Washington State vs Colorado State Gildan New Mexico Bowl: GAMEDAY HUDDLE!

Doth my senses betwixt me? Is it really game day on December 21st forth mine Cougs!? HUZZAH!

Or rather…

WAZZU!

Why the old school verbiage? I don’t know man, it’s 5:30 a.m., game day on the Palouse and sweet gumdrops I don’t know what to do with myself! I remember on the bus ride down to the Sun Bowl about oh a little over a decade ago thinking “this team ain’t goin’ nowhere!”

Of course it was easy to think that Washington State was finally taking over the Pac-10 for good. Then came the Rose Bowl (the second in five years), then came the Holiday Bowl in the midst of 30 wins in just a three year stretch… There was no way we saw (or had any reason to suspect) the decade of darkness and misery that would lay ahead. 1-11, 3 seasons of being outscored by and avg of 3 touchdowns, even a great season that was derailed by… you guessed it (or simply painfully remember it), a losing streak to keep the Cougs out of a bowl game.

Maybe the selection committee knew something. While we thought that perhaps that was the end of a 3 year drought, WSU had some deep, deep problems. Other than that 2006 season, the Cougars have not been anything you could even justify as being competitive. Every single game, 10 seasons. Watched them all. Many more bad weekends than good, walking around constantly depressed and dejected after yet another game. All I knew was to love and care for my Cougs, but god if it didn’t hurt to do it.

We were numbingly and sickeningly terrible. I imagine every Cougar felt as I did. Good lord we were SO BAD that our fan base tried to justify keeping a coach after his 4th season of tremendously suck-tastic football, because the Cougs were “headed in the right direction.” 4-8 was acceptable after season number four, because we had been so awful. Thank you Bill Moos for a bigger vision here, a better plan than most of us had for this great University! Not even Mike Leach in year 1 could change the deep-rooted problems of Washington State football, I had been in denial along with the rest of you and it was hard to swallow.

All that ends today, after a season of resurrection on the Palouse. A chance to go 7-6 in a game with a favorable match up and a post-season game we should win! Doesn’t matter who we play, if you’d have said that this would be the case (regardless of the bowl game) before the season, can you imagine the side-busting laughter you would have been greeted with? Complete trust in the coaching staff and athletic administration. A sexy, practically brand new stadium finishing up “Phase-Who-Cares-We’re-In-A-Bowl!”  Ok we all care, cause it’s beautiful (drove by it the other day and it’s gorgeous and still finishing up) but you understand, finally we’re not talking about the stadium in December, we’re actually talking about the football team! Cause we can!

Anyways, you can feel my excitement. By the way, saw this yesterday (http://sportspressnw.com/2173626/2013/cougs-fans-not-buying-in-for-1st-bowl-in-decade). Everything in that article sums up why I have always hated Stallwick (and Grummert) pieces. I realize H.S. may get a few reads out of this but it’s all to avoid future interest in their ridiculous, convoluted conversations. Always the negativity with them. Dawg much? Oh wait, the Cougs had still out-sold UW (who had the MUCH better draw to San Francisco and 6,000 more ticket allotment) at the time of this silly press release, even with a short turnaround and a horribly expensive travel package and quite honestly tough location from the Northwest area. PEOPLE HAVE JOBS AND RESPONSIBILITIES HOWIE!

Let’s get a win and just keep crushing the exceedingly low expectations of the general media and outside fan bases. USC laughed, Idaho taunted (then pouted), Cal circled us as their only win, Arizona made fun of us, and even Utah said “yeah right”. Yet here we are, loud, proud and ready to prove something in this, the first bowl game of the holiday season!

GO COUGS! ON TO A WINNING SEASON!