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Aug. 19—PULLMAN — Washington State has its man for this season.
The Cougars will start redshirt sophomore quarterback John Mateer for their Aug. 31 season-opener against Portland State, head coach Jake Dickert announced Monday afternoon, ending a competition with FCS Bryant transfer Zevi Eckhaus that spanned from March to August.
Mateer, who backed up former WSU QB Cam Ward each of the previous two seasons, now gets his chance to take over the reins of offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle’s offense. Mateer played all 12 games last season, used most often as a rushing threat off the bench, also completing 13 of 17 passes for 235 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 interception.
Mateer redshirted in 2021, appearing in one game, a win over Stanford. In that one, he completed 2 of 2 passes with a 27-yard touchdown pass, plus 4 carries for 58 yards.
A native of Little Elm, Texas (just outside the Dallas area), Mateer won the job by checking off the boxes Dickert and Arbuckle wanted to see during the two-plus weeks of fall camp: He limited turnovers, flourished as a natural leader, made the right calls at the line of scrimmage and made accurate throws to the Cougs’ receivers.
Finishing second in the quarterback competition was Eckhaus, who set records in three years as a starter at Bryant, an FCS school in Rhode Island. He originally signed with Jacksonville State out of the transfer portal, but because transfer players don’t enter binding agreements until they enroll in classes at their new school, Eckhaus was able to flip to WSU in January.
Both Mateer and Eckhaus endured their fair share of turnovers during fall camp, but Eckhaus’ inability to avoid costly interceptions ended up making a difference.
“We just gotta get him out of — every practice he has one of those throws he regrets, and then he kinda snaps back out of it,”…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/washington-state-names-redshirt-sophomore-020200348.html
Author : The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
Publish date : 2024-08-20 02:02:00
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