SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) -Washington State quarterback J.T. Levenseller will give up his redshirt season and play in his first game Saturday at Stanford.
The Cougars are so thin at quarterback that Levenseller will likely get plenty of playing time in the final five games, making it worthwhile to pull his redshirt in the midst of a 1-7 season.
Coach Paul Wulff said Tuesday that Kevin Lopina will start at quarterback, but Levenseller will play.
“How you have to look at it is it gives an individual the chance to get better and improve and gain some experience,” Wulff said during his weekly conference call. “It will help him and help our program down the road.”
laying hurt with a back injury, and former walk-on Dan Wagner has not been effective.
That leaves Levenseller, the son of longtime assistant coach Mike Levenseller.
The Cougars had hoped to redshirt him, but two weeks ago against Southern California they were shut out for the first time since 1984 as Lopina could do little more than hand off to ineffective running backs.
The Cougars (1-7, 0-5 Pac-10) had a bye last week after enduring the 69-0 loss at home to USC that was the worst defeat in program history. They play at Stanford (4-4, 3-2), then finish with games against Arizona, Arizona State, Washington and Hawaii.
J.T. stands for Jack Thomas, with the Jack in honor of former WSU quarterback Jack Thompson, Mike Levenseller’s teammate in college. J.T. is 6-foot-1 and 190 pounds. The 2007 graduate of Pullman High garnered numerous awards playing both offense and defense.
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