2008 Washington State Cougars football
ConferencePacific-10 Conference
Record2–11 (1–8 Pac-10)
Head coach
Offensive coordinatorTodd Sturdy (1st season)
Offensive schemeSpread
Co-defensive coordinatorChris Ball (1st season)
Co-defensive coordinatorJody Sears (1st season)
Base defenseMultiple
Home stadiumMartin Stadium
(Capacity: 35,117)
2008 Pacific-10 Conference football standings
ConfOverall
Team W L  W L 
No. 3 USC $  8 –1   12 –1  
No. 10 Oregon  7 –2   10 –3  
No. 18 Oregon State  7 –2   9 –4  
California  6 –3   9 –4  
Arizona  5 –4   8 –5  
Arizona State  4 –5   5 –7  
Stanford  4 –5   5 –7  
UCLA  3 –6   4 –8  
Washington State  1 –8   2 –11  
Washington  0 –9   0 –12  
  • $ – Conference champion
Rankings from AP Poll

The 2008 Washington State Cougars football team represented Washington State University in the 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The team's new head coach was Paul Wulff and home games were played on campus at Martin Stadium in Pullman, Washington. The season was a disaster from the start for WSU, who gave up the most points in a single season in Pac-10 Conference history, allowing more than 60 points on four occasions.

Perhaps the only consolation for the Cougars was winning the Apple Cup. The media joked before the game that it was the "Crapple Cup" and "full of worms", because the Huskies (0–10 at the time) also had a very poor season.[1]

Schedule

DateTimeOpponentSiteTVResultAttendance
August 3012:30 PMOklahoma State*
FSNL 13–3950,830
September 63:30 PMCalifornia
FSNNWL 3–6627,906
September 125:30 PMat Baylor*
FSNL 17–4525,595
September 204:00 PMPortland State*
  • Martin Stadium
  • Pullman, Washington
FSNNWW 48–923,920
September 273:15 PMOregondagger
  • Martin Stadium
  • Pullman, Washington
FSNNWL 14–6330,927
October 47:15 PMat UCLA
FSNNWL 3–2865,469
October 113:30 PMat Oregon State
FSNNWL 13–6645,289
October 1812:30 PMNo. 6 USC
  • Martin Stadium
  • Pullman, Washington
FSNL 0–6925,118
November 12:00 PMat Stanford
L 0–5826,662
November 82:00 PMArizona
  • Martin Stadium
  • Pullman, Washington
L 28–5924,118
November 152:30 PMat Arizona State
L 0–3161,490
November 2212:00 PMWashington
  • Martin Stadium
  • Pullman, Washington (Apple Cup)
FSNW 16–13 2OT32,211
November 298:00 PMat Hawaii*
L 10–2443,312

Game summaries

Oklahoma State

1 2 3 4 Total
Cowboys 3 12 10 14 39
Cougars 0 0 6 7 13

Oklahoma State Cowboys spoiled new Cougars coach Paul Wulff's debut. Cowboys' Kendall Hunter had a career-best two touchdowns, quarterback Zac Robinson passed for 182 yards and ran for another score. The Cougars' new offense didn't look good against the Cowboys.

The Cowboys had 367 total yards (193 yards passing, 174 rushing) while Washington State had 196 total yards (82 passing and 114 yards rushing)

California

1 2 3 4 Total
Golden Bears 21 21 10 14 66
Cougars 3 0 0 0 3

The Cougars were shut out after the first period while the Golden Bears scored at least 10 points each quarter to win the Pac-10 conference opener at Martin Stadium, Washington State's home field. Cal had over 500 yards (112 yards passing and 392 yards on the ground) and allowed only 162 yards (106 yards passing, 56 yards rushing) to the Cougars.

Baylor

1 2 3 4 Total
Cougars 7 7 0 3 17
Bears 14 14 7 10 45

Portland State

1 2 3 4 Total
Vikings 3 0 6 0 9
Cougars 14 3 24 7 48

Oregon

1 2 3 4 Total
Ducks 21 14 21 7 63
Cougars 0 7 0 7 14

UCLA

1 2 3 4 Total
Cougars 0 0 3 0 3
Bruins 0 14 7 7 28

Oregon State

1 2 3 4 Total
Cougars 0 13 0 0 13
Beavers 21 3 21 21 66

USC

1 2 3 4 Total
Trojans 21 20 7 21 69
Cougars 0 0 0 0 0

Mark Sanchez became the first USC quarterback to throw five touchdown passes in a half as the Trojans dominated.

USC's defense, ranked first in the nation coming in by allowing just 9.4 points per game, held the Cougars scoreless for the first time since 1984, ending a stretch of 280 straight games in which the Cougars had not been shut out. That was the nation's second-longest active streak behind Michigan's 306. For Washington State, it is also the largest shutout loss and largest margin of defeat in school history.

"Our guys had a ball playing football today, from the locker room on out", USC coach Pete Carroll said. "Right from the start, we wanted to find that focus that we really hadn't had yet."

It was the largest shutout victory for USC (5–1, 3–1 Pac-10) since a 69–0 win over Montana in 1931.

"Our intention wasn't to come out and beat these guys by 80 points. Our intention was to come out and play a great football game", star linebacker Rey Maualuga said.

The Cougars have now allowed at least 60 points in four games this year, becoming the first BCS team to allow 60-plus points four times in a season. Beset by injuries, Washington State has allowed 66, 63, 66 and now 69 in four of their conference losses. The Cougars, whose only win is against Portland State of the Championship Subdivision, have been outscored 385–111 this season. That's on track to break the Pac-10 record for most points allowed in a season, 469 by Oregon State in 1981.

"It's unfortunate for those guys. They are trying to build a program", Carroll said. "It's tough. I don't know what else we could have done.

"It was a little bit uncomfortable to see what was going to happen."

The Trojans outgained Washington State 408–17 in the first half and 625–116 for the game. They led 21–0 less than 11 minutes in. Patrick Turner and Ronald Johnson each caught two of Sanchez's scoring throws, freshman Broderick Green rushed for 121 yards and two touchdowns and C. J. Gable ran for 109 yards and three more scores. Stafon Johnson must have had an off game. He ran for 112 yards but didn't score.

It was the first time USC had three 100-yard rushers in a game since 1977.[2]

Stanford

1 2 3 4 Total
Cougars 0 0 0 0 0
Cardinal 10 21 20 7 58

Arizona

1 2 3 4 Total
Wildcats 14 21 10 14 59
Cougars 7 7 7 7 28

Arizona State

1 2 3 4 Total
Cougars 0 0 0 0 0
Sun Devils 0 10 14 7 31

Washington

Period 1 2 34OT2OTTotal
Washington 0 10 003013
Washington State 0 0 733316

at Martin Stadium, Pullman, Washington

  • Date: November 22
  • Game time: 3:00 PM EDT/12:10 PM PDT
  • Game weather: 42 °F (6 °C)
  • Game attendance: 32,211
  • Referee: Michael Batlan
  • Recap

Hawaii

1 2 3 4 Total
Cougars 0 3 7 0 10
Warriors 14 3 7 0 24

References

  1. ↑ Murphy, Austin (November 20, 2008). "Washington-Washington State playing for pride in Apple Cup". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
  2. ↑ "USC records largest shutout victory since 1931". ESPN.com. October 18, 2008. Archived from the original on October 30, 2008. Retrieved October 30, 2008.
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