A look at how WSU QBs have fared after five days of spring ball from new OC Matt Miller

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Apr. 2—PULLMAN — Back in January, when the leadership in Washington State's football program was changing again and the Cougars were installing a new set of coaches and players, Matt Miller's head was spinning.

Recently hired as their new offensive coordinator, Miller was in the middle of moving to Pullman from Boise, where he had just worked six years at Boise State. He needed to find a place to live. His wife was bugging him about it. Plus, he remembers, WSU coaches were trying to retain their current players and ones in the portal.

"I was like, where am I gonna have lunch?" Miller said.

Still, Miller wasn't too busy to take one phone call on Jan. 6. That's the way he found out WSU had just reeled in its biggest fish of the portal season. UC Davis quarterback Caden Pinnick had committed to the Cougars.

"There was a lot of things going on, but I know I was ecstatic," Miller said after Thursday's WSU spring practice, the team's fifth of the slate. "Just like any of these guys that came and wanted to be a part of this, because I think what we're building here is really, really special. And this is a sleeping giant. We just gotta wake it up. I think we've got the right people in place, and now it's just the work that goes into it, which is really, really exciting."

More than a decade after sharing the field with WSU head coach Kirby Moore in Boise, where the two were teammates in the early 2010s, Moore is in charge of putting together an offense with a host of newcomers. The Cougars did well to retain their top offensive linemen and their top three running backs, two key developments that will do them favors this fall, but they had to fill gaps at other skill positions.

There was none bigger than the hole at quarterback. To help solve that, Miller and coaches pursued Pinnick, who had used his athleticism to put up staggering numbers in one season of action at UC Davis, including completing 70% of his passes for 3,206 yards and 32 touchdowns against 10 interceptions, winning Big Sky Freshman of the Year honors. He also registered 125 carries for 437 yards and three scores, good for an average rush of 3.5 yards, underscoring his dual-threat capabilities.

That kind of production caught the eye of Miller, who also understood that Pinnick wasn't dominating slouches every week. He was doing it in the Big Sky, perhaps the top conference in the FCS, routinely placing several teams in the playoffs and even more in weekly top 25 polls. Miller also spent 2016-19 working at Montana State, a perennial powerhouse in the conference, giving him useful perspective on the circumstances Pinnick was playing in.

"And that was really our sell to Caden," Miller said. "Hey, this is an opportunity for you to come here and compete. Styles will be very, very similar. The style of offense will be very, very similar, and it can be a very easy transition for you. Obviously the Coug nation did a really good job. He fell in love with Pullman. Why wouldn't you?"

But Miller and the Cougars aren't handing Pinnick the keys right away. They're having him compete with returners Owen Eshelman and Julian Dugger for the starting job. Whatever comes from the rest of WSU's spring practices, which continue Saturday in Spokane, that development might be the most important for Washington State: Which QB separated themselves most?

Coaches haven't exactly tipped their hands — this competition figures to continue in fall camp later this year — but Miller did share some criteria he's using for evaluation purposes.

"I think the biggest thing is making your plays," said Miller, who added that he's seen some good and some bad from all three QBs. "Trying to figure out who can be efficient and explosive at the same time. Not forcing the football, making bad decisions or making bad plays worse. The command of the offense, the control, all the different things that we do operationally within the pre-snap and in the post-snap — that's something that's really, really something we're looking at. And who has the comfort level, who doesn't, who needs some a little bit here, a little bit there in terms of what's tailored to their game, which is fun for us to also figure out as coaches."

WSU, which had veteran receiver Tony Freeman joining Oregon State transfer receiver Darrius Clemons and a few other players in working off to the side in Thursday's practice, has seen a mixed bag of results from its quarterbacks. All three have thrown interceptions, but Pinnick and Eshelman have made a habit out of following those kinds of plays with highlights. If it's possible for two quarterbacks to inch ahead of a third after five days of spring ball, those two have done so.

But these things can change in the course of one practice. The Cougars' next one is set for 11:45 a.m. Saturday at Union Stadium in Spokane.

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