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Apr. 7—PULLMAN — With 147 days until Washington State kicks off its 2024 football season, the Cougars took to Gesa Field on Saturday for their first game-like scenario of the offseason with plenty of position groups to sort out and starters to be named.
Six quarterbacks threw passes, 16 players snagged receptions and three defenders nabbed interceptions during WSU’s first scrimmage of spring practice.
One thing was clear: there’s a lot to improve on both sides of the ball if the Cougars are going to get to their first bowl game since 2022.
But that’s what spring camp is all about — finding improvement and separating the wannabes from the future stars.
“I think the biggest thing is we’re through six practices already and you start to reveal the makeup and mentality of the team, and I think we need to get better in every area,” WSU coach Jake Dickert said. “And that’s from taking care of the ball, our physicality at the line of scrimmage, communication on defense, tackling.
“That excites me though. I mean that. We’ve got a bunch of guys who are working their tails off, they believe in each other and they know what we want to do and the vision of it.”
The Cougar offense scored four touchdowns on the day, kicker Dean Janikowski made three field goals (with a long of 42 yards) and the defense won the 10 other drives.
WSU will have one more spring scrimmage on April 20 and conclude spring camp with the Crimson and Gray game April 27.
Quarterbacks a mixed bag
On the first drive of the day, sophomore quarterback John Mateer navigated the Cougars down the field for an 11-play, 75-yard scoring drive capped by a 2-yard touchdown run by junior running back Dylan Paine.
Mateer finished the day 16-of-20 passing for 203 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
But it was an overall mixed day for the Cougars’ signal-callers, who are…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/quarterbacks-show-room-improvement-newcomers-121600049.html
Author : Lewiston Tribune, Idaho
Publish date : 2024-04-07 12:16:00
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