SEATTLE — Paul Wulff emerged from a tunnel beneath a crimson “Cougar Pride” banner immediately before his first game was Washington State’s coach. He gradually yielded the lead to his young, charging players, then thought to himself and smiled.
“Going out on the field it hit me: We are the Washington State football team,” the 41-year-old former Cougars lineman said. “That was really fun.”
The fun stopped there.
Kendall Hunter ran 23 times for 119 yards with a career-best two touchdowns, Zac Robinson passed for 182 yards and ran for another score and Oklahoma State made Wulff’s new offense look inept in the Cowboys’ 39-13 rout of the Cougars on Saturday.
Wulff, the first graduate to lead the Cougars since Phil Sarboe left after the 1949 season, also became the first coach to lose his debut game at Washington State since Jackie Sherrill in 1976.
The replacement for ousted Bill Doba knows he has a young team that was playing without two of its three starting wide receivers because of injury. So Wulff spent most of the game clapping and shouting encouragement from the sidelines. But by the end of another three-and-out series late in the fourth quarter, he was doing what about 50,000 Washington State fans had been doing all day: angrily slapping his hand into the silent air at WSU’s annual “home” game across the state.
“We stubbed our foot a lot … It doesn’t surprise me we made mistakes,” Wulff said, pointing to his youth.
“We’ll get better,” he said, adding he saw “some really good signs.”
Breakdowns on special teams and Hunter romping untouched through the middle of the defense weren’t two of them.
In his first collegiate start, Hunter, a native of Tyler, Texas, produced like that old “Tyler Rose,” former Heisman Trophy winner and Hall of Fame running back Earl Campbell.
“It’s kind of crazy,” Hunter said of his debut, which steadied an uneven day of 367 yards for an offense that finished last season seventh nationally in total offense at 486 yards per game.
With coach Mike Gundy primarily calling the plays for the first time in his four seasons as head coach, 12 of the Cowboys’ first 25 points came thanks to a 42-yard punt return by Dez Bryant, a safety and a 90-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Perrish Cox.
Their no-huddle, spread offense didn’t find a groove until the fourth quarter. Robinson, who set an Oklahoma State record with 3,671 yards in total offense last season, and Bryant connected on four passes for 65 yards to set up a 1-yard touchdown sneak by Robinson. That put Oklahoma State up 32-13 with 9:45 left.
Hunter ran in untouched from 10 yards two minutes later.
Gundy called the game “unusual” for having so many opportunities inside Washington State’s 20-yard line, thanks all the big plays on special teams.
“Well … obviously we’ll have to look it over,” Gundy said of his offense. “I’ll be real honest with you: We don’t have a lot of play calls inside the 20.”
Wulff would love to have such problems.
Washington State gained 51 yards on its first 28 plays into the third quarter against a defense that allowed 443 total yards per game last season — 101st out of 119 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision. It was evidence Wulff’s own no-huddle, spread offense still has huge kinks from its summer implementation.
The Cougars trailed 18-0 before they finally crossed into the Cowboys’ side of midfield, midway through the third quarter. That drive ended with star receiver Brandon Gibson, who had three drops but finished with six catches for 53 yards, making a twisting catch in the end zone of 9-yard pass from Gary Rogers.
Wade Penner shanked the extra point to keep the Cougars down 18-6 with six minutes left in the third quarter.
Then Cox zigzagged without a WSU player getting near him for his third career touchdown on a kickoff return to send the Cowboys cruising, up 25-6.
“There were blunders on the special teams that need to be fixed — and can be,” Wulff said.
Rogers, a fifth-year senior making his first career start with record-setting Alex Brink graduated, was 12 of 24 for 82 yards passing with a touchdown, one interception and two sacks while continually skipping passes low and behind receivers. He had Gibson open running toward the goal line at the Oklahoma State 20 in the first quarter but threw behind him. That allowed Jacob Lacey to break up the pass.
Gibson then dropped a throw while open near midfield on WSU’s final drive of an inept first half and another in the end zone in the second half.
“Coming out, I had a few jitters because I haven’t played in a while,” said Rogers, who was born in Seattle and went to high school at Kamiak in Mukilteo. “I was anticipating this moment and then waiting for a while, I wanted to soak it all up.”
Instead, he and the Cougars drowned.
Their day reached its nadir midway through the second quarter. Four consecutive plays over two drives went for a total of minus-12 yards. The final loss became a safety when Dwight Tardy was dumped four yards deep in the end zone by Jeray Chatham.
The half ended with the second of three field goals by Dan Bailey, from 21 yards, that put the Cowboys up 15-0. OSU outgained WSU 227-51 in the first two quarters.
“We were slow and dry and boring in the first half,” Gibson said.
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