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Some teams run Student Body Left.

Washington State ran to the student body, looking for help.

The Cougars held open tryouts Monday for students to become the team's next scout team quarterback.

Twenty-nine students ran plays and drills, while about 200 fans watched from afar. The team selected Peter Roberts, a former three-year letter winner at Woodinville (Wash.) High School.

"We had a lot of fun with it," said Paul Wulff, whose team is 1-5 overall. "And we can use a little of that right now."

The move came from desperation. Because of injuries, the Cougars are starting their third-string quarterback. The fourth- and fifth-stringers must now practice with the offense, leaving a vacancy for the scout team.

Washington State isn't the only Pac-10 team with quarterback injury woes. In fact, quarterback health seems to be separating the conference's haves from have-nots:

● UCLA lost its top two quarterbacks, Patrick Cowan and Ben Olson, before the season began. Kevin Craft, the third-stringer, has started every game.

● Oregon has played four quarterbacks — and that's not counting Nate Costa, who was slated to begin the season as the starter before being injured in the fall.

● Washington lost starter Jake Locker to right thumb surgery.

The best matchup of this week — Arizona State at USC — also will be marred by QB injuries.

ASU senior Rudy Carpenter, who injured the back of his left ankle Saturday against Cal, is still wearing a walking boot and did not practice Tuesday.

"We'll just see how he is on Wednesday and Thursday," coach Dennis Erickson said.

USC junior Mark Sanchez bruised a bone in his left knee against Oregon, and might not play, either.

"We assume Mark's going to play, and that's how we prepare," Erickson said. "I assume they're going to do the same thing."

UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel said the spate of injuries is because quarterbacks "are an exposed entity," in part because of spread offenses.

"There's no question it's having a huge impact," Neuheisel said. "Teams are having to, not so much change who they are, but certainly eliminate a lot of their inventory on offense — just because the guy who goes in next doesn't have the benefit of all the reps of the guy you just lost.

"When it goes to the next guy, you have to do an even further deletion of inventory. So you become a little bit more easy to book, as we say, in terms of what you're anticipating the offense doing.

"Those things play heavily into games. It's very, very important that offensive coaching staffs get creative —and get creative fast."

Washington coach Tyrone Willingham said he tries to tell his third-string quarterback to learn schemes without actually playing, which is a tall task. But coaches, he said, are limited in how many snaps they can give to players who aren't likely to play.

"That's very difficult to do, because of how you allocate your practice time," he said. "It becomes kind of difficult in the college system to get the snaps it takes to be ready."