LOST AMID THE CLOUD hanging over Washington State's woeful second half at Utah on Saturday was the fact Cougar linebacker Jahad Woods not only turned in a monster of a game but in the process supplanted Apple Cup legend Gary Larsen at No. 10 on WSU's all-time tackles list. Woods concluded the day with nine stops, putting him at 320 for his career and knocking Larsen, who played from 1971-74, down to 11th.
Former Cougar safety Billy Newman, who ranks No. 8 on the list -- just five tackles ahead of Woods -- joked in his post-game radio show with Derek Deis that he needs to talk Woods into declaring for the NFL draft. Woods is a fifth-year senior but with the covid factor he gets an extra year of eligibility if he wants it, and has said he's coming back to Cougarville in 2021.
In addition to the pile of tackles, Woods picked off a pass late in the first half and returned it 36 yards to the Utah 3, setting up the Cougars for a 28-7 halftime lead -- and what appeared to be a harbinger for crimson victory.
Newman noted that all tackles are not created equal and that Woods tends to deliver the bone-jarring types.
"Every play he made was a big play and the other team felt it," he said.
When Woods started the third quarter with a fiery tackle for loss, FS-1 play-by-play man Eric Collins proclaimed, "This is your life, Jahad." His broadcast partner, former NFL linebacker Ben Leber, didn't spare his enthusiasm for the Helix High/San Diego product as the camera honed in on a close up of Woods trotting off the field:
"That's the face of somebody that's just in the zone. You ever want to know what it is to be in the zone and what it looks like? That facial expression right there is it ... he feels like there's nothing he can do wrong," Leber said.
Alas, Woods subsequently cramped up, according to Rolovich, and while it didn't put him out of the game it no doubt slowed him.
In the first half, Woods led the Cougar D to a head-turning 30 minutes as they held the Utes to just 7 points. The only glaring miscue by WSU in the half was giving up a 91-yard scoring aerial.
“They are playing fast they are playing aggressively … they want it more,” Leber said when the Cougs went up 28-7.
WSU radio color analyst Alex Brink enthused that Woods' "hair is flowing out the back of his his helmet and he's playing with his hair on fire." And the Cougar defense in the first half, he said, looked as good as any Cougar D since the days of Bill Doba.
Indeed, the Cougar stop corps played with controlled fire in that half, producing three turnovers, rallying to the ball in bunches and moving sideline-to-sideline with alacrity. They bent but didn’t break, and while they surrendered the long TD pass it was quickly covered by the efficient, workman-like Cougar offense, which subsequently marched 75 yards in 4 plays — in what heretofore will be known as The Jamire Calvin Series — to go back up by two TDs. Woods pick followed and the Cougs led 28-7.
Then Utah changed its quarterback and started pounding the ball at the undersized youngsters on the WSU defensive line who, Newman said plainly in his post-game show, were only in the game because of the unfortunate elixir of injuries, opt outs, covid and contact tracing.
The Cougar D in the first half was playing with emotion and flying around, Newman noted. But, he added, the lack of experience -- consider that Dallas Hobbs was knocked out early and the likes of Willie Taylor and Tyrese Ross played in but one game each this season -- bit them in the second half. The final score was 45-28.
The Cougs wrapped up this season-unlike-any-other at 1-3, and with three cancellations.
WSU'S CAREER TOP 10 TACKLERS COMING INTO TODAY:
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