Washington State Football: 5 storylines to follow during 2018 spring ball

AUBURN, AL - AUGUST 31: Head coach Mike Leach of the Washington State Cougars talks to the referees after a penalty call during the second half of play on August 31, 2013 at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Alabama. Auburn defeated Washington State 31-24. (Photo by Michael Chang/Getty Images) /

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(Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images) /

4. Will the offense change without Jim Mastro?

Retired Nevada head football coach Chris Ault gets all of the credit for the pistol offense the Wolf Pack ran with great success for a dozen years down in Reno. Behind the scenes, Jim Mastro is often credited with being the installation guru for Ault at Nevada. That means when you’re teaching the basics, fundamentals, and even the finer points, Mastro was in the film room and meeting rooms making sure everyone was on the same page.

When Mastro came to Pullman, many felt the Cougs would start to run the Air-Raid from a pistol look, or at least on some situations.

Mastro never really got the pistol going at Washington State, and now heads down to Eugene to become the running game coordinator for the Oregon Ducks. Coach Mario Cristobal will be much more inclined to blend the pistol into Willie Taggart’s offense that the Ducks new coach plans to keep around.

The Cougs’ offense, however, won’t look very different. Expect to see Mike Leach’s quick screens, mesh, “six” and stick routes still being used as well as four and five wide receiver sets. As much as Mastro will be a huge gain further south in Eugene, he won’t be a huge loss schematically for the Cougs.

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