WSU Cougars vs Utah Utes: Regaining the SWAG of Martin Stadium

Nov. 10, 2012; Pullman, WA, USA; Washington State Cougars mascot Butch celebrates a touchdown against the UCLA Bruins during the second half at Martin Stadium. UCLA won 44-36. Mandatory Credit: James Snook-USA TODAY Sports

Through many spirited conversations this week amongst the All Coug’d Up team I’ve been getting more and more excited about what this week means to the Cougars. But it was yesterday when Barry Bolton at Cougfan got me straight FIRED UP with his call to action for the Coug faithful and I can’t help but piggyback on his article just for a minute or so of your time.

First of all, as we know, these days don’t come around often and they don’t come around for everyone. I think with bowls being so many these days sometimes it’s tough to take appreciation in the achievement of making an invite. It’s not really until you have to suffer through a ridiculously long drought of complete and total irrelevance that you learn to appreciate just how tough it is to win a mere six games, just to get bowl eligible.

Washington State fans are there. Do you realize we haven’t been to a postseason  in 117 football games? That’s just amazing. And as upset as a couple of Cougs were about the Wulff firing (at the time), this is the only place in the conference that has the patience to allow two coaches to keep us down that long. Colorado is a prime example.

This isn’t some small opportunity we are facing here, this is Cougar football returning to the map! Washington State went to two Rose Bowls in five seasons! There aren’t many schools that can say they’ve done that in this conference. Oregon and Stanford can tell you how difficult it is to get to a Rose Bowl in the Pac-12.

We may not be playing for a Rose Bowl this year, but there will be a couple of recruits at the game that need to see a fan base and a team that’s on their way back to it with a few more pieces. Martin Stadium’s intimate setting allows for noise not available at several other stadiums in the conference. In fact in terms of “home field advantage” we should be up there with Oregon, Washington and Utah, and I think we all know that they’ve won some games simply based on that advantage.

Our team needs to get that advantage, even if it’s only worth a single point on the game. That’s how our team will get the SWAG back to this program! Let’s get it as packed as we can and have some fun helping our team get back to being the best they can be at home!

Go Cougs!