Jacob Thorpe: Washington State showed it has talent. Credit Jake Dickert for keeping this roster together.

It does not matter that Portland State is not very good. What is important is that Washington State overpowered, ran past, and bullied the visiting Vikings during Saturday afternoon’s 70-30 shellacking.

By doing so, the Cougars proved that coach Jake Dickert deserves credit for one of the most-remarkable, least-acknowledged recruiting performances in college football this past offseason. And that because of it Cougars could have a very good year.

With the unfairness and chaos afflicted upon the Cougars by the business of college football over the past year, coupled with the free agency era of transfers in which we exist, a reasonable person would have expected the roster to be picked clean by schools that could offer the prestige and stability of a conference.

And sure, the Cougars had some transfer portal losses, most notably quarterback Cam Ward, who looked like a Heisman candidate for his new team, Miami, on Saturday. Receiver Josh Kelly took his talents to Texas Tech, meaning he will be back in Pullman wearing a Red Raiders uniform next weekend.

Yet there was star receiver Kyle Williams on Saturday, scooting his way to 141 receiving yards and a pair of touchdowns. Quarterback John Mateer stuck around and thrived in his much-anticipated debut, showing off a howitzer of an arm and an ability to make plays with his feet that Ward never showed in Pullman.

Add freshman sensation Wayshawn Parker to an already talented running back room, along with most of least year’s offensive line starters, and the offense has every bit the look of a Power Five unit from years past. The defense is maybe more of a work in progress but is still composed almost entirely of players who were recruited to play for a Pac-12 school.

What this means is that while WSU may have lost the game of musical chairs when the Pac-12 schools broke up and looked for new conference homes, WSU kept intact a Pac-12 roster than can now barnstorm through a schedule of less-talented opponents.

This year there are only two real power conferences, the SEC and the Big Ten. Then there are two secondary conferences, the Big 12 and ACC. WSU seems as well positioned as any of the remaining schools to win a bunch of games and be a factor in the postseason.

Once an early-season tuneup against an FCS school would have mattered little in the scheme of WSU’s season, as far more difficult foes awaited. But after Saturday’s performance, how many schools left on WSU’s schedule will clearly have more future NFL talent and depth on their roster? Washington, sure. Texas Tech and Boise State … maybe? Surely not New Mexico, San Jose State or Wyoming.

Not with big-armed, swift-legged Mateer at quarterback. Not with a freshman running back like Parker, who would probably start as a freshman for most of the Mountain West schools that compose WSU’s makeshift conference schedule.

It may seem obvious now that a Pac-12 school dropping down to a Mountain West schedule is going to have an edge over its new opponents. But keeping this roster together was no guarantee.

In fact, it was widely speculated that Williams, he of the two-touchdown performance on Saturday, would enter the portal, and some erroneous reports online stated that he had. This was at a time when conventional wisdom among college football speculators was that WSU’s roster would experience a historic exodus of talent.

That Williams quickly shut down those rumors is a testament to the belief the Cougars have in their coaching staff to still help them achieve their goals as players in the wake of the Pac-12’s disintegration.

There is so much uncertainty is WSU’s football that it is not worth worrying about. Despite what prominent, anonymous “insiders” on X may claim, nobody knows with any certainty whether the Cougars will find a way into the Big 12 or Mountain West, or if those conferences will even exist in a few years.

So enjoy the big win, WSU fans, and know that with a talented roster and their lightest schedule in a lifetime, the Cougars maintain relevancy in exile by sheer virtue of their win total in 2024.