Confident Cougars want to run table
PULLMAN – For any college football team, getting a sixth win is always a landmark moment because with it comes bowl eligibility, a potential ticket to holiday-season action and added exposure for the program.
For Washington State, win No. 6 could come this weekend at UCLA, and it would probably position WSU for its first bowl game since 2003. But last Saturday’s win over Oregon, then ranked 16th in the country, has given these Cougars a sense that something much more is possible.
“To be satisfied with six wins is not something that’s going to work for us,” quarterback Alex Brink said, underlining a sentiment held widely amongst his teammates. “We’re looking (at it) that we need four wins, I guess. If you’re talking about what we need, we’ve got four games left and we want to win every one of them. Like I said, the minimum isn’t good enough for us.”
Such talk would have seemed unimaginable not that long ago – maybe even last week. But at 5-3 and with a win against a ranked opponent, the possibility of a nine-win or even a 10-win season is getting mentioned in Bohler Gym, just one sign at how dramatic a difference the Cougars’ most recent victory has made.
As Brink acknowledged, a loss last week and a 4-4 record would have had WSU thinking differently.
“We’d still have four games left, but I think a lot of people would be talking about just trying to get to six wins,” Brink said. “In the locker room, it’s elevated our confidence level even more. We believe in each other, we believe in what we’re trying to do. And we have a great opportunity. Now we’ve got to go take advantage of it.”
With so much confidence, the Cougars may have to guard against cockiness, especially with a difficult road game on the slate this week. Coach Bill Doba said he wasn’t sure if that would be a problem, but he doesn’t see opponents viewing the Cougars any differently than they have thus far.
“Everybody we’ve played afterwards said, ‘You guys are really physical and you’re a good football team,’ ” Doba said. “From Auburn, Pete Carroll (USC) said the same thing, and I don’t think anybody’s overlooking us, to be honest with you. I’m sure that UCLA won’t, either. But I think (the win) heightens the expectations of the press and the student body and ours, too.”
That optimism is palpable from both players and coaches, and it seems to be framing the team’s approach at this point in the season.
Doba spoke of happier faces in the locker room and of coaches preaching the value of high expectations on every play, so it’s not surprising to see some of those players projecting positive thoughts onto the rest of the season.
One win hasn’t made this WSU team great, but it certainly has it thinking that great things are possible.
“Our first goal of the season was, hey, let’s get to a bowl game,” said H-back Jed Collins, who enjoyed a breakout game against Oregon. “I haven’t been to one yet. And as we see that light coming at the end of the tunnel, we’re thinking to ourselves, ‘Let’s get to a better bowl. Or let’s get to nine wins, maybe 10 with the bowl, and do something that hasn’t been done here in a couple years.’
“There’s a little hype going. This week we’re just a little more excited to get back out here, put the pads on and get ready.”