What To Watch For

“Not unlike Rockell, everyone will be watching the Cougs tomorrow”

Good afternoon and Happy Hump Day, Cougs! I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but there is a real life Cougar football game TOMORROW!!! In case you missed it in the comments yesterday morning, my thoughts on the game are basically as follows: oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy…..I think you get the idea. I’m excited. That said, I’m also on the record as saying that I think we’re going to lose to BYU tomorrow. That doesn’t diminish my excitement for the game any. I’m just excited that the game exists. As long as it doesn’t turn into an immediate bed pooping, I’ll probably be cool with it. What exactly am I hoping to see, though? There’s only one way to find out, my friends. The Daddy Mack will make you jump…

Even though I tried last week, the prognostication game is tough business. It’s tough to figure out how an entire season will play out and it’s just as difficult to try to guess how an individual game is going to go. This hasn’t stopped virtually every football broadcast from throwing out keys to the game. They seem really important in the beginning, then a few dozen different things happen and suddenly they don’t matter anymore. My key to winning tomorrow is pretty straightforward: score more points than BYU. Rather than try to figure out what Wazzu needs to do to leave Provo with a W, I’m just going to focus on what I’d like to see tomorrow night. In no particular order, here’s my wish list…

Competent Special Teams

Mike Bowlin doesn’t have to put every kickoff in the endzone or every punt (you know, on the off chance we punt) inside the 10 to make me happy. I just don’t want any breakdowns. Spectacular special teams play can come later, but for now I’ll take “not throwing up on ourselves”. We can all probably agree to some extent that our defense will take some lumps. The BYU offense doesn’t need a head start from the 40 yard line when they get the ball. 

Attack!

I touched on this in Sunday night’s podcast, but I’ll restate it here if for some bizarre reason you haven’t taken the time to check out the golden pipes of the Blogfathers. If the WSU defense is going to go down, it’d better go down swinging. From what we’ve heard from Coaches Breske and Leach, the plan won’t be to let the opposing offense dictate the game. There’s almost a certain resignation to the fact that we’ll be at risk for plays that Leach refers to as “explosives”. As strange as it is to say it, I don’t mind. Turn the kids lose, let them be aggressive and find out if they’re good enough to make plays. There will be mistakes, sure, but if nothing else the Hair Raid Defense has enough athletes to where plays will be made. They won’t be made if we’re dropping back letting the game play out in front of us. You can read all about this theory in my upcoming book, “Things Chris Ball Taught Me About Defense”.

The Gabe Marks Show

It’s a huge difference to go from Fall Camp Wunderkind to a productive player with the lights on and the tv cameras rolling on Saturdays (or whatever day you happen to play nowadays), especially as a true freshman. I don’t want to get out of control with expectations on Marks, but I think that ship has already sailed. The last time I remember this much hype over a single player in a camp, some dude called The Ghost went bonkos. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what Gabe Marks can do.

Can We Run….Like, At All?

I almost went about this section asking if we’ll even see any attempt at a running game. I assume we’ll give it a try, but I’m legitimately curious if it will amount to anything. If it doesn’t, does that really matter too much? If the running attack consists of intermittent 1 or 2 yard gains just for the sake of doing them, will it just get scrapped? I have a troubling suspicion that we won’t be capable of much more than that. 

Tuel Time

Please play well, Jeff. I don’t want to deal with QB1 looking over his shoulder and people clamoring for Halliday. That would be bad times. Also, don’t break your collarbone, Jeff. Thanks.

Specific Players I Especially Look Forward to Watching (Non Tuel and Marks Division)

My Main Man, Ian (Ioane Guata), Daryl Monroe, Andrei Lintz, Gino Simone (Come on, dude. I believe in you.), Eric Oertel, Taylor Taliulu, RG5, basically any true freshman who will play; I like shiny new things.

Seriously, Guys. No Bed Pooping

My heart won’t be able to take it if disaster strikes within the first few minutes of this game. Of the many troubling trends of the immediate past, that has been the most troubling. If it’s not behind us, whichever Bridgeport beer I’m drinking will have a dash of salt from the tears. Win or lose, this game ought to be competitive. If it isn’t, it’ll be a very troubling sign.

@Huddlestron

If you like reading snarky comments in 140 characters or less during football games, follow me on Twitter. I promise it will be worth the price of admission.

Go Cougs.