Playing CSU like 'a reflection in the mirror' for WSU

Sep. 15—For a first-year coaching staff, Washington State coach Jake Dickert and his crew know a lot of guys.

For the third consecutive week, the 39-year-old and his Cougars are preparing for a college football game that's overflowing with familiarities.

To recap, Week 1 was against the Vandals and Dickert's old coaching partner in the Football Championship Subdivision and Division II ranks, UI coach Jason Eck. Week 2 was a trip to No. 19 Wisconsin — the old stomping grounds of WSU running back Nakia Watson and Dickert's home state.

Now, WSU (2-0) faces Colorado State (0-2) and its first-year coach Jay Norvell, the former coach at Nevada where the Cougars have several coaching and player ties. WSU hosts the Rams at 2 p.m. Saturday (Pac-12 Network) at Gesa Field.

"I will say this, if there's three games we could've had that's just crazy scenarios all the way (it's these three)," Dickert said.

WSU defensive coordinator Brian Ward spent the past two seasons on Norvell's staff at Nevada, and Cougar linebacker Daiyan Henley and safety Jordan Lee are former members of the Wolf Pack.

Dickert also went up against Norvell during his three seasons as an assistant at Wyoming.

Some other ties: CSU defensive coordinator Freddie Banks played for Dickert and Ward when they were assistants North Dakota State, CSU linebackers coach Adam Pilapil played for Dickert at Wyoming, seven Rams players are former members of the Wolf Pack who Ward is familiar with and CSU safety Ayden Hector played for WSU as a walk-on in 2020 before transferring to the Mountain West school.

"It'll be another week of channeling emotion," Dickert said. "You gotta go out there and play within ourselves."

If all the familiar faces on the sidelines weren't enough, the two teams also will be running similar styles on both sides of the ball.

WSU and CSU use a 4-2-5 defensive scheme and run modernized versions of the pass-heavy Air Raid offense with the addition of tight ends and more run elements.

"It's like playing a reflection in the mirror this week," Dickert said. "You always worry, do they have our signals, do they know what's happening, do they know what hurts us?

"There's a game both sides are playing right now in the meeting room going 'What if they know how we do this and that?' That's an interesting dynamic."

Trio of Coug defenders to be game-time decisions

Lee, cornerback Derrick Langford Jr. and linebacker Travion Brown will all be game-time decisions for the CSU game, Dickert said Wednesday.

All three are defensive starters who went down with injuries last week against the Badgers. Langford and Lee suffered apparent lower body injuries and Brown an apparent upper body injury.

That none of the injuries appear to be long-term is an encouraging sign for a Cougar defense that is holding opponents to 15.5 points per game through the first two weeks.

"We're hoping we can get them back out there and they're pressing hard to get to that point," Dickert said.

Wiebe may be contacted at (208) 848-2260, swiebe@lmtribune.com or on Twitter @StephanSports.