The pundits think it’s going to be another long season on the Palouse.
Paul Wulff’s Washington State Cougars were picked to finish dead last in the Pac-10 preseason media poll, which was released today. This comes one day after the Idaho Vandals were picked last and next to last in the WAC preseson coaches’ and media polls, respectively.
Even the most diehard Coug fan shouldn’t be surprised by this. After last year’s horrific season, and an offseason that was nearly as bad, you had to figure WSU would be looking up at the rest of the Pac-10.
They received 35 points in the poll, which is only three above the minimum. By comparison, the Huskies were picked to finish ninth, and they received 74 votes.
Now, it’s no secret that I’m a WSU alum. But I’m also a realist. And I think four wins is about all the Cougs can hope for this season. They start the season with three homes against Stanford, Hawaii (in Seattle) and Southern Methodist. If they’re 2-1 after the SMU game, they might have enough confidence built up to surprise some teams down the line.
But really, after those first three games, it’s hard to find many winnable contests on the schedule, outside of the home games against Arizona State (Oct. 10) and UCLA (Nov. 14) and visit to Husky Stadium for the Apple Cup (Nov. 28).
But I give you my promise that this year’s Cougs will be far more competitive than last year’s team. You won’t see scores of 69-0 and 66-3 (except maybe at USC). The talent level is far greater than in 2008, when they were forced to throw several young players to the wolves, because of injuries and redshirts. Players now say they’ve fully bought into Wulff’s program and are a much tighter knit group going into 2009.
Unfortunately, this season will be mostly about building towards the future. If the Cougs can finish with between three and five wins, they could find themselves in a position to get back to a bowl game in 2010.
And if that’s the case, they definitely won’t be picked to finish last again.
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