Washington State Football: Can defense complement electric offense?

Washington State Football has the offense to keep up with any team, but the questions on this team will be about the defense, which is one of the worst in the country

This statement can apply to any team in the PAC-12 last season, but it was really hard to figure anything out about a lot of these teams.

Washington State Football fits into that category perfectly and to make it even more complicated, the Cougars have been dealing with a lot of off-the-field distractions and that has not helped this team either.

On the field, Washington State should have one of the best offenses in the conference, but they are likely to have what might be the worst defense in the PAC-12. Even when he was at Hawaii, coach Nick Rolovich has had some of the worst defenses and he needs to find a way to reverse that trend or Washington State is going to be stuck at the bottom of the division.

It was thought when Rolovich was hired from Hawaii, that he would make a seamless transition to Pullman and continue the success that Mike Leach had when he was the head coach of the Cougars.

Rolovich and Leach run similar offenses and the Cougars still have a lot of the personnel that they had under Leach and that has made things easier on that side of the ball. While they were never elite, the defenses were usually pretty solid under Leach and it was just a small game sample last season, but the Cougars fell off of a cliff.

Washington State is going to have to settle in on a quarterback as well. Last year’s starter, Jayden de Laura, was up and down last season and he made it harder on himself this offseason by being arrested for a DUI.

That has left the door open for Tennessee transfer Jarrett Guarantano and others to challenge for the job and it has brought uncertainty to the team. There are a lot of question marks in Pullman, but there is talent here and the schedule is not overbearing. This is one of the most interesting teams in the PAC-12 this season.