Decimated Washington State to Play Syracuse in Holiday Bowl Friday

Washington State will face Syracuse Friday in the Holiday Bowl at Snapdragon Stadium without its coach, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, two position coaches, quarterback and several other key players.

Jake Dickert resigned as coach Dec. 18 to accept a similar position at Wake Forest. Offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle was hired Dec. 2 for a similar position at Oklahoma. Defensive coordinator linebackers coach Jeff Schmedding was fired Dec. 2, with Dickert explaining, “After evaluating our program, we have not met the standard defensively, and I felt a change was needed for the best interest of the program.”

Running backs coach Mark Atuaia resigned to accept a similar position at Utah.

Quarterbacks coach John Kuceyeski left to become the senior offensive assistant/assistant quarterback coach at Oklahoma.

Quarterback John Mateer, whose 44 combined touchdowns — 29 passing and 15 rushing — were the most among Football Bowl Subdivision players and among 10 finalists for the Manning Award as college football’s best quarterback, was among 28 Cougars to enter the transfer portal. The redshirt sophomore has committed to Oklahoma.

Other Washington State players to enter the transfer portal include running back Wayshawn Parker, its second-leading rusher with 735 yards, and punter Nick Haberer, who was selected for the 2023 Ray Guy Award Watch List in 2023 after averaging 42.4 yards per punt, third-best in the Pac-12, in 2022 as a sophomore.

“You’re going to see a different team than you saw at San Diego State the first time,” Cougars interim coach Pete Kaligis said at a news conference Thursday. Washington State defeated the Aztecs, 29-26, Oct. 26, the Cougars’ seventh win during an 8-1 start that saw them rise to 19th in The Associated Press rankings and 18th in the College Football Playoff rankings.

“I think you’re going to see a team that’s going to be playing with a lot of energy, a lot of excitement and playing with a lot of love together as one.”

Washington State (8-4) enters the Holiday Bowl on a three-game losing streak, all to non-bowl teams, and unranked.

The Orange (9-3) have won three consecutive games and are ranked 22nd by the AP and 21st by the CFP in Fran Brown’s first season as coach.

Quarterback Kyle McCord has put together the most productive season for a Syracuse quarterback in his first season after transferring from Ohio State, where he had an 11-1 record as a starter in 2023 before entering the transfer portal before the Cotton Bowl.

McCord holds single-season school records for passing yards (4,326), touchdown passes (29), total offense (4,268), most attempts (558) and most completions (367). McCord is the first Orange quarterback to throw for 4,000 yards in a season.

Syracuse is first among FBS teams in passing offense, averaging 363.1 yards per game.

Zevi Eckhaus will be the Cougars’ starting quarterback. The former Culver City High School standout spent the first three years of his college career as the starter for Bryant, a Football Championship Subdivision program based in Smithfield, Rhode Island.

Eckhaus was voted as the Big South Offensive Player of the Year in 2023 and a finalist for the Walter Payton Award, as the most outstanding FCS offensive player when he completed 238-of-379 passes (62.8%) for 2,907 yards and 28 touchdowns.

Eckhaus completed six of seven passes for 61 yards and one touchdown in two games with Washington State.

Syracuse’s nine one-score games are tied for first among FBS teams and its seven victories in one-score games are the most in FBS.

The Holiday Bowl has the second choice among the available former and current Pac-12 teams and is in a group with the Pop-Tarts Bowl and Gator Bowl that have the first picks among Atlantic Coast Conference teams following the College Football Playoff.

The Holiday Bowl selected Washington State after the Alamo Bowl selected Colorado (9-3).

The Cougars will be playing in the Holiday Bowl for the fifth time and first since 2017. Washington State is 1-3 in the Holiday Bowl.

Syracuse will be playing in the Holiday Bowl for the first time. It has had a tie-in with the ACC since the 2022 season.

This will be the second meeting between the teams. Syracuse defeated Washington State, 52-25, in 1979.

This is the first time the Holiday Bowl will be played at Snapdragon Stadium. It was played at since-demolished San Diego Stadium from 1978-2019 and at Petco Park in 2022 and 2023. The 2020 game was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic and the 2021 game was called off just hours before kickoff due to COVID-19 issues within the UCLA football team.

Syracuse opened as a 5 1/2-point favorite has widened to a 17-18 point favorite due to the number of Cougars entering the transfer portal.

The 5 p.m. game will be televised by Fox.

The first 10,000 fans to enter the gates at Snapdragon Stadium will receive a free SeaWorld San Diego admission ticket that is valid through Jan. 31.

The game will be followed by the KGB Sky Show.

Joey Chestnut, the who has won the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest a record 16 times, is the game’s “Chief Eggnog Official,” overseeing the Holiday Bowl’s second annual celebratory “eggnog dump” on the winning coach.

Brown said at Thursday’s news conference he is allergic to eggs and would prefer if someone else affiliated with the program is dumped with eggnog.

Kaligis said he hasn’t thought about the “eggnog dump.”

“If it happens, God’s will,” Kaligis said. “All glory to Him. All glory to Him.”

–City News Service