Washington State is getting Colorado State at a strange moment, and that’s what makes Saturday interesting.
The Rams are 3-6, but they’re not a routine three-win team. They’ve already picked up a conference win over San Diego State, the same team Washington State just lost to, and they arrive in Pullman with the kind of weekly chaos that has followed Jim Mora Jr. all season. Colorado State is also carrying the worst defense in the country, yet it has enough offense to make every game feel like a track meet.
Mora’s first year has already produced plenty of sideline drama. In early October against Oregon State, he fired defensive coordinator Tyson Summers during the game after Summers walked off the sideline following a sudden change in defensive play-calling. Then last week, in a loss to Boise State, Rams offensive lineman Toriyan Johnson and strength and conditioning coach Shelton Bynum had a visible altercation on the sideline.
Even with all of that, Colorado State has an offense that can light up a scoreboard. The Rams are led by quarterback Hauss Hejny, and Washington State coach Kirby Moore got a firsthand look during the Cougars’ bye week when he watched Boise State beat Colorado State 64-38. The Rams still piled up 513 yards in that game.
Moore summed up Hejny’s game in four words at his Monday press conference. Hejny started last year’s opener at Oklahoma State before breaking his foot and missing the rest of the season.
This year, after missing a month with a hamstring injury, he still ranks among the Pac-12 leaders in total offense with 1,669 yards, passing yards with 1,391 and total touchdowns with 20. His 169.6 passer efficiency rating leads the conference.
“He throws with really good anticipation - he gets to the top of the drop and trusts it,” Moore said. “And his skill-position guys are making plays as well.”
That offense is the bright side for Mora, who has a long record of lifting programs. At UConn, he took the Huskies to bowl games in three of his four seasons.
At UCLA from 2012-17, he won the Pac-12 South in 2012 and followed it with back-to-back bowl victories. He also spent four seasons in the NFL, including three in Atlanta from 2004-06 and one in Seattle in 2009, and led the Falcons to the NFC Championship Game in 2004.
His coaching résumé stretches across five different decades at the NFL or FBS level, beginning as a graduate assistant at Washington in 1984.
The defense, though, has been a nightmare. After Summers was dismissed, Kenny McClendon took over the unit, but the numbers have not improved much. Colorado State ranks 138th in FBS in total defense at 542.2 yards allowed per game and is giving up 44.8 points per game, which is last in the Pac-12.
Mora said this week he owns the problem.
“I made a decision (in hiring Summers) that didn’t work, and have been trying to fix it since.”
The one area where Colorado State has made real noise is takeaways. The Rams have forced 14 turnovers in nine games, tied with Fresno State for the most in the conference.
In Other News...
Washington State Suddenly Has One Huge Apple Cup Question
The College Football Playoffs move to 24 teams next season is already reshaping the way Washington State has to think about its schedule, and the ripple effects reach well beyond the immediate future. For 2027, the Cougars and Oregon State are set to be treated as Power 4 programs, which protects their scheduled Power 4 matchups and gives both schools some stability as the new format settles in.
The bigger question is what happens after that, when their status beyond 2027 becomes less certain and every nonconference date starts to carry more weight. For Washington State, that uncertainty lands right on the Apple Cup, where the annual rivalry with Washington now has to be viewed not just as a tradition, but as a scheduling issue with playoff implications attached. [Read more 🡒]