No. 20 Washington State cruises to late-night win over Utah State

There is no such thing as a stress-free win, especially after the sun goes down on the Palouse.

However, the Washington State Cougars’ 49-28 win over future-Pac-12-foe Utah State on Saturday at Gesa Field was about as close to a comfortable victory as the Cougars are going to get.

Another big day for Mateer, Williams and the Cougar offense

WSU quarterback John Mateer competed 18-of-24 passes for 179 yards and four touchdowns and scored another TD on the ground, racking up 38 rushing yards on 12 carries. Three of Mateer’s four touchdown passes were to senior wide receiver Kyle Williams.

Williams’ first touchdown came on fourth-and-1 on the Cougars’ opening drive as the senior wideout caught the ball in space up the left side, shook off a couple of Aggies, and cut to his left for the 17-yard score.

“Just reading numbers, and then the numbers told me to throw it to Kyle (Williams), and I trust him in those moments,” Mateer said. “And it’s not a hard concept to throw. ... I still trust him, and I have no doubt that he’s gonna make a play.”

Williams finished with five catches for 55 yards and three touchdowns.

True freshman running back Wayshawn Parker had his best game of his young career with 149 yards on 11 carries.

Parker’s career-best day includes a decades-best play

On the first play from scrimmage of the second half, true Parker leapt through a hole and broke free up the left side for the 75-yard touchdown. It was the longest WSU rushing touchdown since Chris Ivory’s 80-yard score in 2006.

Parker racked up 149 yards on 11 carries and two touchdowns. His previous career-high was 96 yards rushing versus Portland State on Aug. 31.

“He’s been hard on himself,” Mateer said of Parker. “He hasn’t scored in a while, but he scored twice today. I’m super proud of him. And that burst that he has, you know ... I’m super proud of that guy.”

Redshirt freshman running back Leo Pulalasi added 62 rushing yards on six carries.

WSU totaled 303 rushing yards.

Cougar defense forces multiple turnovers

Facing the No. 10 most-efficient passing offense in college football, the Cougars held their own.

USU entered the contest averaging a nationally 10th-best 300 passing yards per game. WSU entered allowing 270 yards per game, the 11th worst in the country.

WSU held Utah State to 205 passing yards.

With Utah State knocking on the door in the second quarter, WSU nickel Kapena Gushiken leaped to haul in an errant pass from USU QB Spencer Petras.

The Cougs were shut out for the remainder of the first half and left to the locker room with 21-7 lead.

In the third quarter, linebacker Buddah Al-Uqdah punched out the ball after USU running back Herschel Turner appeared to have enough for the first down on a second effort.

Al-Uqdah greeted Turner’s extension with a forced fumble.

The sophomore linebacker said that he always wants to punch the ball out when a runner reaches with the ball to try to get a first down.

“When I see them do that, I always think, like, why don’t guys punch the ball and try to take the ball away from (them). That’s something that I just thought to do,” Al-Uqdah said. “I tried to do it against San Diego State. I missed it. So this time I knew I wasn’t gonna miss it.”

WSU defensive tackle David Gusta registered his first career sack late in the second half.

While Gusta has not gotten many sacks, he has generated plenty of pressures throughout the season and tipped or pressured QBs into risky plays that have turned into turnovers.

“That was Goose’s first sack of his career,” Dickert said Gusta had told him. “So he’s been a disruptive force.”

Future “Pac-12 After Dark” showdown

It appears physically impossible for an evening kickoff on the Palouse to be anything close to normal.

While viewers were not treated to the offensive fireworks and buttered pendulum swings of WSU’s 54-52 double overtime win over San Jose State on Sept. 20, they did get to see some pretty unique football moments.

In the first half, WSU attempted and appeared to recover and onside kick. WSU kicker Dean Janikowski appeared to recover the kick, however, upon review the officials found that a WSU player had touched the ball before it could travel 10 yards, nullifying the recovery and forcing a rekick.

Utah State faked a punt and watched the pass bounce off a receiver’s hands. However, WSU safety Tanner Moku was called for pass interference and the Aggie drive stayed alive.

At the end of the third quarter, Mateer scrambled for a decent gain only to fumble the football and watch it roll into the end zone. An Aggie batted it out of the back of the end zone, giving the ball back to WSU.

The Cougars cashed in on what was a net positive play with the third Mateer-to-Williams touchdown pass.

In a future Pac-12 Conference foe’s final trip to the Palouse before joining the Cougs in the conference in 2026, it was a fitting dose of Pac-12 After Dark madness.

Wazzu still in the College Football Playoff picture

With their fourth straight win, the Cougars improved to 8-1 on a day in which teams ranked higher than them by the Associated Press Top 25 and the College Football Playoff committee lost.

WSU was ranked No. 21 in the initial CFP selection committee rankings on Tuesday.

While WSU’s path to the CFP is alive, it is contingent on the fates of a slew of teams and the preferences of the selection committee. These are factors that WSU cannot control.

“Play a complete game,” Dickert said was his challenge to his team. “I think that was our biggest emphasis over, you know, the last 12 days or so was just making sure like we get our best out there and there didn’t feel like there was that lull. I thought our guys kept competing.”

The Cougs are doing their part by just winning. They have three more games left in the regular season and challenge New Mexico at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

First Quarter

WSU_Ky.Williams 17 pass from Mateer (D.Janikowski kick), 10:24.

USU_Hestera 3 pass from Petras (Cragun kick), 5:01.

Second Quarter

WSU_Parker 1 run (D.Janikowski kick), 14:57.

WSU_Ky.Williams 14 pass from Mateer (D.Janikowski kick), 7:17.

Third Quarter

WSU_Parker 75 run (D.Janikowski kick), 14:50.

WSU_Mateer 1 run (D.Janikowski kick), 5:52.

USU_B.Barnes 2 run (Cragun kick), 2:02.

Fourth Quarter

WSU_Ky.Williams 5 pass from Mateer (D.Janikowski kick), 14:49.

USU_White 12 pass from Petras (Cragun kick), 8:39.

WSU_Mathers 3 pass from Mateer (D.Janikowski kick), 1:05.

USU_Jameson 72 run (Cragun kick), :41.

A_20,011.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING_Utah St., Turner 16-85, Jameson 1-72, Petras 4-14, Barnes 2-10, Hestera 1-4, Faison 2-3, White 1-(minus 1). Washington St., Parker 11-149, Pulalasi 6-62, Mateer 13-55, Schlenbaker 10-26, Ky.Williams 3-14, (Team) 2-(minus 3).

PASSING_Utah St., Petras 28-45-1-208. Washington St., Mateer 18-24-0-179.

RECEIVING_Utah St., Page 7-54, White 6-50, Tia 5-16, Hestera 4-37, Turner 4-26, Sterzer 1-17, Monney 1-8. Washington St., Ky.Williams 5-55, Hernandez 4-42, Meredith 2-23, Mathers 2-12, Hutson 1-12, Pulalasi 1-12, Parker 1-10, Leckner 1-7, Ganashamoorthy 1-6.

MISSED FIELD GOALS_Washington St., D.Janikowski 40.

Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2268, staylor@lmtribune.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @Sam_C_Taylor.