The top story in the week leading up to the 93rd Battle of the Palouse was the lack of a decision from new WSU head coach Jimmy Rogers on the team’s starting quarterback. The Cougars waited until the offense’s first snap to reveal its quarterback, when redshirt sophomore Jaxon Potter stepped on the field.

Potter had only thrown two passes in his collegiate career before Saturday night. Yet, Rogers seemed to have made the right choice.

The Cougars escaped with a tight 13-10 victory over the Idaho Vandals in front of a home crowd of 28,000 for their 11th straight victory in the series.

Potter, in his first start with the Cougs and of his collegiate career, led a 9-play, 59-yard drive that started at a tie with 1:41 left in the fourth quarter and ended with a Jack Stevens’ 32-yard game-winning field goal with three seconds left to go.

“You live these moments through your head out in the backyard when you’re little,” Potter said. “Coach [Kris] Kracht told me that before I went out there. I kind of just went back to my six-year-old self, kind of playing in the backyard with my pops, my neighbors.” 

After the game, Potter revealed he had been informed he would be the week one starter about two weeks ago.

Potter completed 23-of-30 passes for 208 yards and a touchdown as the Cougs quickly shifted strategy after a slow start to the game. Potter’s game-winning drive came after he was subbed out for redshirt freshman Julian Dugger, who entered in the third quarter after the Cougar defense forced a Vandals fumble. Dugger played two series before Potter returned for WSU’s last two drives.

Wide receiver Josh Meredith caught the Cougs’ only touchdown pass from Potter in the second quarter and the Cougs held on the rest of the way behind a pair of forced fumbles and stout defense all-around.

The Vandals, ranked No. 12 in the FCS, also brought a new face with redshirt sophomore quarterback Joshua Wood, who made a big impact on the ground with 12 carries for 101 yards. The Vandals’ only touchdown came on a 3-yard rush from running back Andy Williams.

The Idaho offense was anchored by its run game, rushing for 188 total yards on 45 attempts. The Vandals ran the ball more than twice the amount they passed.

Despite Wood threatening the Cougar defense as a dual-threat, he completed just 12 passes for 33 yards, limiting the Vandals’ offense until late in the game.

The win pushed WSU to 74-17-3 in the all-time series. The Vandals have not beaten the Cougs since they took back-to-back matchups in 1999 and 2000. 

Both teams entered the matchup with new head coaches, with Rogers in Pullman and Thomas Ford Jr. returning to Moscow after serving as a running backs coach last season at Oregon State and coaching with the Vandals in 2022 and 2023.

A slower, grit-and-grind play style was expected when Rogers arrived in Pullman. His first game at the helm was a grind, but not in the way that was expected.

Both teams started off the game slowly, going three-and-out on each of their first two possessions. Both of WSU’s first two drives started inside the 10-yard line and ended at the 10-yard line.

Idaho looked to take advantage of strong field possession on its third drive, but stalled out at the 27-yard line and kicker Cameron Pope proceeded to miss a 44-yard field goal attempt. 

After throwing for just two passes on his first two drives, Potter came alive on the third drive, going 6-for-6 for 75 yards, which was capped off with Potter rolling to his left and finding Meredith at the front pylon for the first score of the game early in the second quarter. 

With momentum in their favor, the Cougs came up with a huge turnover as defensive end Malaki Ta’ase forced Wood to fumble on a scramble and WSU recovered the ball at the Idaho 45-yard line. 

The Cougs would go three-and-out on the following possession though, and the teams went scoreless in the last 11 minutes of the half.

The second half started with much of the same, with three straight punts before the Vandals lost another fumble, this time on their own 19 as safety Matthew Durrance forced Idaho running back Elisha Cummings to fumble. 

Rogers then made the unexpected decision to replace Potter with Dugger after the fumble. 

“Some of it just came from we couldn’t get the run game going and they were stacking the box, and then we started just overthrowing some balls that were wide open,” Rogers said. “So I felt like we needed a spark. I felt like Julian’s legs might have been able to do that for us, and it didn’t.”

Dugger rushed once and scrambled twice as the offense went three-and-out again and was forced to kick a 30-yard field goal that extended the lead to 10-0.

With just over a minute left in the third quarter, Idaho got the ball back and decided it’d had enough. The Vandals launched a grueling 16-play, 75-yard drive that lasted nearly nine minutes and ended with the Williams touchdown that made it 10-7.

Idaho received a prime opportunity to take the lead after defensive end Matyus McLain forced WSU running back Angel Johnson to fumble in Cougar territory and give the Vandals excellent starting field position at the 11-yard line.

The Vandals squandered the opportunity though, going three-and-out and settling for a 21-yard chip shot to tie the game.

Giving the ball back to Potter and the Cougs with a minute and a half to go would end up being a mistake. Potter, having subbed back in three minutes prior, used his fresh arm to hit receiver Tony Freeman for a 19-yard gain to start the drive and did not miss a beat. WSU stormed up the field and a 14-yard pass to running back Leo Pulalasi set up a game-winning field goal with under 10 seconds remaining.

After Stevens knocked it through the uprights, one last Vandals miracle attempt of laterals on the kickoff failed and the Cougs took the victory.

“I’m proud of Potter—[he] stepped back into the situation, and the two-minute drive led us down, and we were able to get the field goal,” Rogers said. “[I am] proud of Jack Stevens, does a huge for kick for what is a redshirt freshman in his first game here.”

Despite the win, Rogers recognized the team’s need for improvement and was not satisfied with the team’s performance.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game, but they were able to stop our run,” Rogers said. “It’s kind of embarrassing looking at these stats, it felt that way in the game, got us multiple times, backed up. [They] had a great game plan against us.”

The Cougs were limited to three rushing yards on 22 attempts, averaging 0.1 yards per carry. 

WSU will play San Diego State next Saturday at home, while the Vandals return to Moscow to face St. Thomas.