PULLMAN, Wash. — The Washington State Cougars wrapped up celebrations from Saturday's Apple Cup victory over Washington with a Monday morning film session.
The Cougs now turn their full attention to a short week of preparation for Friday night's tilt with undefeated San Jose State.
While Coach Dickert was pleased with his team's performance Saturday, he knows his players did not play their best game and would like to see improvement this week particularly in the pass game and in fourth quarter offensive execution.
"When you go against really good people, they expose your weaknesses," Dickert said. "Up front, our pad level was too high on Saturday. That was the biggest thing. I thought we handled protections and got man to man and body to body really well, but UW was the first team to kind of walk us back through pad level and us getting inside position."
"The last two games we have not been able to get a rhythm in the pass game," Dickert said. "We need to get Kyle Williams the ball more in different ways. We are a passing team, so we need to establish rhythm in the pass game and that's John (Mateer) to the offensive line to tailbacks to receivers, it's everything, it's the game plan, we need to draw up more RPO options for John and we need to keep getting better."
A familiar face returns to Gesa Field on Friday night as the Spartans are led by former WSU quarterback Emmett Brown, who has thrown for 915 yards and nine touchdowns already this season.
Coach Dickert is well aware of the threat Brown poses to his defense.
"We know him well, he has got probably the quickest release out of (Cam Ward, Mateer and Brown)," Dickert said. "He is an extremely accurate quarterback, throws a great deep ball, I mean, he threw touchdown passes for us in clean up minutes at times, so for him to get this opportunity and seize the moment, I am proud of him. I would like to see him take a week break, but it is cool to see, he is the ultimate competitor, he wants to play and I am glad to see him getting the chance to do that."
Brown brings the Spartans' run and shoot offense to Pullman following wins over Sacramento State, Air Force and Kennesaw State to begin the season.
Injury Notes
WSU offensive lineman Fa'alili Fa'amoe will make his season debut on Friday night and the Cougs will be without the services of nickelback Jerrae Williams for the rest of the season due to surgery. Kyle Williams is playing at about 70 percent right now, but expects to go on Friday.
The Cougs and Spartans will kick it off at 7 p.m. Friday night. You can catch the game on the CW 22.