1975 Washington State Cougars football team

1975 Washington State Cougars football
Conference	Pacific-8 Conference
Record	3–8 (0–7 Pac-8)
Head coach	Jim Sweeney (8th season)
Offensive coordinator	Jack Elway (2nd season)
Defensive coordinator	Larry Donovan (2nd season)
Home stadium	Martin Stadium, Joe Albi Stadium

1975 Pacific-8 Conference football standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 5 UCLA ^ +	6	–	1	–	0			9	–	2	–	1
No. 14 California +	6	–	1	–	0			8	–	3	–	0
Stanford	5	–	2	–	0			6	–	4	–	1
Washington	5	–	2	–	0			6	–	5	–	0
No. 17 USC	3	–	4	–	0			8	–	4	–	0
Oregon	2	–	5	–	0			3	–	8	–	0
Oregon State	1	–	6	–	0			1	–	10	–	0
Washington State	0	–	7	–	0			3	–	8	–	0
+ – Conference co-champions ^ – Selected as Rose Bowl representative Rankings from AP Poll

The 1975 Washington State Cougars football team was an American football team that represented Washington State University in the Pacific-8 Conference (Pac-8) during the 1975 NCAA Division I football season. In their eighth season under head coach Jim Sweeney, the Cougars compiled a 3–8 record (0–7 in Pac-8, last) and were outscored 295 to 262.^[1][2]

The team's statistical leaders included John Hopkins with 1,022 passing yards, Vaughn Williams with 662 rushing yards, and Brian Kelly with 371 receiving yards.^[3]

With two wins to open the season,^[4][5][6] followed by seven consecutive losses,^[7] the Cougars took out their frustrations on over-matched neighbor Idaho in the Battle of the Palouse on November 15, scoring eight touchdowns in the first half on the way to an 84–27 rout.^[8][9][10] The next week at Husky Stadium in Seattle, WSU led rival Washington 27–13 with three minutes left in Don James' first Apple Cup, but gave up two long touchdowns to lose by a point.^{[11][12][13][14]}

Sweeney resigned a week later,^[15][16][17] and was promptly hired at Fresno State.^{[18][19][20][21]}

This was the first season for the concrete north grandstand at Martin Stadium; the student section, it was formerly a wooden grandstand constructed in the 1930s as part of Rogers Field.^[22][23][24] (1975 aerial photo)^[25]

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
September 13	at Kansas*	Memorial Stadium Lawrence, KS	W 18–14	33,378
September 20	at Utah*	Robert Rice Stadium Salt Lake City, UT	W 30–14	19,622	[26]
September 27	California	Martin Stadium Pullman, WA	L 21–33	24,500
October 4	at Illinois*	Memorial Stadium Champaign, IL	L 21–27	51,060
October 11	at No. 3 USC	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	L 10–28	47,408
October 18	No. 18 UCLA	Joe Albi Stadium Spokane, WA	L 23–37	28,500
October 25	at Stanford	Stanford Stadium Stanford CA	L 14–54	35,000
November 1	Oregon	Martin Stadium Pullman, WA	L 14–26	18,100
November 8	at Oregon State	Parker Stadium Corvallis, OR	L 0–7	13,489
November 15	Idaho*	Martin Stadium Pullman, WA (Battle of the Palouse)	W 84–27	17,300	[8][9]
November 22	at Washington	Husky Stadium Seattle, WA (Apple Cup)	L 27–28	57,100
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game

Game summaries

Washington

See also: 1975 Washington Huskies football team and Apple Cup

Washington State Cougars at Washington Huskies

Quarter	1	2	3	4	Total
Washington St	10	14	3	0	27
Washington	7	7	0	14	28

at Husky Stadium • Seattle, Washington

• Date: November 22
• Game time: 1:30 pm PST
• Game weather: Rain • 50 °F (10 °C)
• Game attendance: 57,100
• ^{[11][12][13][14]}

Game information
Washington St Washington Warren Moon 4/22, 126 yards, 2 TD Robin Earl 9 rush, 51 yds Spider Gaines 2 rec, 107 yds, 2 TD

Scoring summary

Quarter Time Drive Team Scoring information Score Plays Yards TOP WSU WASH 1 Washington St 40-yard field goal by Hedrick 3 0 1 Washington Rowland 1-yard touchdown run, Robbins kick good 3 7 1 Washington St Williams 3-yard touchdown run, Hedrick kick good 10 7 2 Washington St Hopkins 1-yard touchdown run, Hedrick kick good 17 7 2 Washington St Williams 1-yard touchdown run, Hedrick kick good 24 7 2 Washington Gaines 29-yard touchdown reception from Moon, Robbins kick good 24 14 3 Washington St 36-yard field goal by Hedrick 27 14 4 Washington Interception returned 93 yards for touchdown by Burleson, Robbins kick good 27 21 4 Washington Gaines 78-yard touchdown reception from Moon, Robbins kick good 27 28 "TOP" = time of possession. For other American football terms, see Glossary of American football. 27 28

Roster

1975 Washington State Cougars football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class TE 80 Carl Barschig Sr QB 12 Wally Bennett Jr FB 30 Vern Chamberlain Sr C 60 Jon DesPois Jr RB 11 Dan Doornink So RB 31 Harold Gillum G 54 Bob Hill Jr QB 18 John Hopkins Jr SE 44 Brian Kelly So SE 27 Ray Kimble Sr SE 21 Mike Levenseller So SE 3 Mike Maenhout Sr SE 1 Dennis Pearson So OT 75 Robin Ross Sr OT 73 Dan Smith Sr C 56 Dave Tobin Sr QB 14 Jack Thompson Fr FB 24 Vaughn Williams Sr G 70 Mark Young Sr	Defense Pos. # Name Class SS 41 Tony Cook Jr S 5 Rufus Cunningham Sr NT 82 Dennis Dobberpuhl Sr CB 37 Ken Greene So CB 25 Tony Heath Sr LB 57 Don Hover Jr DE 90 Mark Husfloen Sr LB 58 Scott Mullenix Sr DE 87 Tim Ochs Jr LB 94 Bill Patterson Sr CB 15 Mark Patterson So LB 63 Jerry Payne Sr DT 50 George Yarno Fr	Special teams Pos. # Name Class PK 33 Chuck Diedrick Jr P 46 Gavin Hedrick So	Head coach Jim Sweeney (8th year) Coordinators/assistant coaches Bill Cords (TE) Larry Donovan – (DC) Jack Elway – (OC) Tom Keele (OL) Ron Mims (DB) Mike Price (QB, WR) Dick Roach (LB) Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt

^{[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]}

NFL draft

Four Cougars were selected in the 1976 NFL draft

Player	Position	Round	Overall	Franchise
Robin Ross	T	10	275	San Francisco
Mark Young	T	13	370	Oakland Raiders
Mark Husfloen	DE	14	383	Atlanta Falcons
Dan Smith	T	15	405	Seattle Seahawks

^[35][36]

References

1. "1975 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. 76. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 21, 2016. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
3. "1975 Washington State Cougars Stats". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
4. Brown, Bruce (September 15, 1975). "Cougars happy, but shy of goal". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). p. 19.
5. "Hopkins, Doornink push WSU past Utah 30-14". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). September 21, 1975. p. 1B.
6. "Combo of two efforts WSU need this week". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). September 22, 1975. p. 13.
7. Missildine, Harry (November 9, 1975). "Pass interception key to Oregon State win". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). p. D1.
8. Barrows, Bob. "WSU turns Battle of Palouse in 84-27 rout". Lewiston Morning Tribune. Idaho. p. 1B.
9. Missildine, Harry (November 16, 1975). "Cougars clobber Vandals". Spokesman-Review. Spokane, Washington. p. D1.
10. Brown, Bruce (November 17, 1975). "Runaway Cougs want UW victory". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). p. 17.
11. Missildine, Harry (November 23, 1975). "Bomb, theft beat Cougars". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). p. 1.
12. Barrows, Bob (November 23, 1975). "Cougs bit from behind". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). p. 1B.
13. "WSU gets greedy, falls to Huskies". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). wire services. November 23, 1975. p. 3B.
14. Brown, Bruce (November 24, 1975). "Changes due at WSU". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). p. 25.
15. "Sweeney uses option, quits as WSU boss". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). wire services. December 1, 1975. p. 1B.
16. Missildine, Harry (December 1, 1975). "Cougar coach Jim Sweeney resigns". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). p. 14.
17. "Cougar coach Jim Sweeney calls it quits". The Bulletin. (Bend, Oregon). Associated Press. December 1, 1975. p. 10.
18. Derrick, Merle (December 9, 1975). "Sweeney takes Fresno post". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). p. 31.
19. Missildine, Harry (December 10, 1975). "Sweeney to Fresno". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). p. 25.
20. "Sweeney goes south". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). Associated Press. December 10, 1975. p. 2D.
21. "Jim Sweeney named Fresno State coach". The Bulletin. (Bend, Oregon). Associated Press. December 10, 1975. p. 12.
22. Felgenhauer, Neil (March 8, 1974). "Stadium to seat more". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). p. 1.
23. "Stands demolished". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). November 21, 1974. p. 1.
24. "Pre-cast for Cougars". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). June 10, 1975. p. 24.
25. "Moscow & Pullman set progressive pace in Palouse country". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). (Sunday Magazine). December 27, 1975. p. 28.
26. "Cougars throttle Utes 30–14 as Doornink gets three TDs". The Spokesman-Review. September 21, 1975. Retrieved October 17, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
27. "Probable starters". Lawrence Journal-World. (Kansas). September 12, 1975. p. 13.
28. "Probable starters". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). September 12, 1975. p. 24.
29. "Bears vs. Cougars". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). (probable starters, rosters). September 27, 1975. p. 12.
30. "Bruins vs. Cougars". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). (probable starters, rosters). October 18, 1975. p. 12.
31. "WSU Cougars: Probable starters, coaches". Stanford Daily. (California). (Stanford University). October 25, 1975. p. 5.
32. "Ducks vs. Cougars: probable starters". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). (rosters). November 1, 1975. p. 17.
33. "Vandals vs. Cougars". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). (probable starters, rosters). November 15, 1975. p. 12.
34. 2010 Washington State football media guide
35. "Four Cougars, Vandal taken in NFL's draft". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). April 10, 1976. p. 10.
36. "Three Palouse gridders drafted". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). April 10, 1976. p. 1B.

External links

• Game program: WSU at Utah – September 20, 1975
• Game program: California at WSU – September 27, 1975
• Game program: Oregon at WSU – November 1, 1975
• Game program: Idaho at WSU – November 15, 1975