Four Things We Should Know by Now

Hello Followers. Hope you all had a great weekend.

Well, as the header for today’s post indicates, there are four things that we all should have learned from the first three quarters of the 2010 Cougar football season:

1) Oregon is the best Pac-10 team we’ve seen since Reggie and Matty boy were giving the Trojan band a real reason to play Conquest for 3.5 hours straight each Saturday.

2) Washington is the greatest disappointment in the Pac-10, if not nationally.

3) Every time I pick the Cougs to lose a close game we get absolutely lit up (see ASU and Clay Bennett State Football Friday picks).

And the fourth is…

(read on)

Followers, if this season has been anything, it’s been a real roller coaster. At the beginning of the year, we all thought we’d be competitive this year. Sadly, by the end of the SC game, it seemed like the blowouts would never, ever stop.

Then, in middle half of the season, we made a turn for the better: We put forth four straight spirited, if not competitive, performances against teams that were all on a roll at the time we played them.

And then this past weekend happened.
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Followers, since last spring, yours truly has been calling for Wulff to be extended into his fifth year. The reasons for this posture have been well documented here, so I won’t re-hash them. But, as I’ve said here before, there has already been enough evidence to retain CPW if that was something that Moos and company truly wanted to do.

In short, with 3/4 of the season already in the bag, we all know the strengths and limitations of this program (as well as its intended directions). Clearly, CPW has been able to recruit solid Pac-10 athletes into the program. Clearly, we have talent at the skill positions that rivals just about anyone in the Conference when youth and experience are controlled. And clearly, our development and progress on defense is something that will only be determined after our boys have another off-season to learn, mature, and, within, get a heck of a lot stronger.

And so, when you look at our strengths and limitations, it is pretty easy to see that NOTHING about our team is likely to change between now and the start of next season. And so, in light of that obvious fact, Bill Moos’ decision to wait until the end of the season to determine the fate of CWP is even more curious. I mean, if he is truly in favor of retaining CPW, then what the hell is he waiting for?

After all, the benefits of communicating institutional stability and commitment to incoming recruits should far outweigh Moos’ long-standing principle of “waiting until the end of the year” until evaluating his coaches. In other words, if he really wanted to retain CPW, wouldn’t he just do it? Wouldn’t the benefits of retaining him (if he truly wanted to) far outweigh the costs?

As a consequence, Moos’ continued defacto silence about CPW can mean only ONE THING: He’s looking for changes in the win column as THE MEASURE for determining whether to retain Coach Paul Wulff.

Which brings me to fourth and final “what we should all know by now:”

4) Paul Wulff’s tenure at WSU depends on whether or not we win this weekend.

Cuz lets face it folks, a win in the Apple Cup wasn’t enough to save Grandpa Bill Doba. And the fact that we have beaten NO ONE in the Pac-10 besides an 0-12 Washington team over the past three years makes me think that winning this year’s Apple Cup would not change CPW’s fortunes–especially if the UW limps into Pullman at 3-8.

But, this weekend’s game against CAL appears to represent an awfully instrumental measuring stick for CPW–assuming that wins and losses are the primary criteria for deciding Wulff’s future. After all, CAL will likely be without their starting quarterback. What’s more, they have been absolutely ATROCIOUS on the road.

On top of that, a win this weekend would show Moos that CPW is able to help our kids rebound from week-to-week embarrassments that happen during a football season. And, as we saw with Washington this past weekend, the ability to rebound from bad games is frequently the decider between becoming bowl eligible and staying in the bottom tier of the conference.

So, whether we like it or not, its really come down to a “win this weekend or else” scenario for CPW and his staff. While winning this weekend may still not ensure CPWs job (we may also need to beat UW), a loss this weekend portends to be the final nail in CPW’s coffin–even if the official funeral comes on December 6th.

Mind you, I am really rooting for Wulff to help this team get it done this week. But irrespective of your opinion on Wulff, it sure appears that if any singular game should be used as a measuring stick for evaluating a program’s true ability to win, this is the one.

All for now. Go Cougs.