Washington State

0-2
Latest
Washington State Names Caden Pinnick Starting Quarterbackour readFormer Washington State Football Coach Bill Doba Dies at 85our readThe Washington rivalry

Pac-12 · Kirby Moore, year 1 (0-2) · Gesa Field · 32,952

The nationunrankedAP / Coaches
The model#43 CFB ZeitgeistSP+ #79 (-3.7) · FPI #99
The marketno line yetvs Duquesne · our model 96% Washington State · a number, not a pick

LastL 7–34 at Kansas State · Sat Sep 12 · Jaylen Thomas 2 INT, 4 tackles

Nextvs Duquesne · Sat Sep 19 · 3:30 pm ET · Gesa Field · first meeting on record · Game preview

Updated Tue Sep 15 · through week 2

Zeitgeist statureRegional Program I#83 all-time– holding
one line from National Program III
The era · 2014 through 2025

The CFP Era

12 seasons inside the CFP era, no bids yet — the era the program is still trying to break into.

Era record 81-63 12 seasons
Best season 11-2 2018
TRAJECTORY · quality-score line · AP rank dotted · CFP bids marked · coach regimes ribboned
Program Quality AP Rank (inverted) CFP Appearance
'14'16'18'20'22'24NOW
CHAPTERS · 12 seasons · tap to open the archive
'14 3-9 '15 9-4 '16 8-5 '17 9-4 '18 11-2 '19 6-7 '20 — '21 7-5 '22 7-6 '23 5-7 '24 8-5 '25 7-6

Washington State's 2014–2025 record is 81-63. The era is still being written; the CFP line is the one the program is arguing for.

Era win %
.562
Ranked seasons (AP)
7/12
Best AP finish
#12

Program outlook

When the Pac-12 collapsed in 2023 and every program with leverage sprinted for richer leagues, Washington State stayed. Two years later, the orphan is the founder — anchoring a rebuilt eight-team Pac-12 launching in 2026, the conference the Cougars refused to let die.

Read the full essay — 3 more paragraphs

The most isolated major-conference campus in the country — eight hours from Seattle, carved into the Palouse wheat country of eastern Washington — was also the last one standing. The schools that ran to the Big Ten and Big 12 calculated market size and TV footprints and decided Pullman didn't belong. Washington State and Oregon State were left holding the conference name and two available game slots. The story of what happened next is genuinely strange: rather than dissolving, the holdouts rebuilt. The 2026 Pac-12 is an eight-team league built almost from scratch, and WSU is its emotional anchor.

The 2025 season produced a 7-6 record and a Famous Idaho Potato Bowl win over Utah State — respectable, not transformational. First-year coach Jimmy Rogers then left for Iowa State after one season, adding another layer of instability to a program that has been navigating transition since 2023. His replacement is Kirby Moore, who comes from Missouri's offensive staff and carries the credential of being a Prosser, Washington native — a hire with geographic resonance in a program built on its rootedness. The Air Raid ghost of Mike Leach still haunts every offensive conversation in Pullman; Moore inherits the expectation that WSU passes first, always.

The 2026 question in Pullman is whether the rebuilt Pac-12 is a real league or a scheduling arrangement. Washington State beat long odds to survive the collapse. The season will answer whether survival translates to contention — whether Kirby Moore's offense can make Martin Stadium matter again in a conference that needs the Cougars to be good as badly as the Cougars need a conference to be in.

On the field

Air Raid at its core — Mike Leach installed it, and the expectation in Pullman is that WSU spreads the field and throws. Kirby Moore arrives from a Missouri offense that ran RPO concepts with spread spacing, so the DNA matches. The Cougars win by volume and by tempo, making Martin Stadium's small, loud environment a genuine advantage when the passing game is functioning. The chip is real: this is a program that measures every home crowd against the knowledge that bigger schools decided they weren't worth keeping.

program outlook · as of 2026-06-14

All-time record · Washington State

Washington State has won 46% of its games since 1907 — 54% at home, 39% on the road.

516-565-38 all-time · 111 seasons · 1907–2026

Home 274-212-23
Away 231-342-15
Neutral 11-11
2 g 1900s
71% 1910s
54% 1920s
55% 1930s
43% 1940s
46% 1950s
34% 1960s
34% 1970s
47% 1980s
46% 1990s
48% 2000s
48% 2010s
50% 2020s

Coaching Era · Washington State

Kirby Moore

Kirby Moore took over from Jimmy Rogers for the 2026 season.

Era Kirby Moore · 2026–presentPrev: Jimmy Rogers (2025)OC: Matt MillerPrev OC: Danny Freund (2025)DC: Trent BrayPrev DC: Jesse Bobbit (2025)
The full CFP-era story →The full coaching lineage →
1 year · era

Program memory

What this program never forgets

Most weeks vanish. These didn’t.

The 1997 Rose Bowl run

A Pac-10 title and the program's most famous season behind Ryan Leaf

2018

The 11-2 Leach peak

Washington State wins 11 games and finishes ranked in the Air Raid's best season

2023

Left behind in realignment

The Pac-12 dissolves and WSU gets no Power-conference invitation, reduced to a two-team league with Oregon State

Wound

Moment of the season — so far · Washington State · 2026

Lost 10-24 at Washington

Week 1 of 2026. The early statement — the game this season gets measured from, for now. It turned on one snap in Q4 — Caden Pinnick, a 32-point win-probability swing.

Decisive Marginvs AP #17

NFL Draft Pipeline

2022–2025

Washington State has sent 7 players to the NFL Draft since 2022 — none in the first round.

Developing. Pipeline emerging.

7 picks · 0 in round 1
#69 Kyle Williams Wide Receiver · 2025 · New England · #7/466 final season
#72 Abraham Lucas Offensive Tackle · 2022 · Seattle
#85 Daiyan Henley Inside Linebacker · 2023 · Los Angeles · #34/548 final season
#51 all-time · 13 first-round picksthe talent factory →

More in this tab

Ladder finishHow far up the ladder this season got.

Season standing · 2026 · 0-2

Washington State is 0-2 in the season's first weeks.

An early losing record — too few games to call it more than that.

Sub-FBSBuildingBowlRankedContenderPlayoff
Coaching historyEvery hire and departure on record, not just the current era.

Coaching history

  • Hired Kirby Moore2026
  • Hired Jesse Bobbit (interim)2025
  • Jimmy Rogers departs6-6, 1 season
  • Jesse Bobbit departs (interim)1-0, 1 season
  • Hired Jimmy Rogers2025
  • Hired Pete Kaligis (interim)2024
  • Jake Dickert departs23-20, 4 seasons
  • Pete Kaligis departs (interim)0-1, 1 season
Coordinator lineageOffense and defense under each coordinator.

Unit lineage

Washington State’s offense and defense, by coordinator

FBS-relative efficiency percentile per season (2014–2026), same population as the Coordinator Mirror board. Dashed vertical lines mark a coordinator change.

Offense2014–2026
2014201620182020202220242026
2015–2019 · Mike Leach2020 · Brian Smith / co-Craig Stutzmann2021 · co-Craig Stutzmann / Brian Smith2022 · Eric Morris2023–2024 · Ben Arbuckle2025 · Danny Freund2026 · Matt Miller
Defense2014–2026
2014201620182020202220242026
2014 · Mike Breske2015–2017 · Alex Grinch2018 · Tracy Claeys2019 · Tracy Claeys / co-Darcel McBath (interim) / co-Roc Bellantoni (interim; games 6–13) (interim)2020–2021 · Jake Dickert2022 · Brian Ward2023–2024 · Jeff Schmedding2025 · Jesse Bobbit2026 · Trent Bray
Elite (≥70th pct)AveragePoor (≤30th pct)
Gameday customsThe gameday customs unique to this program.

Rituals

Three gameday rituals — the ones outsiders never quite catch.

Mike Leach Air Raid Era (2012-2019)

since 2012

more

Mike Leach's tenure (2012-2019) defined the program — the Air Raid offense identity continued at Pullman after Texas Tech, multiple bowl appearances, and the 2018 11-2 + Alamo Bowl peak. Leach's 2019 departure to Mississippi State left the Air Raid legacy as permanent program DNA. Leach's 2022 death (at Mississippi State) was mourned as a WSU tragedy.

1997 Rose Bowl Run

since 1997

more

Mike Price's 1997 10-2 + Rose Bowl appearance + #9 final AP rank (Ryan Leaf QB before the 1998 NFL draft) — the program's only major bowl appearance since the 1930s. Leaf's #16 jersey + the Apple Cup victory route + the Pasadena trip became program canon.

Pac-12 Holdout (2024)

since 2024

more

Washington State + Oregon State were the two programs that DIDN'T leave for the SEC / Big Ten / ACC / Big 12 in the 2024 Pac-12 collapse. The 'Pac-12 Two' held the conference's legal entity + scheduled a 2024 season largely against Mountain West + non-conference opponents. The defiance + uncertainty + Mountain West partnership became permanent program identity.

Cultural identityWhat college football loses if this program didn't exist.
BowlsEvery bowl this program's played, and how it did.

Bowl / Postseason Ledger

Recent postseason (2015-2025): 3-6

Most recent: 2025 — win 21-34 (away). Last 5 postseason: 1-4.

20252024202220212019
Reddit blowupsThe plays that blew up on r/CFB.

r/cfb moments

734
[Postgame Thread] USC Defeats Washington State 30-14
Oct 2022 · r/cfb

All-time top community posts · ranked by upvotes

This page may include content derived from public news sources, social media, and fan communities. We relay these sources as-is — we are not reporting them. Sources may be summarized or quoted imperfectly; for anything that matters, go look at the original source directly. The original source may also be wrong. AI-generated content is labeled and may contain factual errors. All analysis is editorial opinion, not professional reporting. Data sources · About this site