Five Washington State football story lines to watch for at Pac-12 media day

By Greg Woods
PULLMAN — If you happened to blink sometime in the last two months, you might have missed this summer blow by. Somehow, we’ve already arrived at the end of July, which means it’s time for Pac-12 media day — the signal that, hey, football is coming soon.
Tons of intrigue surrounds this Washington State team. How will quarterback Cam Ward fare in his second year? Can the Cougars replace a few key losses on defense? These guys avoided some of the conference’s titans on this fall’s schedule, which led Pro Football Focus to call their schedule the second-easiest among Power Five schools. Does WSU care?
Let’s not spoil the rest of this list, though. In the Cougars’ orbit, here are five things to watch for at Pac-12 media day, which kicks off Friday morning in Las Vegas. Their representatives will be head coach Jake Dickert, Ward and edge Ron Stone Jr.
1. What kind of tune will Jake Dickert and Cameron Ward strike about this year’s offense?
If we called Ward’s 2022 season awesome, we might win an award for understatement of the century. An all-conference honorable-mention pick, Ward completed 64% of his passes for 3,231 yards and 23 touchdowns, blossoming into a dynamic dual-threat quarterback and leading the Cougars to a giant road win over Wisconsin, among several other standout outings.
What will be interesting to watch this year, though, is how Ward meshes with the new faces around him: New offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle, an air-raid coach, plus new receivers like Kyle Williams (UNLV transfer) and Josh Kelly (Fresno State transfer). How much will Arbuckle trust Ward to air it out and find those guys down the field? How much will that threat open up opportunities for Ward to scramble and use his legs?
There’s no telling in July, though, which is why we’ll have to see how Dickert and Ward talk about this team’s offense. Maybe they’ll play it cool, keeping things close to the vest to try and hold on to a competitive advantage. Or perhaps they’ll be open about pushing Ward to use his arm even more. We’ll know soon enough.
2. Does Ron Stone Jr. feel any pressure headed into his final season?
WSU’s redshirt senior edge is back for his fifth year. At the end of last season, he earned All Pac-12 second-team honors. Ahead of this season, he was named to the preseason All-Pac 12 second team, along with fellow lineman Brennan Jackson. We could go on and on with superlatives, but here’s the point: Stone figures to be a force in the pass rush this fall, same as he has been the last few years.
That prompts what feels like a fair question: Does Stone feel any stronger expectations headed into his final year with the Cougars? How might that factor into his play, and in turn, how might that bolster WSU’s front four? Stone will be in Las Vegas this weekend, so we’ll have to hear it from him.
That leads nicely into our next thing to watch, which is …
3. Who are the Cougars hoping can step up and plug some gaps on defense?
By now, we know WSU will enter this fall without two linebackers who made last year’s defense the conference’s fifth best, at least statistically: Francisco Mauigoa and Travion Brown. Those guys, who played middle linebacker, hit the transfer portal last December. They are the Cougars’ costliest losses on defense.
So who are the Cougars hoping can replace that pair? Sophomore Kyle Thornton totaled 35 tackles last fall. Senior Ben Wilson added 15. Those are WSU’s only returning linebackers who played meaningful snaps last year. Are the Cougs hoping they flourish this year — or are they looking to someone else entirely, like transfer linebacker Ahmad McCullough?
4. PFF says WSU has the second-easiest schedule among Power Five schools. Do the Cougs care?
The Cougars might say they prefer to play the conference’s best, behemoths like 2022 top-12 finishers USC and Utah, but they don’t play those schools this fall. That prompted Pro Football Focus to rank WSU’s 2023 schedule the second-easiest among Power Five clubs.
One question: Do the Cougars care about lists like those? Some teams like to say they don’t.
We’re only focused on ourselves. The media will say what they want. We can only control what we can control.
Others opt to use stuff like that as fuel.
We hear the doubters. We’re out to prove people wrong.
Heck, maybe they’ll say something that doesn’t fall in either category. College kids are nothing if not unpredictable.
5. As fall camp begins, how much will the Cougars prepare for Colorado State versus preparing themselves?
Again, we’re in July, which means you might have better luck having a pleasant DMV experience than getting concrete answers about a football season that starts in September. Still, as media day unfolds and as WSU’s fall camp begins Aug. 2, it’ll be intriguing to see how the Cougs talk about things: Are they only focused on preparing themselves? Or are they incorporating some schemes from Colorado State, their season-opening foe?
It’s entirely possible Dickert and the Cougars will keep that much under wraps — good luck finding a college football coach willing to concede anything resembling a competitive advantage — but considering how much change washed over the Cougs’ program this offseason, it’s worth paying attention to what WSU has to say.
Since last season, Washington State has bid farewell to the following: Mauigoa, Brown, receivers De’Zhaun Stribling and Donovan Ollie, reserves Chris Jackson (cornerback), Xavier Ward (quarterback), Gabriel Lopez (defensive end), Gavin Barthiel (linebacker), Eric Wilder (offensive lineman) and Jouvensly Bazil (running back).
That’s nothing new in college football, not in the era of NIL and the transfer portal, but combine those with the departures of WSU assistant coaches Eric Morris (offensive coordinator), Brian Ward (defensive coordinator), A.J. Cooper (edge), and it’ll be worth watching how the Cougs talk about their new campaign.