Washington State Football: Bill Moos Tempering Expectations for 2013, Should We?

Aug 30, 2012; Provo, UT, USA; A general view of the line of scrimmage during the second quarter of a game between the Washington State Cougars (left) and Brigham Young Cougars (right) at Lavell Edwards Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

It’s never an exact science predicting your season, especially just after Spring ball finished up, but we all do it. National media outlets, team streams, fans, players, coaches, even athletic directors, we all have expectations of our team. And so it was that Bill Moos spoke up on Monday about the Cougs’ situation and expectations in 2013.

"I don’t think I would forecast that we are assured of six wins this year,” Moos said. “We’ve got a tough schedule. We’ve got to open on the road at Auburn and then at USC, but we’ll be better. I don’t know if the scoreboard will show it. We’re setting the foundations for what I believe will be a very strong program. Year 3 is when I believe it will show."

Clearly, he’s trying to temper our almost assured expectation pump up as we go into the Summer and into the Fall. Remember last season the expectations of some were for as many as 9 wins, but obviously it’s not that easy to just go out and win football games. I think that’s the message that he’s trying to send. Saw this tweet this morning by CougHouse on the comments that Moos made:

It’s really not that big a deal and he did NOT say that the Cougars would suck this upcoming season. He simply said, they’ll be better but it’s not clear how much better. He does have a good point, when talking about the offensive line being a lot of former walk-ons (four of the five if the season started today and probably at least three once the season starts for sure) and the offense will still be starting a semi-experienced junior at quarterback. If you take the defensive improvement this Spring at face value, as we probably should being that we were still SO bad at times last season, then we’re right to temper.

While I truly believe we have a better-than-average shot of knocking off Auburn on the road to open the season and that we have a better-than-average chance against a freshman quarterback for USC in the coliseum, it’s a fact that the Cougs just haven’t been that good on the road to open seasons in recent memory. It’s going to take a valiant effort to beat Auburn and a repeated one to beat SC, but it can be done. Minnesota nearly beat the vaunted Trojans early last year in L.A. and USC is not the juggernaut that it once was under Pete Carroll. If we get either of those games I don’t think there’s any way we win less than four games and to be honest I think a bowl game is well within reach.

Don’t temper too much just yet, but let’s see what we look like in the Fall before making a final judgement on the team. Let’s be real though, every weekend we’re going to go into the game truly believing that we can and should win, if everything goes just right! To that point, keep the expectations high, we know Leach will!

Go Cougs!