Time to act posthaste
Washington State came into this 2004 season with plenty of unresolved questions, no surprise considering how many starters had moved on from a 2003 team that won 10 games and beat a top-5 team in the Holiday Bowl.
The Cougars’ concerns this year had to do largely with inexperience — seven new starters on offense and nine on defense. If WSU was to repeat the success of the year before, the new insertions to the lineup would have to play beyond their years in a hurry. Simply put, WSU is still waiting.
“They’re a young football team,” was the first thing UCLA head coach Karl Dorrell said when asked this week about the Cougars. “They had some experience leave after last season.”
Now this young football team, struggling at 3-5 after dropping all four games in October, needs to grow up in a hurry if it is to squeak into a bowl game.
The Cougars face, essentially, three elimination games in the next three weeks. Lose one, and the team is guaranteed a losing record on the season and therefore no bowl game. The first test comes at 12:30 p.m. today in Pasadena, Calif., against Dorrell’s Bruins, a team that has gone in the other direction, pitching a shutout last week against Stanford to move to 5-3 on the year.
After that, it’s another road trip to Arizona State, followed by the Apple Cup.
But while WSU knows that it needs all three games, the more immediate struggle is figuring out how to win one against a Bruins team that is one win away from bowl eligibility.
“We have to play better,” WSU coach Bill Doba said, echoing a common sentiment from the last month. “They’ve got three losses, but all those losses have come against Top 25 teams. And last week they get their first (Pac-10) shutout since 1987. So now their defense is starting to play well. Right now, they’re playing very, very well.”
Dorrell can sympathize with Doba and WSU this season, as his Bruins team last year faced many of the same problems stemming from inexperience and youth. But now in his second year, Dorrell is able to sound a different note.
“We felt good that a lot of the progress has started to show,” Dorrell said of the recent weeks and in particular last week’s convincing win. “The hard work is starting to pay off for them.”
For WSU, today may be the last chance to say the same of the 2004 season.
Notes
Doba is taking advantage of four extra spots granted to teams’ travel squads this season to bring along some players who have been solid scout team contributors but have not seen much game time. This week, Doba said he planned on bringing Blair Hawkins, a fifth-year senior running back. … Ben Olson, the No. 1 high school quarterback in America from 2001, will be at this weekend’s game on a visit to UCLA. Olson spent a redshirt year at BYU after finishing high school, then went on a Mormon mission for two years. He’s now looking at an assortment of high-profile schools around the country to join next season. … The Bruins may be without starting center Mike McCloskey, who sustained a concussion last week against Stanford. He has been labeled doubtful this week by the Bruins, and would be replaced by Robert Chai, who has started one game this season. … The Cougars left Spokane early Friday in order to get to Los Angeles in time for an afternoon walkthrough at the Rose Bowl. … After early forecasts suggested rain was likely for today’s game, temperatures are expected to be in the high 60s under partly cloudy skies.