Hope is defined as the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best. For me, hope is represented by the opening of fall camp for the Washington State football team. Over the course of 29 practices every August, I slowly convince myself that things are looking up, that this is the year. This fall, my hopes for Cougar Football Saturdays are high, but not in a typical way. I hope that this is the year that the laughingstock label is shed. As I’ve mentioned, the last two years were abysmal ones for my alma mater’s intercollegiate football team. To go into this year with hope of a Pac 10 championship would be completely unreasonable. That is not to say I do not want a Pac 10 championship. It’s just that I don’t have a feeling that it can be had. Not this year. Hopes that high need to be tempered a little while longer. I’ll reserve such visions of grandeur for the biggest dreamers in the Cougar nation. What I want for the 2010 season is to see some signs that the Cougs are ready to compete with the rest of the conference. I want to see that the days of 70-0 losses are now over. I want to see that Coach Paul Wulff’s insistence that the program is moving in the right direction is not just the rhetoric of a man trying to make fans feel better. I want to see the young talent that has been quietly accumulating come of age. I believe that the things that I want can be had. By definition, I am hopeful.
Of course, I have concerns that my belief is misplaced. Every football expert, fan or anyone else who is not a Washington State employee or fan seems to be in agreement that 2010 will be a repeat of the last two seasons and bring the Paul Wulff era to an ignominious end. I’ve had my hopes up before, only to realize that reading 29 consecutive practice reports written by people whose purpose is to get Cougar fans excited can be misleading. I fancy myself a pragmatist and think I can look at the team pretty rationally and decide whether or not they are going to be any good. Going into last season, I couldn’t convince myself that things were going to be anything but bleak. This year feels different. There is a palpable optimism surrounding the team that feels legitimate. The hard part is convincing anyone who does not closely follow the Cougs to believe it. That’s where I come in. I’ve got 9 reasons why the days of the Washington State football team being a punchline are over. Why 9? I have no idea.
1. The riff-raff is gone. Following the best stretch in WSU’s history from 2001-2003, the coaching staff in place at the time started setting their recruiting heights a little higher. By som accounts, certain members of the staff stopped recruiting altogether. Unfortunately, three straight 10 win seasons does not mean that elite recruits suddenly want to come to your school. The Cougs couldn’t land the best prospects and eschewed their successful “Diamond in the Rough” philosophy for talented kids with character red flags. As kids with character red flags are wont to do, a number of them ran afoul of the law or failed to stay academically eligible. The washout rates for the classes following the 2003 season were staggering. Players that should have been the backbone of the ’08 and ’09 seasons were long gone, leaving the fate of the program to a bunch of youngsters who had no business being in that position. Coach Wulff has seemingly cleaned things up and is building the program around a foundation of good young leaders who want to spearhead a turnaround.
2. Depth is starting to build. By the end of the 2009 season, there were barely enough scholarship players available to field a defense. From my seat in Husky Stadium at the Apple Cup, it looked like we brought a third the number of players that the Huskies had. Surely the temptation was there to burn the redshirts of several freshmen, but the season was a lost cause from the start so the prudent move was to wait. While I’ve never been accused of being the biggest Paul Wulff supporter, I do give him credit for his fanatical persistence in trying to build a program for the long term. It will start to pay off this season.
3. Brandon Rankin. I already love this guy. A lot. Mr. Rankin recently changed his jersey number to 5. One of my favorite Wazzu athletes of all time, Mike Bush, wore number 5. Guess who just got a number 5 jersey. I’ll give you a hint. He has two thumbs and writes a blog. That’s right, this guy!
4. There is no way the injuries can pile up again like they did last year (knock on wood). It seemed as though anytime someone showed that they were a bona fide Pac 10 caliber player, they were lost to a major injury. LeAndre Daniels and Daniel Simmons both looked terrific at times last year. Both broke their legs. James Montgomery rushed for over 100 yards in a game and nearly had his leg amputated just over a week later (seriously). Quarterback Jeff Tuel had to be shut down not long after throwing for 354 yards against Cal. All are back and expected to contribute significantly this season. Update: LeAndre Daniels suffered a career ending neck injury during camp. That really does not bode well for prediction number 4. Let’s move on before I jinx things further.
5. Bill Moos. WSU’s new athletic director was at the helm when, much to my dad’s delight and my chagrin, Oregon turned into a perennial football powerhouse. He knows exactly what it takes to run a successful program and more importantly, being a WSU alumnus, he knows exactly what it takes to succeed in Pullman. He won’t have the benefit of being bankrolled by Phil Knight anymore, but I’m still confident that Cougar athletics are in more than capable hands.
6. Tuel Time! There is no doubt that the 2010 Cougs are Jeff Tuel’s team. An offseason as “The Guy” combined with the experience from last year should help. If last year’s Cal and USC games are any indication, Tuel has all the tools necessary to be a competent Pac-10 quarterback. Also, he’s just a sophomore. By the time he’s a senior, he figures to have 20-plus starts under his belt. Watch out for WSU in 2012!
7. “Roses”. In a story about offseason workouts, it came to light that the team was ending every session with a breakdown in which they shouted “Roses” in unison. I love this. Obviously, the Rose Bowl is not in the cards this year, but a group of second year players (Tuel, Nolan Washington and Gino Simone in particular) have taken leadership roles and made it their mission to make a New Year’s trip during their time in Pullman.
8. Larry Scott, Pac 10(12) Commissioner. The new commish has taken over and basically taken everything that the outgoing Tom Hansen had done (or more appropriately not done) and turned it on its ear. The goal is to generate as much revenue as possible for the conference and its members. The fact that all the other teams in the conference are also going to have more revenue would seemingly negate any advantage that Wazzu would derive newfound spending money. However, an increase from a roughly $20 million budget to a $50 million is far more significant than increasing from $80 to $100 million. This makes sense, I’m almost sure of it.
9. I’ve seen this story before and I know how it ends. The 1998 and ’99 football seasons were awful – not quite an ’08-’09 level of awful, but still awful. They came on the heels of a very successful era of Cougar football and raised concerns that the Cougs would drop right off the relevance map. In 2000, though, a young Cougar team led by a promising QB started turning a corner. The win-loss record didn’t reflect it yet, but games were much more competitive and there was suddenly an optimism surrounding the program. Over the next three seasons, the Cougs won 10 games each year, including a Rose Bowl trip and a bowl win over Texas. I’m not saying the current bunch will reach such lofty heights, but my gut feeling is that the 2010 season will have a strong resemblance to the 2000 one. It may or may not not translate to wins this year, but the Washington State football team won’t get kicked around anymore. I hope.
Go Cougs!
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