Preview: Cougars heavily favored over Wyoming, look to build on last week’s win

Jim Moore writes that last week's come-from-behind win over Rutgers could be the turning for WSU. (AP)

Quite honestly, if you’re looking for a breakdown of key players and storylines in Saturday’s Wyoming vs. Washington State game, you should go to CougFan.com, CougCenter.com, Spokesman.com, and I’m guessing the Laramie newspaper website has a good take from the Cowboys’ perspective.

This post at 710Sports.com is Cougar Light compared to those other sites – I’m just going to throw out a few thoughts on the state of our football program and see if you agree or not.

I think we can agree on one thing, if nothing else – Washington State’s 37-34 win over Rutgers last Saturday was one of the most exciting Cougar games we’ve seen in a long time, maybe since the 18-point comeback in the 2012 Apple Cup.

The last-minute win over Rutgers could be a turning point in the season. When we look back, it might be the difference in going to a bowl game or staying home for the holidays.

I like to think that will be the case. We should be 2-1 after the Wyoming game since oddsmakers favor the Cougars by 24 points. Then again, we were favored by 28 to beat Portland State. But still, Wyoming’s terrible, though the Cowboys should get a boost from the return of their starting quarterback, who was hurt in the first game against North Dakota.

After that, when you look at the nine games left on our schedule, we’ll need to scrape out four more wins to get to a bowl game. We have the good fortune of playing the Pac-12’s two most beatable teams – Oregon State and Colorado – at home.

And maybe we’ll beat Stanford at home or Cal on the road and enter the Apple Cup with a shot at a sixth win.

That’s not wishful thinking, it’s really, really wishful thinking. If a Husky were writing this post, he would tell us something like this:

“OK, that was a nice win over Rutgers, I’ll give you that. But you guys still suck. You almost Couged it, allowing that punt return for a touchdown with a minute and a half to go. Whattaya gonna do now, fire another special teams coach? Your special teams aren’t awful, they’re GAWD-awful.

“And don’t kid yourselves. There’s not enough Fireball in Pullman to get me to think you guys are any better than you were last year during that epic 3-9 season. Rutgers had four starters suspended from its secondary. Think Luke Falk would’ve had that kind of success against players who knew what they were doing out there?

“You beat a Rutgers team that’s not very good even at full strength. And their program’s in disarray with the coach just getting suspended for three games.

“Yet some of you Cougs think you’ve turned your season around with a win over that sorry outfit. Sure, you’ll beat Wyoming, but then you go to Cal and Oregon to get your doors blown off and show your true crimson-and-gray colors again.

“Can’t you morons see that Mike Leach is never going to lead you to the promised land? And the promised land for you suckers is the John Deere Bowl. Some rock-star coach he’s turned out to be – 13-26! Couldn’t you have been 13-26 with Paul Wulff at one-fourth the price?

“Don’t kid yourselves, little brother. You’re going 3-9 again, just like you did in 2014, just like you did in 2012. And you used to give us crap for Seven-Win Sark! You guys’d kill for seven wins!”

Worst case, the obnoxious Husky (redundant) might be right — we could go 3-9 again. Best case, 6-6. Give me one or the other. I say that because I don’t want anything in between. If we’re 6-6, there’s hope for the present AND the future with Leach. If we’re 3-9 or worse, we’ll have to make a coaching change if we can find the money to buy out Leach.

If we’re 4-8 or 5-7, I won’t know what to think. I suppose there will be enough glimpses of goodness to stick with a coach who could be 16-33 after four years.

I spend too much time thinking about this stuff. Short-term, looking at Saturday’s game, let’s enjoy the blowout of Wyoming before it gets more interesting in Pac-12 play.

Line: WSU by 24
Prediction: Cougars 45, Cowboys 17
Season record against the spread: 1-1

The Go 2 Guy also writes for SeattlePI.com and KitsapSun.com. You can reach Jim at jimmoorethego2guy@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @cougsgo.