Aug. 15—COUGAR NOTES
Whoever walks onto the field, leads the huddle and takes the first offensive snap for the Washington State football team just after 7 p.m. on Aug. 30 at Gesa Field will — barring any trick plays or further conundrum — by definition, be the Cougars’ starting quarterback.
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If first-year WSU coach Jimmy Rogers has his way, no one outside the Cougar Football Complex will know who that QB will be until that day.
“You guys won’t know so, I’ll never tell ya, you’re gonna see it on game day,” Rogers said Thursday. “There’s a battle continuing to happen. Proud of the guys as far as their maturity and how they handled it and we’ll see how it shapes.”
No public QB announcement
With Rogers saying he will not publicly announce a starting QB prior to the Cougars’ season opener against Idaho, the competition remains a four-way battle between returning senior Zevi Eckhaus, third-year Coug Jaxon Potter, redshirt freshman Julian Dugger, a Pitt transfer, and sophomore Ajani Sheppard, a Rutgers transfer.
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The answer will be apparent on game day, with eager spectators taking note of the volume of warmup throws that each guy takes and who walks to the 50-yard line for the pregame coin toss and handshakes.
In his one season leading the South Dakota State offense last year, now-WSU offensive coordinator Danny Freund utilized a dual-threat QB in Mark Gronowski, who transferred to Iowa.
Freund said that he wanted to see Eckhaus be more of a mobile QB and praised his growth in that area.
In last year’s Holiday Bowl, Eckhaus flashed some wheels, scoring a rushing touchdown and totaling 28 yards on the ground.
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Rogers went so far as to say that Eckhaus is a mobile QB.
Eckhaus seems to have taken strides in his mobility this offseason. The senior from Culver City, Calif., cashed in on multiple rushing scores the last several weeks, including a defense-defying 65-yard scramble earlier in camp. He has also made plenty of difficult throws.
Dugger’s wheels wowed in the first week of camp. The Pittsburgh native shook off several defenders on his way to the end zone on the first day that the Cougar QBs went live.
Potter has impressed, especially in recent days, with a cannon for an arm.
He connected with junior college transfer Devin Ellison for an approximately 75-yard touchdown completion on Tuesday. The ball was in the air for nearly 50 yards, blowing the top off an otherwise stout Cougar defense.
