OXFORD, Miss. — Zevi Eckhaus almost swung his arm off his shoulder. He was standing squarely on the Ole Miss logo, the spot at midfield where he had just slung a touchdown pass to help Washington State take an early lead on No. 4 Ole Miss, and he twirled his right arm in a circle, over and over, rotation after rotation.
On a sunny Saturday afternoon down south, Eckhaus was all smiles. So were the Cougars, who were playing some of their best football of the season. They entered the game as nearly five-touchdown underdogs. With one strike, a 26-yard scoring strike to freshman Landon Wright, they were making oddsmakers look silly.
Even in a 24-21 loss, WSU spent the next two hours making them look even crazier. The visitors held the Rebels to their lowest scoring output of the season. They took a second lead on Ole Miss, leaving those in attendance at Vaught Hemingway Stadium stunned, before Rebels pulled away in the fourth quarter.
All game long, this question seemed to hover over the red-and-blue clad fans, who waved their pom-poms in one motion and asked this question in the next: Who are these crimson-and-white clad players, and why weren’t they rolling over?
WSU is heading back to Pullman with a loss, but if there was anything resembling a moral victory, this was it. The Cougars were never expected to compete with a team of the Rebels’ caliber. Heck, this game was never supposed to be played in the first place, but the two schools scheduled it last year as WSU tried to cobble together opponents for this fall.
In that way, the Cougs will likely look back at this game and see things to smile about. With about 70 seconds to play, they got the ball back deep in their own territory, down only three, with a chance to take the lead on the country’s No. 4 team. That effort went for naught — WSU didn’t have time, and its final play came up short — but for a team never expected to be in any position like this, it amounted to a promising effort.
WSU (3-3 pulled within one score in the fourth quarter, thanks to a backfoot touchdown throw from Eckhaus, who found speedy receiver Tony Freeman open in the corner of the end zone. With that score, the Cougs were down only 24-21 with under three minutes to play, threatening to come all the way back in crunch time.
Plus, in the third quarter, they retook the lead on a 46-yard rushing touchdown by Kirby Vorhees, who now looks like the team’s clear-cut RB1. They forced a fumble on Ole Miss, courtesy of third-year defensive end Isaac Terrell, who collected a pair of sacks on the game.
To do that, WSU needed one stop from its defense, but that group couldn’t keep it together. Ole Miss got the yardage it needed to run out the clock and hand the Cougars their third loss of the year.
WSU also totaled 127 rushing yards, the group’s second-straight game clearing the century mark, perhaps a real sign of progress for that unit. The Cougs had struggled to run the ball all year, even in their win over Colorado State two weeks prior, and that part of their game remained a meaningful question mark.
WSU, which gave up two fourth-quarter touchdowns, had to play without starting right tackle Christian Hilborn, who was seen on crutches before the game.
This story will be updated.