How to watch: Washington State vs. Texas Tech

WASHINGTON STATE HAS a new plan for the TV overhead shots of the stadium for Week 2. WSU is calling for fans to “stripe the stadium,” with students and fans in the even sections to wear crimson, and fans in odd sections to wear white when the Cougs on Saturday play host to Texas Tech on Fox (7 p.m.)

As of press time, WSU has not said be wearing a pirate decal/patch to honor Mike Leach, who was inducted into the WSU Hall of Fame on Friday.

WSU and TTU are the two schools Leach is most closely associated with after spending eight seasons at Wazzu, and 10 campaigns at Texas Tech. Leach passed away in December 2022 following complications from a heart condition. He was 61.

BOTH THE COUGARS and Red Raiders featured explosive offenses in their respective openers, and defenses that were a little too porous for fans’ liking.

Abilene Christian racked up 506 passing yards at Texas Tech, while Portland State scored 30 points at Washington State. TTU offensive line coach Clay McGuire spent the previous two seasons in Pullman, necessitating a change in the Cougars’ offensive signals when the helmet communication shuts off. Cougar OC Ben Arbuckle coached under Tech OC Zach Kittley at both Western Kentucky and Houston Baptist.

“They have our playbook, we have their playbook,” Jake Dickert said this week. “Who’s going to execute, and who’s going to play harder and go out there and win a big-time football game in a great environment?”

WSU HAS A dual-threat starting quarterback for the first time in a while, with John Mateer running for a score and 55 yards on just two carries. Oh, he also threw for 352 yards on 11 of 17 passing with 5 touchdowns.

Yes, the Cougs are going to throw the ball around. But Dickert wants a strong running game so the Cougars aren’t one-dimensional.

The Cougs came into the opener with four running backs figure to rotate, but Wayshawn Parker and Leo Pulalasi may have separated themselves from Djouvensky Schlenbaker and Dylan Paine. Parker was a revelation, with 8 carries for 96 yards and 1 TD. Pulalasi was overshadowed but still had 54 hashes on 8 touches (6.8 ypc).

The bigger questions are on defense, where the Cougar d-line needs to make more of an impact that it did in the opener.