USA Today Previews Washington State Football at Preseason No. 61

USA Today sports writer Paul Myerberg continued his countdown to college football season five days ago with the Washington State Cougars preseason preview.

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He ranks the Cougs at No. 61, right in the middle of the college football world for the upcoming 2014 season. Myerberg has some really intelligent things to say about WSU, pegging every position with precision according to most of what we’ve heard about the Cougar offense and defense this offseason. He seems to be enamored with the receiving corps, saying in no uncertain terms that they are the best group in the conference this season.

"The receiver corps is positively loaded. Meet the best unit in the Pac-12: WSU’s depth is a joke, I’d say, and the joke might be on conference and non-conference foes without the secondary depth needed to handle wave after wave of capable targets. While a ton of receivers are going to play, you can pinpoint a top group in Gabe Marks (74 receptions for 807 yards), Vince Mayle (42 for 539), River Cracraft (46 for 614) and Dom Williams (40 for 647). But then you add Rickey Galvin, Isiah Myers, Kristoff Williams, Brett Bartolone and true freshman Calvin Green – the latter a major story during spring drills – and things just start to get silly. Only Mike Leach could find a way to get nine-plus receivers ample touches. He’ll do just that, with perhaps no one receiver cracking the 1,000-yard mark but at least five notching 500 yards. It’s ridiculous."

His major concern, of course, is in the defensive secondary and he has every right to be concerned as does every Cougar fan looking forward. It should be an interesting ride from game to game back there unless one of the freshmen can step in and steady the position. We will talk about freshmen at each position that could have an impact this season in the near future.

For now though, we’ll look forward to some other major publications coming out with their preseason rankings and thoughts on Leach, year 3. This is probably going to be a pretty good barometer for future publications though.