Washington State could be turning to a young, rising offensive coordinator to replace the departed Eric Morris and fix some of its offensive woes.
The Cougars are expected to hire Western Kentucky co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Ben Arbuckle, per a report Tuesday from college football insider Bruce Feldman. The move also was reported by ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg.
The 27-year-old Arbuckle helped lead the Hilltoppers to a 9-5 record this season and a 44-23 win last Wednesday against South Alabama in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. The Hilltoppers had almost 700 yards in their bowl win.
Arbuckle’s group averaged 36.4 points and 497.1 yards per game this season.
The biggest selling point though, for a WSU team that struggled to generate big-yardage plays, could be that WKU led the nation in plays of 20-plus yards with 98 — 10 more than the next best team.
Arbuckle’s rise has been swift.
His promotion at WKU came after his work as a quality control assistant helped produce a prolific passing season in 2021 with quarterback Bailey Zappe, who broke Football Bowl Subdivision records for passing yards (5,967) and passing touchdowns (62).
As a player, Arbuckle quarterbacked at West Texas A&M University at the NCAA Division II level, graduating in 2018.
The youngster would replace Morris, who spent one year as OC at WSU before taking the head coaching job at North Texas earlier this month.
Cougars eye Maile as edge coach
In a separate report by ESPN’s Pete Thamel, the Cougars are eyeing former Boise State assistant Frank Maile to coach edge rushers.
Maile spent the past two seasons as the defensive line coach for the Broncos and has also spent time at Utah State and Vanderbilt.
He would replace A.J. Cooper, a three-year WSU position coach who left earlier this month for an assistant role at Arizona State.
Wiebe may be contacted at (208) 848-2260, swiebe@lmtribune.com or on Twitter @StephanSports.
