Tag: Washington State Football

Colorado at Washington State: Stream, injury report, broadcast info for Friday

We’ve got another late kickoff on tap for tonight

We’ve got yet another late kickoff on tap for Colorado football’s second-to-last regular season game. The Buffs are still alive in terms of bowl eligibility, but they’ll need a road win over Washington State in Week 12 to keep it that way.

Entering this Week 12 matchup, Colorado and WSU are tied for last place in the Pac-12 with one conference win each. Head coach Deion Sanders and the Buffs haven’t won since early October while the Cougars’ last victory came on Sept. 23 against Oregon State. One of those losing streaks will come to a close, though, when the dust settles at Gesa Field on Friday night.

Colorado football: Five keys to beating the WSU Cougars

Colorado and Washington State are both on extended losing streaks. Which team will stop the bleeding on Friday night?

After a strange week involving the head coaching carousel rumor mill, it will be nice for Colorado to get back to football. The Buffs should be chomping at the bit to get back after it, especially after pushing the Arizona Wildcats to the brink last week before losing as time expired.

Both the Buffs and Washington State have been in a slump lately. Colorado has dropped its last four games since starting 4-2 while the Cougars have dropped six straight after their 4-0 start. Which streak will be broken this week in Pullman?

Read on for my keys to Colorado getting win No. 5:

Five bold predictions for Colorado’s Friday night matchup at Washington State

What are your predictions for Colorado’s penultimate regular season game at Washington State?

On Friday night, head coach Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes will look to get one win closer to bowl eligibility when they travel to Pullman to take on the Washington State Cougars.

Both teams enter the matchup with 4-6 records and each is in desperate need of a win down the stretch.

Like the Buffs, Washington State started the 2023 season off hot with a 4-0 record but has now lost six straight. After playing well early on, the Cougars’ season is now on life support.

As we await kickoff between these two Pac-12 squads, here are five bold predictions for the Buffaloes’ penultimate regular season game:

What Deion Sanders, Colorado players are saying heading into Friday’s Washington State game

Here’s what Coach Prime and Co. are saying heading into Friday’s Washington State game

Despite a current four-game losing streak, this Colorado football team hasn’t lost much of its early-season confidence. Head coach Deion Sanders is seeing progress and with the amount of talent that the Buffs own, there are reasons to like Colorado’s chances at beating a struggling Washington State team on Friday.

After starting the season 4-0 with wins over Wisconsin and Oregon State, the Cougars are losers of six straight heading into their home finale.

Coach Prime, safety Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig, defensive lineman Amari McNeill, edge rusher Jordan Domineck and defensive ends coach Nick Williams all spoke to the media this week ahead of Friday’s game. Here’s what they had to say:

Five storylines to follow ahead of Colorado’s Week 12 matchup at Washington State

These five storylines are worth following heading into Colorado’s Friday night game against Washington State

This has been a complex season for Deion Sanders, the Colorado football program and the Buffs faithful. The season started with such hope and promise. But lately, heartbreak and despair have taken over.

With just two weeks remaining in the regular season, Colorado must win out to earn bowl eligibility. It won’t be easy for Coach Prime and company as both of their final two games are on the road.

Up first is a Friday night game against the Washington State Cougars at Martin Stadium in Pullman.

As we await kickoff, here are some of the top storylines to follow leading up to another must-win game for the Buffs:

This Washington State tush push attempt ended as disastrously as possible

Oh no, no, no.

College football and NFL fans love a good tush push. Generally.

The play, also known as “The Brotherly Shove,” was popularized by the Philadelphia Eagles, and teams everywhere are trying it out (even if they maybe shouldn’t). Some squads are even running fake tush-push plays.

The play certainly doesn’t work every time, but it also doesn’t usually end in disaster. However, unfortunately for Washington State on Saturday, that’s exactly what happened.

The Cougars, taking on Cal on the road, seemingly attempted the tush push early in the first quarter on fourth-and-1, and oooh boy, it did not go well. Washginton State quarterback Cam Ward — who’s having a solid season and was once a distant Heisman Trophy candidate — fumbled the ball, which popped out of the huge pile of players before being recovered by Bears linebacker Cade Uluave.

Uluave scooped it up and ran it back for a wild 51-yard touchdown.

That was a rough opening drive for Cal, which might want to table the tush push for now.

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Fox’s Big Noon Saturday trolled College GameDay by flying Washington State flags on set

So, the Washington State controversy is still a thing for some reason.

The ongoing Washington State drama, also known as the most pointless controversy of the college football season in some corners, took another turn Saturday morning on Fox Sports’ Big Noon Kickoff.

After Lee Corso’s misinterpreted comment sparked a misinformed comment from Wazzu coach Jake Dickert — and was sorted out like normal adults would in a misunderstanding — ESPN’s Pat McAfee and Desmond Howard tried to keep the mess going last week for some reason.

Well, now GameDay’s rival pregame show is jumping into the ring. Matt Leinart led a pro-Washington State flag-waving celebration on air this week on Big Noon Kickoff because, honestly, there just isn’t a lot going on this week besides the Red River Showdown, and you’ve got to fill the air somehow.

Seeing these grown men flying flags to troll another college football pregame show is just the “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” scene from Mary Poppins, only dumber.

Look, our current sports media landscape rewards the more salacious stuff like this as it spreads out over multiple weeks.

Everyone is always mad about everything, and now, Washington State has become the fixation of college football coverage for a controversy that apparently got resolved last month. In a few weeks, this will be forgotten because the bits will wither on the grapevine, like all stupid controversies in all sports do.

It’ll turn into something else dumb, like someone doing the horns down at an actual longhorn this week and getting chased around while McAfee does push-ups or something. Go Cougars; eat at Arby’s.

UCLA’s key to victory against Washington State in Week 6

UCLA has to beat Wazzu to have any slight chance of remaining in the Pac-12 race.

The UCLA Bruins have already lost to Utah in Pac-12 football action this year. They can’t pick up another early loss if they want to compete for the conference championship. They still have to play USC and other really good teams in the conference. They have no margin for error when they face unbeaten Washington State this Saturday in Pasadena.

We asked our Pac-12 experts about the main key for UCLA.

Ducks Wire editor Zachary Neel told us, “I think UCLA just needs to try and avoid some mistakes, namely from QB Dante Moore. He’s a very talented player, but still a true freshman. The defense is good enough to keep the Bruins in this game, they just can’t give Ward extra possessions.”

Ducks Wire writer Don Smalley said UCLA needs to win the turnover battle and “establish the run game in order to win the time of possession. If Cam Ward isn’t on the field, he can’t score.”

Our big key for UCLA:

Get to Cam Ward. UCLA’s defense was very good against a limited Utah offense. Can that UCLA defense make life difficult for Cam Ward? Oregon State’s defense could not. UCLA has to punch Ward in the mouth and make him feel jittery in the pocket. If the Bruins achieve that, they’ll probably get one or two turnovers and some short fields which will enable their offense to not have to do everything. UCLA has to win this game with its defense, and that starts with slowing down WSU’s surprisingly strong offense.

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Follow Buffaloes Wire for complete coverage of Deion Sanders and Colorado.

Follow Ducks Wire for coverage of Oregon football leading into the big game against Washington on October 14.

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Washington State’s key to victory vs UCLA in Pac-12 game of the week

Wazzu-UCLA is the showcase game in the #Pac12 for Week 6. We asked our Pac-12 experts how the Cougars can win.

Washington State at UCLA is the featured game in Pac-12 Football this weekend. If Washington State wins, the Cougars will have a real shot at the Pac-12 championship. If they lose, they will fall into the middle of the pack and will have a very slim chance of making it to Las Vegas for the Pac-12 Championship Game.

We wanted to get some views on Washington State’s main key to victory.

Ducks Wire editor Zachary Neel told us that “WSU needs to continue to do what works and air the ball out. Cameron Ward has been spectacular so far, and if they can be relentless on offense with the passing game against a solid UCLA defense, I think they win this game comfortably.”

Ducks Wire staff writer Don Smalley told us “This is quietly an interesting game. UCLA’s defense is really good and if they can keep Cameron Ward to three touchdowns or less, they have a chance.” If Ward scores at least four touchdowns, UCLA’s offense won’t keep pace.

My big key for Washington State is this:

Don’t give up huge plays to the UCLA offense. If Washington State can force the Bruins to go 13 plays and 80 yards in six minutes, and the Bruins are up to the task, tip the cap. The main thing is to not let Dante Moore hit deep balls for quick-strike scores. Forcing UCLA and its young quarterback to be patient is a reliable path to victory for the Cougars.

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Follow Buffaloes Wire for complete coverage of Deion Sanders and Colorado.

Follow Ducks Wire for coverage of Oregon football leading into the big game against Washington on October 14.

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Experts think Alex Grinch will prevent USC from making the Pac-12 Championship Game.

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Pac-12 football overview: Washington State becomes a conference title contender after beating Oregon State

Tired: Oregon State could be the dangerous floater in #Pac12 football this year. Wired: Wazzu could be that team instead.

The Oregon State Beavers were supposed to be the dangerous, tricky opponent that made life difficult for Washington and Oregon in the Pacific Northwest and the top tier of the Pac-12 Conference this football season.

Instead, Washington State has emerged as that team.

Oregon State has Oregon and Washington on its schedule. The Beavers were viewed before the season as a team which could knock off either the Ducks or Huskies and make a surprising — but not overly shocking — dark-horse run to the Pac-12 Championship Game.

Washington State has replaced the Beavers after beating them in Week 4.

Washington State’s schedule has Oregon and Washington, just as Oregon State does. The rest of WSU’s schedule is very soft with the exception of an October 7 game at UCLA. If the Cougars can win that one in Pasadena, they will likely finish no worse than 7-2 in Pac-12 play this year. If they beat UCLA and can then pick off either Oregon or U-Dub, they will have a chance at 8-1, which would very likely get them to the Pac-12 Championship Game.

Note: USC and Washington State do not play this year. That is a benefit to both the Trojans and Cougars.

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Follow Buffaloes Wire for complete coverage of Deion Sanders and Colorado, as CU prepares to play USC on Fox Big Noon Saturday.

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