PULLMAN, Wash. - It may have been senior day for Washington State quarterback Matt Kegel and 18 of his teammates, but freshman Josh Swogger stole the spotlight from his elders.
With WSU and ASU tied at 10 in the second quarter, Swogger replaced a banged-up Kegel and looked more like a seasoned upperclassman than a redshirt freshman. He completed 14 of his 20 pass attempts without throwing an interception and led a WSU charge that saw the Cougars outscore ASU 24-9 for the rest of the game.
"I felt pretty cool and calm out there," Swogger said. "I prepared pretty hard, probably harder than I have all year."
Kegel had been aching with shoulder and knee injuries for a couple of weeks and was replaced by Swogger last week against UCLA, as well. Against the Bruins, Swogger went 5-of-16 for 82 yards and two interceptions.
"I felt a lot more comfortable today than last week," Swogger said. "The experience and reps in past games are really helping me right now."
Kegel's status heading into this week was doubtful, and Swogger took most of the snaps during practice. Since it was his last game in front of the home crowd, Kegel made the choice to start despite the injuries.
"I wanted to go out and see if there were any miracles that happened through the night," he said.
Unfortunately there weren't any miracles for Kegel, and his shoulder injury became too much to handle.
"I think a quarterback needs to be very confident in himself and in his arm, and I wasn't," Kegel said.
After WSU (9-2, 6-1 Pac-10) took the lead in the second quarter following a defensive touchdown, Swogger hooked up with junior receiver Devard Darling for a 22-yard score with a little more than a minute left in the first half. The touchdown gave the Cougars a two-touchdown lead and turned out to be the game winner.
Darling said he was impressed with Swogger's poise.
"Swogger is a cool guy," Darling said. "He's always a cool guy. He's going to be a good one."
While the strike to Darling was Swogger's only touchdown of the game, it wasn't necessarily his biggest completion.
With the Sun Devils (4-7, 1-6 Pac-10) still hanging with WSU at 27-19 in the fourth quarter, Swogger and his team inherited the ball with 9:20 left in the game. On a third-and-7 play at the WSU 36, Swogger hit senior receiver Scott Lunde over the middle for a 24-yard gain to sustain the drive.
Just a few minutes later on another third down at the ASU 40, Swogger again found Lunde over the middle for 19 more yards.
"I just dropped back and hit Scott on both plays," Swogger said.
Cougar running back Jermaine Green eventually capped the drive with a 15-yard touchdown scamper and put the game out of reach.
WSU faces the rival Washington Huskies this week. While Swogger led the Cougars to win over ASU, both quarterbacks acknowledged that Kegel is still the man to lead the offense.
"I'm assuming he'll play," Swogger said.
Kegel said assumptions aren't necessary.
"I'm playing," he said.
Reach the reporter at andrew.bernick@asu.edu.
