With the Washington State season starting up in just 4 days, I will be taking a look at each position in the coming days. Yesterday I looked at the running back and defensive line situations. Now it is quarterbacks, this one gets a lot easier and has both good and bad parts to this position.
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With Connor Halliday being the Cougars main quarterback and has been since Jeff Tuel left, breaking down the position is a lot easier.
Halliday went 449 of 714 last season for 4,597 yards and 34 touchdowns including a 557-yard showing in a loss to Oregon last season. He has struggled with throwing interceptions in his career as he has thrown for 39 in his three seasons as the Cougars quarterback, with 22 of those coming last season.
Halliday has had the starting quarterback spot locked up, but the spot that wasn’t locked up was the backup quarterback spot.
Earlier this year Austin Apodaca transferred out of the Cougars football program and joined the Mesa Community College football team where he will be starting for them this year. It was assumed at the time that Apodaca left because he felt that Tyler Bruggman was on his heels for the backup starting spot.
That changed when a few months later when Bruggman decided to transfer out of the program as well. Bruggman joined the Louisville football program leaving the Cougars with true-freshman Peyton Bender or then walk-on Luke Falk.
Since spring camp Luke Falk has made his way to lock up the second string spot allowing Peyton Bender to take a redshirt year and learn the system more. Falk has done more than earn himself that backup role and has generated quite a bit of buzz and is starting to prove himself to take over the starting spot once Halliday leaves after this season.
The Cougars are set to have a great year with all the receivers returning and with Halliday having another year under Mike Leach’s air raid style of play and look to start that journey on Thursday when they take on Rutgers at Century Link Field in Seattle, Washington.