Washington State Football: Time to “Mike Leach” Up Against Cal

Sept. 22, 2012; Pullman, WA, USA; Washington State Cougars head coach Mike Leach walks the field before a game against the Colorado Buffaloes at Martin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: James Snook-US PRESSWIRE

Though the Washington State Cougars are in a hole with a 2-4 start, the fact is that it’s not as bad as it looks. The Cougs are 7 bad minutes from being 3-3 and there is definite and obvious progress from the beginning to now. Mike Leach claims youth as the main issue, spurned on by the inability to pull senior leadership from the right sources and you are seeing it at play every week. This week marks the beginning of the second half of the season and if we win this week we suddenly go back to a whole lot of optimism about the rest of the schedule. So what are we in for against our next opponent, the Cal Bears?

It’s not looking very pretty from the Cougars’ perspective, after the way last week played out, but fear not Coug faithful! The fact is that Cal is a worse than expected 2-4 squad who’s wins have come at home, and oh yeah they lost to Sac St. A nice, chilly trip to Pullman on a Saturday night is just what the doctor ordered for a WSU win. Remember ASU and Utah last year? The Cougs are going to play well again tomorrow night and hopefully they can find a way to actually win the ballgame.

What better way to start a second half rally than to beat Cal on “Mike Leach Bobblehead Night?” Leach has continued his preaching on mental toughness and this would be a great opportunity for his team to pull it out and show it. The atmosphere should be pretty solid (as it always is for Saturday nights in Pullman) and I think a few mistakes by the Golden Bears could send them into their own little shell. The Cougars have to continue to grow on defense though, they cannot regress there. The Bears are potentially more explosive than OSU was last week, so we have to take care of gaps and really not let anything over the top, where superstar Keenan Allen loves to head. Also, of course, we have to tackle and the offense has to show up in a big way to get this done. As down as I was about this game coming out of last Saturday, I am really starting to feel good about this game.

Go Cougs!