The Washington State Cougars look to rebound tonight after suffering last week’s loss to the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

            The Cougars (0-1) will look to secure their first victory of the season against the Nevada Wolf Pack (1-0). Nevada is coming off of a 28-19 home win over the Southern Utah Thunderbirds last Saturday. Nevada finished 3-9 last season.

            Senior quarterback Cody Fajardo leads the Nevada offense as one of the nation’s top dual-threat quarterbacks. He enters Friday’s contest as the only active QB in the nation with 7,000 career passing yards and 2,000 yards on the ground.

            The Cougars will need their defense to step up their performance after an outing in which they gave up 496 total yards of offense to Rutgers. Fortunately for the Cougs, senior SAM linebacker Cyrus Coen, who missed last week’s game, is set to return Friday. Linebackers coach Ken Wilson said Coen will provide the Cougars with more depth and versatility.

            “(Coen) moving well and it gives us a chance to sub guys over there and have Mitch (Peterson, Cougar linebacker) not play so many snaps and get Paris (Taylor) maybe on the field if we can get into some passing situations,” Wilson said. “(Coen) had a good fall camp and he was just rounding into pretty good form in fall.”

            During the 38-41 loss to Rutgers, the offense amassed 538 total yards of offense. Assuming that trend continues, here are a few critical match-ups the Cougs need to win on the defensive side of the ball tonight.

           WSU front seven vs. Nevada’s rushing attack

            Rutgers had their way with the Cougars front-seven last week, allowing their junior running back Paul James to rush for 173 yards and three touchdowns. Cougars defensive line coach Joe Salave’a said the most important part of the improvement for the defensive line is to clear their heads mentally.

            “Well I think more so just the mental aspect, I mean guys go into a game and they talk themselves up so much to a point where they can’t perform and they can’t do that,” Salave’a said. “That was unfair to them, they don’t need to do anymore extra stuff than what they’ve already done.”

            Fajardo is paired in Nevada’s rushing attack with junior running back Don Jackson. Jackson is coming off of a one touchdown and 110-yard performance last week.

            If the Cougars want a shot at containing the Nevada offense, they will need to hope the defensive front-seven is focused and fundamental. If not, it could be another long day for the Cougar defense.

           WSU secondary vs. Nevada receivers

            Nevada has some inexperience at the receiving position this year, which is comparable to the Cougar secondary.

            Nevada senior wide receiver Richy Turner returns as the Wolf Pack’s leading receiver after catching 61 passes for 755 yards and four touchdowns. Next to Turner, the other two impact receivers returning are sophomores Hasaan Henderson and Jerico Richardson. The two receivers combined to bring in just 32 catches for 348 yards and one touchdown last season.

            Other than Turner, the Nevada receivers have little experience and are youthful, providing the Cougars with a solid match-up. With the Cougars making changes at the cornerback positions this week, defensive coordinator Mike Breske said the boundary corner requires different attributes than the field corner.

            “It’s usually a different type of athlete, ideally we’re looking for a bigger corner, more physical corner,” Breske said. “We don’t have that right now, but Daquawn’s (Brown) flexible enough that we can play him to the field or to the boundary, so we’re going to put him at the boundary this week and then Charleston (White) to the right side.”

            The Cougars must provide increased production from redshirt freshman safety Darius Lemora and cornerback Charleston White in the secondary if they hope to contain the Nevada receivers. Nevada runs the Pistol offense meaning the Cougars front-seven will have to focus on the possibility of Fajardo’s scrambling ability out of the pocket.

            If the Cougars can keep the Nevada receivers from getting open, it will allow the Cougar front seven to do their job containing the run gaps. If they can stop Nevada defensively, redshirt senior quarterback Connor Halliday and the offense will have plenty of opportunities to separate themselves from Nevada in this game.

            The WSU Cougars square off against the Nevada Wolf Pack tonight at 7:30 p.m. The game can be seen on ESPN.