2008 Washington State Cougars football team

Last updated

2008 Washington State Cougars football
2008 WSU Football Helmet.png
Conference Pacific-10 Conference
Record2–11 (1–8 Pac-10)
Head coach
Offensive coordinator Todd Sturdy (1st season)
Offensive scheme Spread
Co-defensive coordinator Chris Ball (1st season)
Co-defensive coordinator Jody Sears (1st season)
Base defenseMultiple
Home stadium Martin Stadium
(Capacity: 35,117)
Seasons
  2007
2009  
2008 Pacific-10 Conference football standings
ConfOverall
Team W L  W L 
No. 3 USC $  8 1   12 1  
No. 10 Oregon  7 2   10 3  
No. 18 Oregon State  7 2   9 4  
California  6 3   9 4  
Arizona  5 4   8 5  
Arizona State  4 5   5 7  
Stanford  4 5   5 7  
UCLA  3 6   4 8  
Washington State  1 8   2 11  
Washington  0 9   0 12  
  • $ Conference champion
Rankings from AP Poll

The 2008 Washington State Cougars football team represented Washington State University in the 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The team's new head coach was Paul Wulff and home games were played on campus at Martin Stadium in Pullman, Washington. The season was a disaster from the start for WSU, who gave up the most points in a single season in Pac-10 Conference history, allowing more than 60 points on four occasions.

Contents

Perhaps the only consolation for the Cougars was winning the Apple Cup. The media joked before the game that it was the "Crapple Cup" and "full of worms", because the Huskies (0–10 at the time) also had a very poor season. [1]

Schedule

DateTimeOpponentSiteTVResultAttendance
August 3012:30 p.m. Oklahoma State *
FSN L 13–3950,830
September 63:30 p.m. California FSNNW L 3–6627,906
September 125:30 p.m.at Baylor *FSNL 17–4525,595
September 204:00 p.m. Portland State *
  • Martin Stadium
  • Pullman, Washington
FSNNWW 48–923,920
September 273:15 p.m. Oregon Dagger-14-plain.png
  • Martin Stadium
  • Pullman, Washington
FSNNWL 14–6330,927
October 47:15 p.m.at UCLA FSNNWL 3–2865,469
October 113:30 p.m.at Oregon State FSNNWL 13–6645,289
October 1812:30 p.m.No. 6 USC
  • Martin Stadium
  • Pullman, Washington
FSNL 0–6925,118
November 12:00 p.m.at Stanford L 0–5826,662
November 82:00 p.m. Arizona
  • Martin Stadium
  • Pullman, Washington
L 28–5924,118
November 152:30 p.m.at Arizona State L 0–3161,490
November 2212:00 p.m. Washington
  • Martin Stadium
  • Pullman, Washington (Apple Cup)
FSNW 16–13 2OT32,211
November 298:00 p.m.at Hawaii *L 10–2443,312

Game summaries

Oklahoma State

1234Total
Cowboys312101439
Cougars006713

Oklahoma State Cowboys spoiled new Cougars coach Paul Wulff's debut. Cowboys' Kendall Hunter had a career-best two touchdowns, quarterback Zac Robinson passed for 182 yards and ran for another score. The Cougars' new offense didn't look good against the Cowboys.

The Cowboys had 367 total yards (193 yards passing, 174 rushing) while Washington State had 196 total yards (82 passing and 114 yards rushing)

California

1234Total
Golden Bears2121101466
Cougars30003

The Cougars were shut out after the first period while the Golden Bears scored at least 10 points each quarter to win the Pac-10 conference opener at Martin Stadium, Washington State's home field. Cal had over 500 yards (112 yards passing and 392 yards on the ground) and allowed only 162 yards (106 yards passing, 56 yards rushing) to the Cougars.

Baylor

1234Total
Cougars770317
Bears141471045

Portland State

1234Total
Vikings30609
Cougars14324748

Oregon

1234Total
Ducks211421763
Cougars070714

UCLA

1234Total
Cougars00303
Bruins0147728

Oregon State

1234Total
Cougars0130013
Beavers213212166

USC

1234Total
Trojans212072169
Cougars00000

Mark Sanchez became the first USC quarterback to throw five touchdown passes in a half as the Trojans dominated.

USC's defense, ranked first in the nation coming in by allowing just 9.4 points per game, held the Cougars scoreless for the first time since 1984, ending a stretch of 280 straight games in which the Cougars had not been shut out. That was the nation's second-longest active streak behind Michigan's 306. For Washington State, it is also the largest shutout loss and largest margin of defeat in school history.

"Our guys had a ball playing football today, from the locker room on out", USC coach Pete Carroll said. "Right from the start, we wanted to find that focus that we really hadn't had yet."[ citation needed ]

It was the largest shutout victory for USC (5–1, 3–1 Pac-10) since a 69–0 win over Montana in 1931.

"Our intention wasn't to come out and beat these guys by 80 points. Our intention was to come out and play a great football game", star linebacker Rey Maualuga said.

The Cougars have now allowed at least 60 points in four games this year, becoming the first BCS team to allow 60-plus points four times in a season. Beset by injuries, Washington State has allowed 66, 63, 66 and now 69 in four of their conference losses. The Cougars, whose only win is against Portland State of the Championship Subdivision, have been outscored 385–111 this season. That's on track to break the Pac-10 record for most points allowed in a season, 469 by Oregon State in 1981.

"It's unfortunate for those guys. They are trying to build a program", Carroll said. "It's tough. I don't know what else we could have done.

"It was a little bit uncomfortable to see what was going to happen."

The Trojans outgained Washington State 408–17 in the first half and 625–116 for the game. They led 21–0 less than 11 minutes in. Patrick Turner and Ronald Johnson each caught two of Sanchez's scoring throws, freshman Broderick Green rushed for 121 yards and two touchdowns and C. J. Gable ran for 109 yards and three more scores. Stafon Johnson must have had an off game.[ citation needed ] He ran for 112 yards but didn't score.

It was the first time USC had three 100-yard rushers in a game since 1977. [2]

Stanford

1234Total
Cougars00000
Cardinal102120758

Arizona

1234Total
Wildcats1421101459
Cougars777728

Arizona State

1234Total
Cougars00000
Sun Devils01014731

Washington

Quarter1234OT2OTTotal
Washington010003013
Washington State00733316

at Martin Stadium, Pullman, Washington

  • Date: November 22
  • Game time: 3:00 p.m. EDT/12:10 p.m. PDT
  • Game weather: 42 °F (6 °C)
  • Game attendance: 32,211
  • Referee: Michael Batlan
  • Recap

Hawaii

1234Total
Cougars037010
Warriors1437024

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References

  1. Murphy, Austin (November 20, 2008). "Washington-Washington State playing for pride in Apple Cup". Sports Illustrated . Archived from the original on February 24, 2009. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
  2. "USC records largest shutout victory since 1931". ESPN.com. October 18, 2008. Archived from the original on October 30, 2008. Retrieved October 30, 2008.