THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Plenty of what-ifs following the Idaho-WSU scrap

First game of the year, a lot of coaches’ plans wind up in the trash.

That’s the nature of football.

Saturday night was no different, as Idaho and Wazzu were tearing strips off each other amid trash talk, penalties, fumbles, blown assignments, screwed-up kicks and weird play calls.

There was a moment in that three-and-a-half hours of chaos, though, when Vandals coach Thomas Ford Jr. would have happily settled for one more mistake.

Yes, really.

Instead, Donovan Parham followed his training instead of taking a shot at glory.

A little selfishness from Parham might have reversed WSU’s 13-10 victory.

Consider the situation.

The Cougs were clinging to a 10-7 lead, ball on their own 23, just over two minutes to play, when … BOOM!

Idaho’s Matyus McLain knocked running back Angel Johnson into a different time zone.

The ball popped free.

Parham was first to it, with teammates all around him.

Picking up the football and jogging 10 yards for a TD looked like it would be pretty routine.

Parham, though, remembered what coaches preach every single day.

He fell on the ball for a safe, textbook recovery at the Wazzu 10-yard line.

WE CAN’T know, not exactly, how the final two minutes might have played out if Parham had taken that fumble to the end zone.

Assuming an extra point, Idaho would have up 14-10 with around two minutes left.

Instead, Idaho bulldozed from the 10-yard line to the 3 on two plays, pushing the Cougs backwards as the Vandals had done all night.

The odds looked good that the Vandals could get those 3 yards in two more plays, but the coaches chose a play-action pass on third down.

It fooled nobody (QB Joshua Wood was chased and had to throw the ball away), and thus the Vandals were left with a fourth-and-3.

Coach Ford Jr. took Cameron Pope’s chip shot field goal, leaving the game tied at 10-all — but giving Wazzu almost two full minutes to find a field goal of its own.

That’s the way it went down, too, with quarterback Jaxon Potter completing six straight throws to get the Cougs into range for Jack Stevens to win it.

Ironically, the only times the Cougs moved the ball efficiently all night came on two possessions when they went up-tempo and Potter could hit open receivers.

Wazzu’s second-quarter score came on a drive similar to its final one, and finished with Potter putting a perfect throw on the fingertips of a diving Josh Meredith at the edge of the end zone.

Coach Jimmy Rogers, calling the shots for the first time at WSU, seemed reluctant to turn Potter loose.

The Cougs’ running game was hopeless, too.

“It’s embarrassing to look at the numbers,” Rogers said. “It really is.”

True.

Wazzu finished with THREE yards on the ground despite only one sack.

YES, THE Cougs have a long and successful history of throwing the ball.

With thin depth and not enough studs to beat up teams at will, WSU has become a home for throwers and catchers over the years (see: QB Cam Ward, first pick in the NFL draft).

Rogers, however, really hopes to install a more balanced offense, with a running game to set up the pass.

That plan got shot to hell on Saturday.

“We’re a physical team,” Ford Jr. said. “We take pride in that, and our goal is stop you from running the ball.

“We did that against Washington State.

“We managed enough on our side to win the game (188 yards total rushing, 101 from Wood, the Fresno State transfer), but we need to clean up the passing.

“There were things available to us, but we made so many mistakes — penalties, blown assignments — that we really beat ourselves.”

So.

Where do these teams go from here?

Washington State has to toughen up, simple as that.

“You’ve got 75 new guys,” Rogers said, “and it can look bad at the beginning.

“But we do have talent, and it’s up to us to put things in place.

“And hey, when we had to make things happen, nobody panicked — we made the plays to win the football game against an Idaho team that I think will be really, really good.

“It’s a start.”

Indeed.

Both programs can say that, right?

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Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press three times each week, normally Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”