WSU Football: Over-hyping the Cougs or underestimating the Pac-12?

Oct 31, 2013; Pullman, WA, USA; Arizona State Sun Devils quarterback Taylor Kelly (10) is pursued by Washington State Cougars linebacker Tana Pritchard (33) on a 6-yard touchdown run in the first quarter at Martin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Here at All Coug’d Up we’ve definitely been all about positivity towards the Cougar football team, we think rightfully so. There comes a point though, after three straight blowout losses, that the hot-air balloon begins to deflate and you feel like you’re crashing down from high in the sky with your team.

So the questions have been building in my mind, as I’m sure they are in everyone else’s (well, for those who haven’t totally given up on the season as some of our fans have). One question stands out to me more than the rest; have we been too ambitious (maybe way too ambitious) in our praise and expectations? In other words, are we over-hyping our team, or is the rest of the conference better than we originally believed?

Trying to answer that question only breeds certain uncertainty. Watching the past three games, I feel like it’s a bit of both. Obviously Washington State isn’t as good as we believe they can be, or perhaps were. Then again, we still haven’t lost to a team that wasn’t in a bowl last season and wasn’t ranked at some point this season. The conference is dang good, that’s a fact.

So basically the answer to this point is that we’ve underestimated the quality, especially at the top half of the Pac-12 and Washington State simply isn’t there yet. After last night the victory over USC (while huge for the program at the time), may be a forbidden fantasy in our own minds.

Like that kinda cute girl (let’s call her Kali, it brings back good memories… (no you perv, football memories… I’ll explain in a moment)) that you got with in high school for a bit then dumped because the “hot” girl (let’s call her Amanda, we all knew a hot Amanda) was suddenly available. Well, Amanda never ended up knowing your name or giving you the time of day. Kali is now the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen and wow, those new facebook photos! But you blew that already, dummy.

Where am I going? I don’t know, but that’s Washington State to me. USC was Kali (you get it now?), the rest of the conference to this point has been Amanda (except for the actual Cali, who was just terrible and ugly). Anyways to get back on track the Cougs definitely beat the Trojans but after watching the last two nights of Pac-12 football I think it’s pretty clear that was all too long ago, if they played right now USC would romp.

Listen, there are a ton of positives within the program right now. This season still has a chance to be pretty special in the grand scheme and still I go back to the fact that most all of us expected a bowl hope to come down to the final two weeks against Utah and/or Washington at the beginning of this whole thing. But after three straight stinkers it’s up to the WSU team to win us back as a fan base.

That’s just how things go when you get repeatedly pounded like a piñata.

Arizona and Utah are most definitely in the bottom half of the conference, while Washington teeters on the brink of being either really good or not good at all, probably all the way to the Apple Cup for the umpteenth year in a row. Then again, we’ve underestimated these teams before, and maybe our Cougs really aren’t that good. They haven’t really proven otherwise in awhile.

There’s still time. Help us believe again Wazzu football!

Go Cougs!