Happy Hump Day, Cougs! See that monkey up there? That was me sitting in front of my computer trying to come up with a post. As I was thinking about what to post this week, I thought about re-visiting Saturday’s game, but I’m not there emotionally yet and it’s probably been hashed out ad nauseum at this point. By the time I’m capable of talking about it, everyone else will have moved on. Oh the perils of being an emotionally stunted sports fan. I was walking a buddy through my stages of Cougar loss grief the other day (anger, sadness, totally silence, bitter and snarky, trying to process events and regain optimism, normal functioning adult). I haven’t yet returned to being a normal functioning adult so I suppose it’s a good thing this is a bye week. I also considered some sort of “Where do we go from here?” riff, but I think I’m out of the sweeping prediction game, at least for a while. The only thing I’m willing to predict is that this team will be too inconsistent to predict anything. Since I couldn’t come up with a “legitimate” idea, I’m falling back on that old sportswriter trope of rolling out a bunch of quick hitters. Since I tend to ramble, I can’t promise they’ll be all that quick. Let’s go….
Cougfan reported that the outcome of Tuel’s X-Ray was positive and the timetable appears to be a cautiously optimistic 3-4 weeks, which would bring him back for either the UCLA or Stanford game. Jim Walden made some waves yesterday by adamantly declaring that if Tuel is not ready for UCLA he should redshirt. I think that’s crazy-talk. When the starting quarterback is healthy, he’ll play.
The new unis look great!
Having seen one game in person and one through a fairly sketchy online feed, I give the efforts of Nike two thumbs up so far. Speaking of unis, make sure you head over to WSUCougars.com to vote on what you think the boys should wear against Stanford. I voted for the Crimson helmet, gray top, gray pants combo, in case you’re wondering. I can’t imagine you were, but you know, just in case.
The Pac-16 is over before it started
News broke last night that the Pac 12 powers-that-be determined it was in the best interests of everyone involved to remain a twelve team conference. Reading between the tea leaves, it sounds like Texas wanted to join, but still be treated really special and were collectively told, “You’re no more special than Washington State” (or something to that effect). I’m not sure how I feel about all this. The most poignant thing I could come up about the potential Pac 16 is that it would have been cool. Admittedly, I was concerned about what it would mean for WSU to bring more powerhouses into the fold. At the end of the day, I’m happy with the Pac 12 arrangement and am perfectly fine seeing it stick together for a while longer. Surely we haven’t heard the last of this issue.
Crunching Some Numbers
Cougar Nation was openly hanging our hats on being the number one scoring team in the country last week. Unfortunately we’ve slipped to a still-respectable tied for sixth in scoring in scoring and tie for third in yards per game (tied with non other than the Oregon Ducks). Imagine how high we’d be if the Lobster hadn’t inexplicably forgotten which team he was supposed to get the ball to down the stretch! OK, that was a cheap shot. I’m still bitter. Sorry, Lobster. On the bright side, WSU is still atop the stat sheet elsewhere. Our very own Marquess Wilson is now the nation’s leading receiver. True sophomore, folks. True sophomore.
Relax, Husky fans
Giving up 51 points is not the fault of the officials. Sounds like Nick Holt and Coach Sarkisian are totally comfortable blaming the players though.
That’s all for this week. Enjoy doing whatever it is people enjoy doing when there is no Cougar football to obsess over on Saturday.
Go Cougs.
Since Sutra is doing it, you can also follow me on Twitter if you feel so inclined: twitter.com/huddlestron
Jeff Tuel is throwing a football!
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
