PULLMAN — The heat was turned up on the Washington State offense Saturday and it responded, to a degree.
As the turf at Martin Stadium sizzled — the high hit 97 in town but may have been higher on the field — the Cougars put together four long scoring drives in an hour-long scrimmage, WSU’s first of the Paul Wulff era.
“I think we came out and did well offensively,” starting quarterback Gary Rogers said. “We put points on the board, which is good. We got (three) field goals, would liked to have got into the end zone but coming away with points is always a plus.”
The second unit, with Kevin Lopina at the controls, had two drives — 56 and 62 yards — that ended in field goals. The third unit, in its one drive, went 75 yards, culminated by Marshall Lobbestael’s 20-yard scoring strike to tight end Skylar Stormo.
The touchdown was part of a trend, as tight ends Devin Frischknecht, Ben Woodard, Aaron Gehring and Stormo combined for eight catches for 68 yards.
“We were just taking what they were giving us,” Rogers said. “They were … dropping the middle linebacker out, so we had the tight end on a hunt route coming right in there.”
Stormo’s touchdown catch was the longest completion of the day. Rogers was 9 of 13 for 80 yards, Lopina 7 of 12 for 90 and Lobbestael was perfect on his two attempts for 36.
The rushing game wasn’t bad either, with 19 attempts for 98 yards if three sacks — two on Rogers — aren’t figured in. The leading rusher turned out to be Lopina, who broke off two option runs, one for 15 yards, the other 17.
Still the offense wasn’t moving at the speed coach Paul Wulff and offensive coordinator Todd Sturdy were hoping for.
“No, we didn’t (play as fast as wanted),” Wulff said. “Some of the guys were a little lagging, you could tell they were breathing hard, we couldn’t get those guys up there and moving as fast as we needed them to.
“That’s part of this process. They don’t quite still get it, what we have to do and we’re not quite in the shape we want to be.”
“Everybody out here today, the heat caught up with them a little bit,” said Rogers, who added he heard Sturdy encouraging the offense to speed it up from the sidelines most of the scrimmage. “Everybody felt pretty good after the warm up but then, boom, the heat just kind of hit everybody.”
Brandon Gibson, one of the few healthy Cougar receivers, said he thought the heat only accounted for part of the sluggishness. Inexperience was another factor.
“We need to come off the ball harder and get in better shape,” the senior said. “We have two freshmen (Kevin Norrell and Jared Karstetter) starting right now at wide-out and, other than that, I think we’re pretty good.
“We had 20 plays,” Wulff said, alluding to his pre-scrimmage goal. “Good ones? There were some, on both sides of the ball, so that was encouraging.
“Obviously, we were flat emotionally,” Wulff continued. “That was our 15th practice, we have 14 to go. Now we have to take some big steps. I think we will.”
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