Playing a ninth straight game has worn on Washington State, and San Diego State is dealing with the same grind. That puts the Cougars and Aztecs in the rare company of just 10 FBS teams that have opened the season with nine consecutive games.
“I know we are pushing through,” first-year WSU coach Kirby Moore said Wednesday on his “Cougar Football Hour with Kirby Moore” show in Pullman.
If Washington State is going to leave San Diego with a win Saturday, it has to handle three specific battles.
The first one starts on the outside, where the Cougars should have a chance to attack a rebuilt Aztecs secondary. A year ago, San Diego State leaned on a shutdown back end led by co-Mountain West Conference defensive player of the year Chris Johnson, a cornerback who was selected by Miami in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft. Safety Dalesean Staley was also supposed to return as a starter, but a serious knee injury last spring changed that plan.
Now all five spots in the defensive backfield belong to new faces, and the results have been shaky. Big plays have been there for the taking.
That makes this a natural week for Moore to lean into the deep ball, with quarterback Owen Eshelman making his third career start Saturday. Washington State’s field-stretching options are limited to Branden Ganashamoorthy, but Daniel Blood, Tank Hawkins Jr. and tight end Trey Leckner can also work downfield on deep crossers.
The other side of the matchup brings a different kind of headache. San Diego State is not rolling out one feature back, but two dangerous runners in Javion Kinnard and Lucky Sutton. Kinnard is the shifty, explosive one who likes getting to the edge, while Sutton entered the season as the top back on the depth chart before a multi-week ankle injury slowed him down.
Kinnard has piled up 526 rushing yards and three touchdowns, good for fourth in the conference. Sutton has found his stride lately as well, sitting 12th in the league with 358 yards and five scores.
Together, they were a problem in last week’s loss at Colorado State, combining for 192 rushing yards and four touchdowns. That’s the same kind of challenge Washington State faced last week against Boise State’s Dylan Riley, the league’s leading rusher, and the message is clear: the Cougars cannot let Kinnard get through the first line and into the second level.
Then there’s Jaylon Hawkins, the kind of player who can tilt a game in a hurry. If Oregon State’s Jesse Legree had not stormed the Pac-12 - or the country - in the manner in which he has as a true freshman to thrust himself into the Heisman Trophy conversation, more people would be talking about Hawkins. The redshirt freshman has been electric for the Aztecs.
Hawkins ranks 15th in FBS with 948 all-purpose yards, built from his work as both a kickoff returner and wide receiver. He leads the nation with 626 kickoff return yards and three touchdowns, and San Diego State has also increased his role in the passing game.
Over his past three games, he has been targeted 22 times. Last week at Colorado State, he had a career day as a receiver, catching six passes for 164 yards and a touchdown.
For Washington State, that means a major test awaits its cornerbacks Khamari Terrell, Jalil Tucker and Jamarey Smith. Coverage and communication will be front and center if the Cougars want to keep Hawkins from making the kind of game-changing plays San Diego State has been feeding him lately.
In Other News...
WSU Brings Back A Road Look Fans Havent Seen In Years
Washington State is taking a road look into San Diego State that longtime fans have not seen in years, pairing white helmets with crimson logos, white jerseys and crimson pants for a combination that adds a little throwback feel to the week. The Cougars have spent this season working through a range of uniform pieces, and the program has made a habit of turning the reveal into its own small event, with players serving as the face of each rollout.
This time, wide receiver Tank Hawkins handled the modeling duties, continuing a pattern of letting different players front the uniform reveals while a few familiar faces have shown up again from last years batch. For a team still building its weekly identity on the road, the look is part style and part routine, another small detail that helps set the tone before kickoff even arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Washington State's Rebuild Just Took A Brutal Turn In The Pac-12
Boise State stayed on top of the Pac-12 standings after handling Washington State 31-10, a result that did more than just keep the Broncos in control of the race. It also underscored how quickly the picture can change around a league where Texas State has climbed two spots after edging Utah State 20-17, and where every week seems to reshuffle the chase for the top spot.
Oregon State is trying to position itself for the stretch run after its bye, with wide receiver Jesse Legree back in the mix and a demanding three-game run ahead against Fresno State, Texas State and Boise State. Fresno State and San Diego State still have their own opportunities to affect the championship picture, so the Cougars' setback landed at a time when the margin for error around the Pac-12 is getting thin. [Read more 🡒]
Washington State Has A Must Fix Problem Before San Diego State
The frustration coming out of the loss to Boise State was easy to hear in Kirby Moores comments, and it centered on a problem Washington State cannot afford to carry into the next week. The Cougars offense never quite settled in, with quarterback Owen Eshelman finishing 21 of 40 for 191 yards without a touchdown and throwing one interception, and Moore made it clear the protection in front of him needs to be better.
Moore also pointed to the kind of messy details that can snowball fast for an offense, including communication breakdowns along the line and a Boise State pass rush that kept the Cougars uncomfortable. With San Diego State next on the schedule, Washington State is facing an early test of whether it can clean up those issues quickly enough to give Eshelman a cleaner picture and the offense a chance to function the way it needs to. [Read more 🡒]