eshelman might have that capability. But it’s still a challenge for WSU, on both sides of the ball.
“There’s definitely some similarities in terms of playmaking ability,” Moore said, comparing Eshelman and Pinnick’s styles. “I think the big thing is we gotta continue to work on accuracy with the football, and when something’s there, we gotta take advantage of it and be more efficient on first and second down. Had opportunities there to drive in the red zone and didn’t take advantage of it, and then on third down, we gotta make sure we do a good job of taking care of the football. And sometimes it’s OK to punt. We’ve had some turnovers in those situations the last few games that have put our defense in bad positions.”
