By Theo Lawson
The Spokesman-Review
TUCSON, Ariz. — When the Washington State Cougars desperately needed a jumpstart on offense, head coach Mike Leach made the gutsy move to pull fourth-year starter Luke Falk from the game and insert backup Tyler Hilinski. The stunt worked for a moment — Hilinski led a nine-play, 75-yard touchdown drive capped by a 6-yard keeper to bring the Cougars within six points of the Arizona Wildcats — just not in the long-term.
Hilinski rushed for two touchdowns and passed for two more, but the redshirt sophomore also threw four costly interceptions and those combined with a lackluster day from the WSU defense buried the 15th-ranked Cougars in a 58-37 loss to the Wildcats at Arizona Stadium.
WSU dropped to 7-2 overall and 4-2 in the Pac-12 with the loss, falling one game behind both Washington and Stanford. Arizona improved to 5-2 and 3-1.
Leach replaced his record-setting senior with the second-stringer late in the second quarter. Hilinski got WSU into the end zone, but the Cougars gave up 50 yards on the ensuing kickoff and Arizona kicker Lucas Havrisik knocked in a 56-yard field goal as time expired to give the Wildcats a 23-14 lead at the break.
Falk engineered only one scoring drive in the first half and didn’t appear injured when Leach yanked him with 2:56 to go in the half. Hilinski completed seven of his first eight passes and scrambled into the end zone from six yards to make it 20-14.
Hilinski had plenty of good moments, finishing 45-of-61 through the air for 509 yards. But Hilinski shot the Cougars in the foot more than once with his mis-throws — and this wasn’t a day in which the WSU defense could recover.
The Cougars trailed by as many as 13 points in the first half, but despite closing the gap, were still outgained 281-192 by redshirt sophomore phenom Khalil Tate and the Wildcats.
In all, the Cougars conceded 310 rushing yards and four touchdowns on the ground. Tate’s become one of the country’s most explosive rushers, but he also made WSU pay with his arm, completing 10-of-17 for 275 yards and two touchdowns.
The Cougars did a fine job of bottling Tate up as a rusher in the early going, but couldn’t sustain it. Arizona outscored Washington State 36-23 in the second half .
Tate finished with 146 yards rushing and J.J. Taylor added 152 yards and two TDs on the ground for Arizona.
Tavares Martin Jr. caught 11 passes for 136 yards and two touchdowns for the Cougars.
For the box score of Washington State’s loss to Arizona, see the scoreboard on page C7.
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