SAN DIEGO – Newly appointed quarterback Zevi Eckhaus and the Washington State Cougars will look to end their season on a positive note against No. 21 Syracuse Orange in the Holiday Bowl on Friday Dec. 27 at Snapdragon Stadium.
After a promising 8-1 start and being ranked No. 18 in the country, Washington State’s season has taken a nosedive dropping their last three games to New Mexico, Oregon State and Wyoming, which they were all favored to win.
Together with that, the Cougars (8-4) are now dealing with massive changes involving coaching and current players entering the transfer portal including star quarterback John Mateer, who will be playing for the Oklahoma Sooners next season as a junior.
In his first year as the starter, Mateer threw for over 3,100 yards completing just under 65% (224-for-347) of his passes with 29 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He also carried the ball 178 times rushing for over 800 yards with 15 touchdowns.
With numbers like those, it comes to no surprise why he was the No.1 ranked player in the transfer portal according to 247Sports.
This will leave the door open for FCS Bryant transfer Eckhaus to start his first game with Washington State. While playing for the Bulldogs, Eckhaus threw for 8,480 yards and a total of 79 touchdowns tying multiple school records.
Starting running back Wayshawn Parker (Utah Utes) and one of their top receivers Kris Hutson (Arizona Wildcats) are also leaving the Crimson and Gray transferring to the Big 12. Their passing attack will also be without wide receiver Josh Meredith, who is third on the team with reception and receiving yards.
WSU will have to rely on their leading receiver Kyle Williams, who finished the regular season with over 1,000 yards receiving and 13 touchdowns on 60 receptions. The team will expect more involvement from backup running back Leo Pulalasi and wide receiver Carlos Hernandez, as well as tight end Cooper Mathers, who has six touchdowns on the year.
As of Thursday, seven players have already committed to where they will be playing in 2025 and another 26 Wazzu players have entered the portal, but are still waiting to find their new home.
Leading into Friday’s bowl game, the Cougars will be without a handful of their starters. However, the team announced that they will allow portal-bound players to participate in the bowl game, but it remains to be seen which players will partake.
Washington State will also be without their head coach Jake Dickert after he agreed to be the next coach for Wake Forest. After his departure, the school named assistant coach and defensive tackles coach Pete Kaligis as the interim head coach.
Kaligis was hired under Dickert as the assistant head coach and defensive tackles coach in 2022. Kaligis and Dickert worked together previously for three seasons (2017-2019) under former Wyoming head coach Craig Bohl in Laramie.
As well as Dickert, the team will be without offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle and QBs coach John Kuceyeski, who will be accompanying Mateer to OU. In total, the Cougars will be down their original head coach, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, running backs coach and quarterbacks coach.
Meanwhile on defense, the team will not have their leading tackler Taariq Al-Uqdah, starting safety Adrian Wilson, starting defensive linemen Ansel Din-Mbuh and Khalil Laufau because of the transfer portal commitments.
The Cougars could also be without defensive starters Stephen Hall and David Gusta.
Al-Uqdah has recorded 76 total tackles, three interceptions including a pick-six, three forced fumbles and four fumble recoveries. Din-Mbuh (6.0) and Laufau (4.0) lead the Wazzu in sacks.
Being deprived of those contributions, it will be a tough task for the defense to stop Syarcuse’s high powered offense led by quarterback Kyle McCord, who leads the NCAA in passing yards (4,326) and yards-per-game (360.5).
During their three-game losing skid, the defense has given up an average of 31 points per-game and 434 yards per-game. The Cougars have struggled against the run during that stretch giving up an average 211 rushing yards per-contest, which could set up an opportunistic day for Syracuse running back LeQuint Allen.
However, Washington State does have a win at Snapdragon Stadium this season defeating the San Diego State Aztecs in a 29-26 thriller back in October. The Orange and the Cougars have faced each other only once back in 1979, where Syracuse won decisively 52-25.
Kickoff between these two programs is on Friday at 5 p.m and will be televised nationally on Fox.
