'I need to be a better image': WSU QB Caden Pinnick addresses short postgame message after loss to Kansas State

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Sep. 14—PULLMAN — Shortly after Washington State wrapped up its last game, a blowout road loss to Kansas State over the weekend to drop coach Kirby Moore's team to 0-2 to open the season, Cougar quarterback Caden Pinnick was short on words.

On some of the team's biggest problems on offense, Pinnick said only, "We just lost. Next question."

On what was holding back WSU's passing offense, which produced only 65 yards, Pinnick said, "Good team. We lost."

On whether he felt like offensive coordinator Matt Miller's playcalls were putting the team in the best positions to succeed, Pinnick said, "It's not for me to say. We just gotta get better."

On Monday, Pinnick led off his news conference addressing that postgame session, which lasted less than two minutes, saying it was "not quite the response that you want."

"As you lose two games in a row, emotions can be high," Pinnick said, "and as a quarterback of this team and university, it is my job to give this team and institution some pride and belief. My frustrations from the past two weeks crept up on me, got the best of me. It was a growing process for me as well, and looking to get better."

Pinnick, who completed just 9 of 20 passes for 65 yards in Saturday's game, is the face of a WSU offense that is still finding its footing. After two games, the Cougars rank last in the country in both total offense (408 yards) and points per game (8.5). Against K-State, Pinnick became the first WSU QB to pass for fewer than 100 yards since Jeff Tuel did so in 2010, which was also the last time a WSU offense went scoreless in one game.

The Cougs have also played a grueling two games to open the season, facing road contests against Power 4 foes Washington and Kansas State. That raises this question: How many of the Cougars' problems are products of the opponents they've played, and how many are issues they could correct on their own?

"Honestly, a lot of them are on me," said Pinnick, a redshirt sophomore transfer from FCS UC Davis. "Whether it's getting guys lined up in correct formation and proper verbalization in the huddle. But credit to the teams that we played. I'm a realist, and I've spoke to the team and just kinda put it in perspective: we've played two really good defenses that have been established.

"This is a new offense, yes, and we're all starting to learn and get familiarized with it. I don't think there's anything negative to take away, other than, yeah, let's move the ball some more. Let's simplify some things, and let's just be better."

Pinnick, 20, is under a spotlight he has never been before. He acknowledged that on Monday, saying that he's had to lean on several kinds of people to make this adjustment: His mother, Heidi, plus his coaches. He also admitted these kinds of settings aren't as common at UC Davis, saying, "That's something that I'm continuing to grow in, coming from a smaller place. You don't get a lot of that, and so this is a daily growing process."

"I think after a really bad offensive performance for two weeks straight, I think your mind is all over the place," Pinnick added. "You just come to your senses 24 hours after an incident. You realize like, yeah, I was wrong. I need to be a better image for my team and my guys. Acknowledging, like, hey, yeah, we lost, but what's gonna change? That just clicked to me, and it helped me realize that, as someone who's my position, I gotta act better."

Even outside of Saturday's postgame incident, Pinnick and the WSU offense are under scrutiny. The Cougars failed to record an offensive touchdown last weekend, putting offensive coordinator Matt Miller under the microscope. It's forced Moore, a longtime friend and former teammate of Miller at Boise State, to answer some questions.

That includes this question: Is the idea that Moore should take over some playcalling duties an overreaction?

"Well, I think everything's up for evaluation," Moore said. "I think the most important thing is we gotta work together. And like I said, we're having a lot of meetings, looking at our process, looking at our practice plans, looking at how many reps we get, how many calls are on the call sheet. All those things need to be looked at because we gotta put our guys in the best position to be successful."

For WSU, that's the other side of the calculus. Are Miller and his playcalls delivering on that idea, putting the Cougs in the best positions on offense?

"Collectively, we gotta play better," Moore said. "Whether it's the in-the-week process, whether it's carrying that over to Saturday and trusting everything that we've done during the week, that's gonna be the big focus, and I wanna help with that."

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