WSU football holds first scrimmage

PULLMAN - Football season is here as the Washington State University Cougars hosted their first scrimmage of 2024 on Saturday, Aug. 10.

Senior quarterback Zevi Eckhaus threw three touchdown passes and nearly 150 yards, redshirt sophomore quarterback John Mateer tossed for two touchdowns and nearly 170 yards and redshirt freshman quarterback Jaxon Potter passed for two touchdowns and over 200 yards.

"It was good, it was long," Cougars Head Coach Jake Dickert said after the scrimmage. "We were out here for 130 plays - it was probably the longest first scrimmage that we've had in fall camp - but we've had to sort a lot of things out."

Eckhaus, the 6-foot, 200-pounder from Culver City, Calif., was voted Big South Offensive Player of the Year last season with the Bryant Bulldogs. He was named First-Team All-Big South and was a finalist for the Walter Payton Award, completing 238-of-379 passes for 2,907 yards and 28 touchdowns. He was ranked third nationally in total offense (296.4 yards per game) and passing touchdowns (28).

Mateer, the 6-foot-1, 219-pound QB from Little Elm, Texas, played in all 12 games, all off the bench, last season for the Cougs. He completed 13-of-17 passes for 235 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. He also rushed 20 times for 61 yards and three touchdowns.

Potter (6-foot-5, 205 pounds) from Huntington Beach, Calif., did not appear in a game last season, but Scout Team Player of the Week honors for Northern Colorado.

"We had a long conversation about Jaxon not taking a back seat to anybody," Dickert said. "While we talked a lot about Zevi and John, for (Potter) to say, 'I want to go out and compete and get better,' I think he's done a really good job with that. He hasn't thrown a pick, he's gotten better and better every single day, and I'm just really proud of the work he put in today. ... We will name a starter a week from today."

Senior Kris Hutson and redshirt freshman Branden Ganashamoorthy each caught five passes for over 100 yards, while freshman Chris Barnes finished with nearly 90 receiving yards. Hutson and redshirt freshman Brandon Hills each caught two touchdowns while Ganashamoorthy, freshman Josh Joyner and Landon Wright each caught a touchdown pass.

Hutson is a 5-foot-11, 275-pound wide receiver from Compton, Calif., who enrolled in January and participated with the Cougars in spring practice. Last season, he played in five games with the Oregon Ducks with his lone catch of the season coming in a win against Stanford.

Barnes, a 5-foot-7, 158-pound wide receiver from Houston, Texas, will look to see the field and make contributions to the WSU air game.

"First and foremost, Chris Barnes will get every opportunity to get into the rotation as we go forward," Dickert said. "Kris Hutson continues to show that he can be an inside and outside player and we need him to be a big-time playmaker."

On the ground, Joyner led the team with nearly 80 yards rushing to go with one rushing touchdown and one receiving touchdown. Redshirt freshman Leo Pulalasi added a rushing TD with redshirt junior Dylan Paine and freshman Wayshawn Parker each rushing for nearly 40 yards. The Cougar ground attack combined for two rushing touchdowns on nearly 200 yards.

"We've got a lot of competition happening, really at every position," Dickert said. "I just love the responses. You really got to watch the film to see what the quarterbacks end up doing here, but I thought there was good things on both sides (of the ball)."

The Cougar defense combined for seven sacks and a pair of interceptions from cornerback Stephen Hall and defensive back Kayo Patu. Quinn Roff and Michael Hughes each tallied two sacks while Nusi Malani, David Gusta and Rashad McKenzie each recorded one sack.

Hall is a 6-foot, 199-pound redshirt junior from Memphis, Tenn. Last season with the Cougars he appeared in 11 games, three as a starter, and totaled 20 tackles (10 solo).

Patu, a 5-foot-11, 170-pounder, joins WSU as a freshman. He earned four varsity letters, the first three at Capital Christian High School in Sacramento, Calif., before playing his senior season at Roosevelt High School in Seattle.

"The biggest thing is communication - I'm talking about defense overall," Dickert said. "Sometimes we don't communicate enough and you see big busts down the sideline. You see things that are happening that we can't have to be successful, so the communication aspect of it, just coming from a defensive lens, has to be really elevated as we go through these next three weeks. Part of that is just a young group of guys that need to solidify. Once the ball is kicked off in three weeks, that's not an excuse - to be young is not an excuse. These guys got to be ready for the challenge and I think we've got to make big strides there in the next few weeks."

The Cougs will continue practice before opening the season at home against Portland State at noon on Saturday, Aug. 31, at Gesa Field in Pullman.

"We gotta get better - that's a really fun thing to say," Dickert said. "We need to execute, we need to be cleaner with physical tackling, there's so much to improve on. Where we're at today is the truth of our coaching, it's the truth of our playmakers, it's the truth of where Cougs Football is three weeks out. But right now we have three weeks to grow and get better and that's what I'm excited about the most."