1976 Washington State Cougars football team

The 1976 Washington State Cougars football team was an American football team that represented Washington State University in the Pacific-8 Conference (Pac-8) during the 1976 NCAA Division I football season. In their only season under head coach Jackie Sherrill, the Cougars compiled a 3–8 record (2–5 in Pac-8, sixth), and were outscored 331 to 240.[2][3]

1976 Washington State Cougars football
Conference	Pacific-8 Conference
1976 record	3–8 (2–5 Pac-8)
Head coach	Jackie Sherrill (1st season)
Offensive coordinator	Bob Leahy
Defensive coordinator	Howard Tippett [1]
Home stadium	Martin Stadium, Joe Albi Stadium (Spokane)

1976 Pacific-8 Conference football standings
	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 2 USC $	7	–	0	–	0			11	–	1	–	0
No. 15 UCLA	6	–	1	–	0			9	–	2	–	1
Stanford	5	–	2	–	0			6	–	5	–	0
California	3	–	4	–	0			5	–	6	–	0
Washington	3	–	4	–	0			5	–	6	–	0
Washington State	2	–	5	–	0			3	–	8	–	0
Oregon	1	–	6	–	0			4	–	7	–	0
Oregon State	1	–	6	–	0			2	–	10	–	0
$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

The team's statistical leaders included Jack Thompson with 2,762 passing yards, Dan Doornink with 422 rushing yards, and Mike Levenseller with 1,124 receiving yards.[4]

Senior quarterback John Hopkins injured a knee in the second game making a tackle;[5][6] sophomore Thompson relieved him and again the following week,[7] then became the starter for the rest of the season.[8][9] A home game was played in Seattle at the newly-opened Kingdome, against eleventh-ranked USC.[9][10] Previous home games in Seattle in 1972 and 1974 were at Husky Stadium.[11][12]

Previously the defensive coordinator at Pittsburgh, Sherrill was hired in late December 1975,[13][14][15] but coached just one season in Pullman, leaving in early December to return to the Panthers as head coach.[1][16] A week later, he was succeeded at WSU by Warren Powers, the defensive backfield coach at Nebraska.[17][18][19]

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance
September 11	at No. 19 Kansas*	Memorial Stadium Lawrence, KS	L 16–35	39,475
September 18	at Minnesota*	Memorial Stadium Minneapolis, MN	L 14–28	31,627
September 25	at Wisconsin*	Camp Randall Stadium Madison, WI	L 26–35	69,658
October 2	Idaho*	Martin Stadium Pullman, WA (Battle of the Palouse)	W 45–6	23,500
October 9	vs. No. 11 USC	Kingdome Seattle, WA	L 14–23	37,268
October 16	at No. 4 UCLA	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	L 3–62	35,508
October 23	Stanford	Martin Stadium Pullman, WA	L 16–22	24,300
October 30	at Oregon	Autzen Stadium Eugene, OR	W 23–22	22,200
November 6	Oregon State	Martin Stadium Pullman, WA	W 29–24	20,122
November 13	at California	California Memorial Stadium Berkeley, CA	L 22–23	30,000
November 20	Washington	Joe Albi Stadium Spokane, WA (Apple Cup)	L 32–51	35,800
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game

Roster

1976 Washington State Cougars football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class QB 12 Wally Bennett Sr SE 13 Bob Bratkowski Jr TE 88 Ron Bull So C 60 Jon DesPois Sr RB 11 Dan Doornink Jr G 71 Larry Finan Jr RB 25 Harold Gillum T 54 Bob Hill Sr QB 18 John Hopkins Sr SE 44 Brian Kelly Jr G 65 Tom Larsen Jr T 68 Dave Lemke Jr SE 21 Mike Levenseller Jr TE 83 Eason Ramson Jr QB 14 Jack Thompson So TB 26 Mike Washington Fr TB 31 Ray Williams Fr	Defense Pos. # Name Class LB 96 Raleigh Fletcher So LB 98 Terry Gilmore CB 37 Ken Greene Jr DT 76 Spud Harris Fr LB 57 Don Hover Jr LB 97 Jeff Jones So DT 87 Tim Ochs Sr CB 15 Mark Patterson Jr DE 38 Mel Sanders Fr M 48 Don Schwartz Jr DE 36 Tom Thompson So SS 16 John Troppman Jr NG 50 George Yarno So	Special teams Pos. # Name Class K 33 Chuck Diedrick P 46 Gavin Hedrick Jr	Head coach Jackie Sherrill (1st year) Coordinators/assistant coaches Bob Leahy – (OC) Howard Tippett – (DC) Bill Cords Dave Walker Mike Price Dave Campo Ron Kirby Michael Church Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt

Source[20][21][22][23]

NFL Draft

For the first time in six years, no Cougars were selected in the 1977 NFL Draft; eight WSU players were selected the next year.

• List of Washington State Cougars in the NFL Draft

References

1. Emerson, Paul (December 7, 1976). "Sherrill takes Pitt job for 'a lot of reasons'". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). p. 1B.
2. "1976 Washington State Cougars Schedule and Results". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
3. "2016 Media Guide" (PDF). WSUCougars.com. Washington State Cougars Athletics. p. 76. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
4. "1976 Washington State Cougars Stats". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
5. Missildine, Harry (September 19, 1976). "Gophers whip Cougs". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). p. D1.
6. Brown, Bruce (September 20, 1976). "Effort is not enough to ease hurt of loss". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). p. 17.
7. Missildine, Harry (September 26, 1976). "Badgers win air war". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). p. D1.
8. Missildine, Harry (October 3, 1976). "Thompson unloads on Idaho". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). p. D1.
9. Missildine, Harry (October 9, 1976). "Thompson's key in 'Dome Bowl'". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). p. 13.
10. Missildine, Harry (October 10, 1976). "Cougs tough, short". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). p. D1.
11. Emerson, Paul (November 5, 1972). "Top-ranked Trojans bomb Cougars 44-3". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). p. 19.
12. Emerson, Paul (October 6, 1974). "Cougars 'discover' No. 1". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). p. 15.
13. Franke, Russ (December 26, 1975). "Pitt assistant takes head job". Pittsburgh Press. p. 38.
14. "Sherrill named WSU coach". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). December 26, 1975. p. 15.
15. "WSU hires Pittsburgh assistant". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). December 27, 1975. p. 1B.
16. Livingston, Pat (December 7, 1976). "Sherrill's time comes for Pitt job". Pittsburgh Press. p. 49.
17. Barrows, Bob (December 14, 1976). "WSU fills football job with Nebraska assistant". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). p. 1B.
18. Missildine, Harry (December 14, 1976). "Warren Powers new Coug coach". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). p. 19.
19. Brown, Bruce (December 14, 1976). "New challenge faces Powers". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). p. 19.
20. "Vandals vs. Cougars: probable starters". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). (rosters). October 2, 1976. p. 13.
21. "Cardinals vs. Cougars: probable starters". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). (rosters). October 23, 1976. p. 13.
22. "The lineups: probable starters". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). October 30, 1976. p. 1D.
23. "Huskies vs. Cougars: probable starters". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). (rosters). November 20, 1976. p. 17.