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Sep. 8—PULLMAN — Washington State honored the late Mike Leach, the architect of the Air Raid offense, by doing more rushing than passing in a 37-16 win over Texas Tech on Saturday at Gesa Field.
The Cougars gained 301 rushing yards to 115 passing yards in a game that featured two teams that Leach led for nearly 20 years combined.
WSU quarterback John Mateer earned the majority of Wazzu’s rushing output, gaining 197 yards — a Cougar quarterback record.
“I do know this: coach Leach would be really disappointed,” WSU coach Jake Dickert said. “‘Why the hell are you running your starting quarterback?’
Mateer’s record-breaking rushing day
On the day that WSU enshrined Leach into its Athletics Hall of Fame and with WSU and Texas Tech both coming off high-octane offensive-powered victories (WSU 70-30 over Portland State and Texas Tech 52-51 overtime win over Abilene Christian), college football fans may have expected an offensive shootout with a cosmic number of passing yards.
Instead, Mateer set a program rushing record for a quarterback.
The Texas-born signal-caller scored the Cougars’ first TD of the day with his legs, evading Texas Tech’s defensive disruption and taking plenty of hard hits, one of which led to a targeting foul.
He surpassed Bob Kennedy’s record of 171 yards from 1942 and became the first Cougar QB to rush for over 100 yards since Timm Rosenbach versus Oregon in 1987.
“They kept dropping eight on us, you know,” Mateer said. “So we just ran the ball, and it was working, and the O-line was getting after it, man.”
Cougar defense plays a physical brand of football
The Cougar defense was all over the field, creating plays quite literally from the opening kickoff on.
On a short kickoff, a Red Raider failed to secure the ball, allowing it to hit the turf and for WSU safety Tyson Durant to leap on the ball. Pac-12…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/wazzu-rushes-way-past-red-121700928.html
Author : Lewiston Tribune, Idaho
Publish date : 2024-09-08 12:17:00
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