1986 Washington State Cougars football team

The 1986 Washington State Cougars football team was an American football team that represented Washington State University in the Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10) during the 1986 NCAA Division I-A football season. In their ninth and final season under head coach Jim Walden, the Cougars compiled a 3–7–1 record (2–6–1 in Pac-10, eighth place) and were outscored 312 to 221.[1][2]

1986 Washington State Cougars football
Conference	Pacific-10 Conference
1986 record	3–7–1 (2–6–1 Pac-10)
Head coach	Jim Walden (9th season)
Home stadium	Martin Stadium

1986 Pacific-10 Conference football standings
	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 4 Arizona State $	5	–	1	–	1			10	–	1	–	1
No. 14 UCLA	5	–	2	–	1			8	–	3	–	1
No. 18 Washington	5	–	2	–	1			8	–	3	–	1
No. 11 Arizona	5	–	3	–	0			9	–	3	–	0
Stanford	5	–	3	–	0			8	–	4	–	0
USC	5	–	3	–	0			7	–	5	–	0
Oregon	3	–	5	–	0			5	–	6	–	0
Washington State	2	–	6	–	1			3	–	7	–	1
California	2	–	7	–	0			2	–	9	–	0
Oregon State	1	–	6	–	0			3	–	8	–	0
$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

The Cougars tied eventual Rose Bowl champion Arizona State in Tempe in late September,[3] then beat USC by twenty points in Pullman, but lost their final five games and dropped in the standings.

WSU's statistical leaders in 1986 included senior quarterback Ed Blount with 1,882 passing yards, Kerry Porter with 921 rushing yards, and Kitrick Taylor with 523 receiving yards.[4] Notable underclassmen included quarterback Timm Rosenbach,[5][6] guard Mike Utley, and future head coach Paul Wulff.[7]

Walden departed for Iowa State in the Big Eight Conference in mid-December,[8][9][10][11] and was succeeded by Dennis Erickson, who returned to the Palouse (four years at Idaho) in January 1987 after just one season at Wyoming.[12][13]

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance
September 6	UNLV*	Martin Stadium Pullman, WA	W 34–14	17,000
September 13	San Jose State*	Martin Stadium Pullman, WA	L 13–20	15,000
September 20	at California	California Memorial Stadium Berkeley, CA	L 21–31	41,500
September 27	at No. 11 Arizona State	Sun Devil Stadium Tempe, AZ	T 21–21	70,543
October 4	Oregon State	Martin Stadium Pullman, WA	W 24–14	25,200
October 11	No. 9 USC	Martin Stadium Pullman, WA	W 34–14	26,000
October 25	at No. 17 UCLA	Rose Bowl Pasadena, CA	L 16–54	46,189
November 1	at Stanford	Stanford Stadium Stanford, CA	L 12–42	35,000
November 8	No. 17 Arizona	Martin Stadium Pullman, WA	L 6–31	17,000
November 15	at Oregon	Autzen Stadium Eugene, OR	L 17–27	25,137
November 22	No. 12 Washington	Martin Stadium Pullman, WA (Apple Cup)	L 23–44	40,000
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game

Source:[2][14]

Roster

1986 Washington State Cougars football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class WR 85 Mark Bircher QB 10 Ed Blount Sr C 62 Alan Boatman Sr RB 31 Steve Broussard Fr WR 24 Rick Chase Sr OT 68 Chris Dyko So OT 52 Dave Fakkema So RB Danny Grant OL 73 John Husby So WR 88 Michael James Sr OT 72 Ken Kuiper So TE 89 Chris Leighton Sr OG 66 Ian Lindner Sr TE 46 Rodd Olson Fr TE 81 Mel Orchard So RB 30 Kerry Porter Sr RB Michael Pringle RB 22 Rich Reed QB 3 Timm Rosenbach Fr WR 47 Cotton Sears Sr WR 2 Tim Stallworth Fr WR 8 Kitrick Taylor Sr RB 11 Ed Tingstad So OG 60 Mike Utley So TE 82 Doug Wellstandt Fr WR 13 Victor Wood So C 56 Paul Wulff  Fr	Defense Pos. # Name Class DL 87 Marvin Adams Jr LB 55 Tunieau Alipate So DL Rob Carpenter DE 67 Rob Cleveland Sr S 25 Ron Collins Sr DE 67 Ivan Cook So DT 97 Tim Downing Fr LB 57 Brian Forde Jr LB 43 Bob Gregory Sr DB 41 James Hasty Jr DE 93 Chris Hiller Jr DB Artie Holmes CB 18 Shawn Landrum So DT 91 Mark Ledbetter Fr DB 42 Ron Lee So LB 40 Maury Metcalf So LB 41 Bob O'Neal Fr CB 20 Ricky Reynolds Sr DT 75 Terry Savage Fr S 6 Kevin Thomasson Sr	Special teams Pos. # Name Class K 4 Kevin Adams Jr P 45 Rob Myers Fr	Head coach Jim Walden (9th year) Coordinators/assistant coaches Jim Burrow (DB) Dave Elliott (LB) Jon Fabris (TE) Gary Gagnon (RB) Lindsay Hughes Steve Morton (OL) Robin Ross (DL) Mel Sanders Ken Woody (WR) Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt

Source:[9][15][16][17][18][19]

Season summary

UNLV

1 2 3 4 Total UNLV 0 7 0 7 14 • Washington St 21 3 7 3 34 Date: September 6 Location: Martin Stadium Game attendance: 17,000

Scoring summary Q1 WSU Taylor 11 yard pass from Blount (Adams kick) WSU 7–0 Q1 WSU Blount 14 yard run (Adams kick) WSU 14–0 Q1 WSU Collins 71 yard interception return (Adams kick) WSU 21–0 Q2 UNLV Woods 5 yard run (Libonati kick) WSU 21–7 Q2 WSU Adams 32 yard field goal WSU 24–7 Q3 WSU Wood 15 yard pass from Blount (Adams kick) WSU 31–7 Q4 WSU Obrastoff 44 yard field goal WSU 34–7 Q4 UNLV Jones 10 yard run (Libonati kick) WSU 34–14

Source:[20]

Washington

See also: 1986 Washington Huskies football team and Apple Cup

#12 Washington Huskies at Washington State Cougars

	1	2	3	4	Total
Washington	7	14	10	13	44
Washington St	0	10	7	6	23

at Martin Stadium, Pullman, Washington

• Date: November 22, 1986
• Game attendance: 40,000
• Gainesville Sun. November 23, 1986 Page 4F

Game information

First quarter WASH – Rod Jones 3-yard pass from Chris Chandler (Jeff Jaeger kick). Washington 7–0. Drive: Second quarter WSU – Ed Tingstad 3-yard run (Kevin Adams kick). Tie 7–7. Drive: WSU – Kevin Adams 51-yard field goal. Washington St 10–7. Drive: WASH – Tony Covington 2-yard run (Jeff Jaeger kick). Washington 14–10. Drive: WASH – Matt Slater 25-yard pass from Chris Chandler (Jeff Jaeger kick). Washington 21–10. Drive: Third quarter WASH – Matt Slater 38-yard pass from Chris Chandler (Jeff Jaeger kick). Washington 28–10. Drive: WASH – Jeff Jaeger 43-yard field goal. Washington 31–10. Drive: WASH – Jeff Jaeger 26-yard field goal. Washington 34–10. Drive: WSU – Kerry Porter 2-yard run (Kevin Adams kick). Washington 34–17. Drive: Fourth quarter WASH – Matt Slater 25-yard pass from Chris Chandler (Jeff Jaeger kick). Washington 41–17. Drive: WSU – Kerry Porter 9-yard run (pass failed). Washington 41–23. Drive: WASH – Jeff Jaeger 27-yard field goal, 3:16. Washington 44–23. Drive: Top passers WASH – Chris Chandler – 15/20, 204 yards, 4 TD WSU – Ed Blount – 16/30, 240 yards, 2 INT Top rushers WASH – Vince Weathersby – 25 rushes, 177 yards WSU – Kerry Porter – 25 rushes, 90 yards, 2 TD Top receivers WASH – Matt Slater – 4 receptions, 106 yards, 3 TD WSU – Rodd Olson – 6 receptions, 94 yards

NFL Draft

Four Cougars were selected in the 1987 NFL Draft.

Player	Position	Round	Overall	Franchise
Ricky Reynolds	CB	2	36	Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Kitrick Taylor	WR	5	128	Kansas City Chiefs
Kerry Porter	RB	7	171	Buffalo Bills
Michael James	WR	8	202	Houston Oilers

Source:[21][22]

• List of Washington State Cougars in the NFL Draft

References

1. "1986 Washington State Cougars Schedule and Results". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
2. "2016 Media Guide" (PDF). WSUCougars.com. Washington State Cougars Athletics. p. 77. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
3. "WSU is fit to be tied with Arizona State". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). September 28, 1986. p. 1C.
4. "1986 Washington State Cougars Stats". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
5. Grummert, Dale (September 21, 1986). "Kicking off Pac-10 play on wrong foot". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). p. 1B.
6. Fears, Shannon (November 16, 1986). "Cougars locate their quarterback, but not in time". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). p. 4C.
7. "Washington State at Arizona State: probable starters". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). September 27, 1986. p. 3B.
8. "Walden denies seeking job". Spokane Chronicle. (Washington). November 21, 1986. p. 21.
9. Devlin, Vince (December 16, 1986). "It's official: Walden's gone". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). p. B1.
10. Condotta, Bob (December 15, 1986). "Iowa State hires WSU's Walden". Idahonian. (Moscow). p. 1.
11. Grummert, Dale (December 16, 1986). "The Walden era comes to a close". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). p. 1B.
12. Grummert, Dale (January 8, 1987). "Erickson sets lofty goals for Cougars". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). p. C1.
13. Condotta, Bob (January 7, 1987). "Denny's dream comes true". Idahonian. (Moscow). p. 1.
14. College Football @ Sports-Reference.com
15. Devlin, Vince (December 17, 1986). "WSU assistants left in limbo". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). p. D1.
16. Grummert, Dale (December 17, 1986). "Walden's staff considers its options". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). p. 1B.
17. "2009 Football media guide: coaches" (PDF). Washington State University Athletics. 2009. p. 179. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
18. "Washington State vs. California". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). (probable starters). September 20, 1986. p. 4B.
19. "Starting lineups". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). November 15, 1986. p. 4C.
20. Gainesville Sun. 1986 Sep 7. Retrieved 2018-Jan-15.
21. Bergum, Steve (April 29, 1987). "Reynolds goes in 2nd round". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). p. D1.
22. "Four Cougars go in football draft". Idahonian. (Moscow). April 29, 1987. p. 6.