Takeaways from WSU Football's Crimson & Gray Showcase: Standouts, Surprises and Spring Game Insights




WSU Football wrapped up its last spring practice today with a slightly different version of the spring game instead calling it the Crimson & Gray Showcase. The 90 minute event had some position drills, a 1 on 1 session, 7 on 7 session and a scrimmage. The scrimmage included two 25 minute periods with the clock running the entire time. The defense and offense were split into two teams and the defense started with a 14-0 lead. 


The two touchdown scorers during the scrimmage were redshirt senior receiver Leon Neal Jr. and redshirt sophomore TE Ben Dutton. Leon got open on a nicely lofted 7 yard pass from Zevi Eckhaus and Dutton scored his touchdown after finding himself wide open in the endzone and Jaxon Potter zipped a 10 yard pass to him. 


Defensive Standouts 

One of the biggest standouts of the defensive end was redshirt freshman DE Ben Beatty. He had at least 2 “sacks” and was getting into the backfield on a consistent basis. Another guy who made some nice plays on the DL was redshirt senior SDSU transfer DT Max Baloun, he had a really nice play where he was able to get into the backfield and cause a TFL. Another guy who was impressive all day was senior SDSU transfer LB Caleb Francl. He was flying around all day and always seemed to find himself around the ball! 


Offensive Standouts 

On the offensive side of the ball the star of the day was definitely Leon Neal Jr. Throughout the day in 1 on 1s, 7 on 7s and in the scrimmage he always seemed to find himself open and catching the ball. He made several impressive contested catches and also created lots of separation for himself. Throughout the day all the tight ends made great contested catches in traffic. I don't want to just single one out because they all looked very impressive and I came away thinking it was by far our deepest position group. Josh Joyner was the RB that received the least amount of snaps but he was the most impressive RB to me. Had a carry that went over 40 yards and had another catch that he took for 20-25 yards.


Other Notes 

The defense rallied to the ball well. Definitely had a few late hits out of bounds as well, the refs even threw a flag on one of them. You could feel a new energy on that side of the ball. 


On the first drive of the scrimmage there were several plays that saw TE Trey Leckner lineup in the backfield as a fullback. This is one of many different creative formations I think we will see next season. 


SDSU transfer DL Fernando Lecuona had a nice play during the scrimmage where he got into the backfield and had a sack. He had some other nice plays as well. 


Zevi Eckhaus looked very comfortable throughout the day. Had several nice passes and seemed to be very in control of the new offense.

A lot of dump offs to RBs went for 10+ yards. With potential starting RB Angel Johnson out for spring ball, Kirby Vorhees and Leo Pulalasi saw the majority of the carries. 


Pretty much every single formation had at least one TE on the field. 


Comments

Post a Comment

You Might Also Like

19 Cougs Enter the Transfer Portal: Full Breakdown

Image
With the spring transfer portal opening two days ago on April 16th the Cougs have already had 19 players enter the transfer portal. This list should be current up to April 18th at around 4pm.  Djouvensky Schlenbaker  Was a highly touted high school recruit. Appeared in 11 games last season and had 149 yards and three touchdowns. Acted as a great lead blocker for John Mateer. Found himself in a very crowded backfield this spring and probably was not going to see the field a ton this season.  Warren Smith  Appeared in 9 games last season as a backup. Came to Pullman as a highly touted cornerback with offers from 6 Pac12 schools. Another case of being in a very talented potion group and it was likely he wouldn't see the field a ton next season.  Hunter Najam  Redshirted at WSU last season as a preferred walk-on. Found himself battling for reps at the QB position. Was likely to be at least a third or fourth string QB this season.  Carson Osmus  He was...
Read more

Pac12 Power Rankings After Week 1

Week 1 of college football is in the books and wow was it an interesting week for future Pac12 schools. In all transparency this week's rankings will be pretty reactionary based on what we saw in week 1. The teams I had in my top 3 heading into the season (BSU, OSU and WSU) did not look great in week 1 leaving room for some teams to jump ahead of them.  Texas State (#7 last week)  Texas State had the most impressive win of week 1 for any Pac12 school. They destroyed Eastern Michigan by a score of 52-27. While the offense looked unstoppable, definitely some room for improvement on the defensive side of the ball. Texas State has a huge rivalry game against rival UTSA this week but with a win over UTSA Texas should be on its way to at least an 8+ win season.  Boise State (#1 last week)  Boise State only drops one spot after a tough defeat against USF. While Boise State certainly didn't look great I am willing to give them another week to figure it out. A cross country g...
Read more

Meet the 16 SDSU to WSU Transfers

Image
Meet the 16 SDSU to WSU Transfers WSU Football had 16 players follow Jimmy Rogers and staff from South Dakota State to Pullman. A lot of these players will be big contributors for the Cougs this season and in the coming seasons as well. Kirby Vorhees (RB) Vorhees comes to WSU as a redshirt sophomore after spending the last two years at SDSU. Vorhees is an extremely talented back who provided a great one-two punch with Angel Johnson at SDSU. Vorhees had 75 carries last season and averaged 7.7 yards per carry. He also added 8 rushing touchdowns to his impressive freshman season. Vorhees should compete for the RB2 role this season and looks to build off a very strong redshirt freshman campaign. Tucker Large (S) Tucker Large is another high-level addition to the WSU roster. Large was a big part of the 2023 SDSU team that won an FCS national championship. Large comes to WSU after taking a redshirt season, spending the last four years at SDSU. Multiple coaches have raved about him, and he ha...
Read more

Pac12 Power Rankings Heading Into The Season

This is the start of a season long series where I will be power ranking each team at the end of each week. While not all the schools are playing in the same conference right now, it makes the power ranking more interesting and leaves more room for debate!  Boise State  While Boise State lost a lot of talent from last year's College Football Playoff team, they still return a lot of players from last year's team. They are a top contender to win the Mountain West title again this season. Replacing the star power of Heisman Trophy finalist Ashton Jeanty is no easy feat but the number one spot is Boise State’s to lose heading into the season.  Oregon State  It is no secret that Oregon State had a disappointing season under first year head coach Trent Bray last year. Getting Maalik Murphy at QB is going to be a big step forward for Oregon State this season. While Oregon State plays an extremely competitive schedule this year, they should be very competitive and I expect th...
Read more

Pac12 Power Rankings After Week 2

Week 2 of the season has wrapped up and Pac12 teams had a pretty good week overall. Teams are starting to settle into who they will be for the rest of the season, but that is not to say there has not been some big moves in the power rankings this week (looking at you Fresno State!).  Texas State (#1 last week) Texas State maintains its spot at number 1 this week after beating rival UTSA 43-36. While any rival win is a good win regardless of the score there has to be some concern about the Texas State defense. Allowing 27 points to Eastern Michigan and then 36 points to UTSA is not a great way for the defense to start the year. Texas State has a massive game against ASU next week, a win could put them in contention to win at least 10 games this season.  Boise State (#2 last week) This was a game where you just felt Boise State had to send a message after losing to USF in week 1. The USF loss aged pretty well however after USF went into UF and came home with a win. Boise State b...
Read more

My 2025 WSU Football Record Prediction

I n this article I am going to give my 2025 record prediction. This is always a tough one to do, especially with a first year head coach and a completely overhauled roster. While I hope the team goes 12-0 and I am hoping I am wrong these are my predictions before the season starts. The new era of college sports with player and coach movement makes it so much harder to project teams before the season starts.  Game 1 WSU vs Idaho (WIN)  Idaho has been a really good football team over the last few years. It feels very lucky that Jason Eck left Idaho for New Mexico this offseason. He almost pulled off an upset of Oregon last year and almost beat the Cougs in the season opener in 2022. I think this year's game will start off with the Cougs working out some early kinks before sailing to a 2 score victory.  Game 2 WSU vs SDSU (WIN) This is a sneaky interesting game on the WSU schedule. A matchup with a future Pac12 foe, I think this game will be just as competitive as last year....
Read more