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So here we are, just a couple nights away from the showdown in Pullman.  The 4th ranked Zags are trying to break a two game losing streak to Washington State in a battle of wills.  Can Washington State slow down the Bulldogs or will Gonzaga be able to play up-tempo?  The answer to that question will have a lot to do with the outcome of the game.  The last two years Washington State has been able to slow the game down and make it a half court game.  The Cougs have been able to frustrate Gonzaga with their defense.  The Cougs even pulled off the unthinkable and they beat Gonzaga in the McCarthey Athletic Center.  The Cougars have taken 3rd ranked Pittsburgh, and 23rd ranked Baylor down to the late goings and were a only a few made free-throws away from pulling the “upset” on the Bears over the weekend.  The Cougs look to take advantage of the home court crowd and two years ago it was THIS win that started the whole thing in my opinion.

But this is a different year.  The Cougs are very young, and the Zags are very good.  Gonzaga is ranked 4th in the nation for a reason.  They are deep, they are athletic, they are playing defense, and they are very talented.  Gonzaga is undefeated and even in games they have struggled in this year, they have won by large margins.  Their closest game so far has been by 9 points over then 12th ranked Tennessee and even then the Bulldogs were up by 18 late.  Gonzaga is deeper than they have ever been and can beat you inside, or outside.  They can run, and they can play defense.

The Cougars have been better than some thought they might be after losing the big three last year.  Freshman Klay Thompson has been every bit as good as advertised.  According to Mark Few the Cougs have one of the best, if not the best, big men in the west in Aron Baynes.  They have a great point guard in Taylor Rochestie although he has struggled a bit so far this year.  They continue to have one of the best defenses in the country.  But again they are very young, and will make young mistakes from time to time.

I do think this game will remain close for a while, maybe even late.  However I just think Gonzaga has too much depth and experience for the Cougs this time around.  Gonzaga has had two shots this year at teams that have beaten them in the past, Tennessee and Indiana, and they have gotten their revenge.  I think they are about to be 3 for 3 in payback games.  I’m really hoping for a slugfest and a close, entertaining game down the stretch, I just don’t see it.  I’ve got the Zags by 15.

     Are you ready for the biggest cross state rivalry in college football?

     On Saturday, November 22, the WSU Cougars square off against their arch rivals, the University of Washington Huskies in Pullman.   It’s the annual classic  ’Apple Cup’ football game.

     And KXLY4 wants you (Huskie and Coug fans) to get involved, if you’re up for it.

     GMNW reporter, Kjerstin Ramsing has something fun in mind and needs your participation, in person.

     Email her at kjerstinr@kxly.com  if you are available any time between 5am and 8:30am on Friday, Nov. 21st,  just one day before the big game.

Go Cougs!

We are on our way to one of the worst football season in Washington in a long, long time. Unless the Cougars or the Huskies can turn things around, the Apple Cup will have less meaning than almost any Washington-Washington State match-up.

Unless the Seahawks can turn things around, then Mike Holmgren’s last season in Seattle will about as much as the Cougar-Husky game in November.

The only thing more disappointing than what has happened on the field, is how fans have come to expect great things, and sometimes evermore than great things from their teams.

Cougar fans are questioning first year coach Paul Wulff less than a season into his tenure as head coach. The voices that call for his job are whispers compared to the screams that Husky fans are calling for the ouster of Tyrone Willingham.

No one yet has called Mike Holmgren an idiot, or a fool, like the “fans” are calling Wulff or Willingham, but a few more losses and by November, seahawk “fans” will say it’s a good thing that “old coach who has lost it” is done at the end of the year

I used to question the millions of dollars that head coaches receive for coaching in the NFL or in the Pac-10, but I question that no more. The dollars that coaches get are for coaching the game, but from the unrealistic expectations of what teams can actually do.

Did any one expect the Cougar would win more than three or four games this year? And when the injury bug hit, that number looked even tougher to reach. But there were Cougar fans that expected the cougars to be near the 500 mark, and with a little luck, get to a bowl game.

One college football coach told me that Alex Brink may have won seven or eight games by himself over the last two years because the cougar team was that bad. He added before the season started, he tough the cougars had less pac-10 talent on this year team in the Junior and Senior class than any team he’d seen in two decades.

In Seattle, Husky fans expect a bowl game, or they would light the torches and head to the Monster house (the monster known as Tyrone) and burn him out, so joy and peace could return to the valley. But those cries were being heard as the Dawgs were running out of the tunnel for the opener.

I’m no fan of Willingham, only because I see how hard he would be to cover his team, because of his lack of “media friendly-ness” . But It’s hard to see what a guy can do, when he still has players from former coaches in leadership roles.

Once fans get a taste of the good life - 10 wins season, conference championship, and in the huskies case, a national championship, it’s never the same.

Fans need to enjoy the good times when they are hear, and remember how hard to was to get there when the times become a little lean.

With Hurricane Ike on the horizon, the Washington State Cougs will be facing the Baylor Bears Friday afternoon and you can catch the action on KXLY.com.

Before kickoff you can watch the latest episode of Cougar Football Saturday or in Friday’s case Cougar Football Friday. The half-hour show hosted by KXLY4 Sports Director Dennis Patchin along with KXLY4’s Rick Lukens will be streamed at 4 p.m. on KXLY.com.

You can also catch the show live on KXLY ABC 4 at 4 p.m. or over on KXMN at 4:30.

Kickoff for the Cougs and the Baylor Bears is scheduled for 5:30 and will be televised nationally live on Fox Sports Net and will be streamed live on both WSU’s and Baylor’s websites free of charge at wsucougars.comand baylorbears.com.

Fox Sports Northwest will air the game on delay Friday night at 11.

Well, I was 4-0 last weekend, but I’m not going to get carried away, all four of our teams were underdogs and not many people had any of them winning.  This weekend is not going to be much different, but I predict we will get our first win of the year, and from the team that got waxed last weekend.

 CAL-WSU

Oh boy.  This could be ugly.  Cal is much better than Oklahoma State is, and the Cougars looked outmatched at times last weekend.  That being said, the Cougs are better than the Cougs were as well.  What happened to Brandon Gibson last week?  I predict that this week he will catch everything thrown to him, and maybe even some passes that are thrown to other receivers.  He’s too good for any more of that nonsense.  Playing in Martin Stadium should give the Cougs a boost, well it better anyway.  If the Cougar defense plays as well as they did last weekend, the offense plays like it started to show they can in the second half, and the special teams at least get in the way of the Bears returners, this game will be closer than last week.  The only problem is, all of those things have to happen just to keep this close. 

Cal-38

WSU-17

#15 BYU-UW

Oh boy.  This Could be ugly.  Didn’t I say that already?  The dawgs looked terrible in the second half last week at Oregon, and BYU looked awful in their game with Northern Iowa.  The difference is, BYU still won big, and the Huskies got crushed.  Husky Offensive Coordinator Tim Lappano says he’s going to open up the playbook… are you sure??  The four plays that you ran last week wasn’t good enough?  This team will only compete this year when Jake Locker is super-human.  The new young running backs and receivers don’t look like they will do much.  I was impressed with freshman tight end Kavario Middleton.  The bad news for the Huskies is their defense, man were they bad.  Expect another long year for the purple and gold.

BYU-43

UW-20

EASTERN WASHINGTON-COLORADO

Who would have thought that Eastern would be the most competitive last weekend when they were supposed to get boat raced?  I didn’t.  Eastern showed a lot last weekend, but I don’t expect them to be any closer to Colorado.  The Buffs are more physical than Texas Tech, they are at altitude, and Colorado saw how close the Eagles were at the half last week.  Add to that the Buffs lost to a Big Sky team a couple years ago, Eastern is not sneaking up on anyone here.  I hope the Eags can repeat their performance of a week ago, but two straight big school teams will be too much.

EWU-17

Colorado - 49

IDAHO STATE-IDAHO

The great potato state battle.  So our local teams are 0-4, and so far I have them going 0-3 this weekend, and Idaho lost 70-0 last week.  But wait, Idaho wins!  They better.  There aren’t a lot of “must win” games in week 2 of a season for a team that isn’t supposed to win a lot of games, but this is “must win.”  If Idaho loses to Idaho State, they risk going oh-fer this year, and Robb Akey will be in trouble.  That can’t happen, he won’t let it.  The next three games are “winnable” games for Idaho, and if they can pull at least two of them out, there is hope in Moscow.  If not, yikes.

ISU-24

Idaho-27

Have fun football weekend everybody

We’re only a day away from the College football season kicking off locally. Tomorrow the Cougars take on Oklahoma State, the Vandals take on Arizona, and the Eagles take on Texas Tech. Throw in the Huskies at Oregon and it makes for a long day of watching football. So with about 24 hours to go I figure I would give my two cents on what I think might happen. This way it’s on paper so to speak, and come Sunday we can all have a laugh at how much of an idiot I am. After all if predictions were easy, Vegas would be out of business. That being said, my biggest prediction, whether I get the scores right or not, is that it will be a long, sad day as I figure all four of our teams will go down.

OKLAHOMA STATE - WSU

The Cougars begin the Paul Wulff era tomorrow and I think it will look a lot like the Bill Doba era did, at least on the scoreboard. I hope I’m wrong here as I’m a big fan of Wulff, but this is going to take a while to get going in Pullman. I predict that the Cougs will look great in the first quarter as they run the first 20 scripted plays nearly to perfection and the Cougar faithful will be booking tickets to Pasadena as they can’t see anything getting in the way of a Rose Bowl. I think it will still be close at the half, maybe even through the third quarter. But in the end I see Oklahoma State pulling away and winning. I hope this game will be a competitive game, and the longer the Cougs can hang around, the more confidence they will get and they might be able to pull it out. But I just don’t think that will happen. I expect this Cougar team to get better as the season goes on, but they will almost certainly make mistakes tomorrow as they take the field for the first time under a new coach with a new offense. On a side note, I think Brandon Gibson is one of the best receivers in the country and I expect a monster year out of him.

Oklahoma State -31

Washington State -17

 WASHINGTON - #21 OREGON

Can Jake Locker really walk on water? We’re going to find out this year. If he can, then his head coach might not get fired, and the Huskies might threaten to win 6 games. If he can’t, expect another disappointing year out of the Dawgs. I guess if you’re a Cougar fan a bad year out of the Huskies wouldn’t really be “disappointing.” I do think the Huskies have a chance in this game. Oregon is going with a back-up quarterback, and it’s the first game of the year, and that’s always a toss-up. The Huskies will need Oregon to play a little sloppy and overcome a big home field advantage in this one.

Washington - 27

Oregon - 35

IDAHO - ARIZONA

Bone-head easy prediction of the day - Robb Akey will be excited. Second bone head-easy prediction of the day - Arizona will throw the ball a lot. That’s the whole key to this game, can the Vandals slow down the Wildcats? My guess is no, but my hope is yes. I think that the Vandals will be able to move the ball on offense but the question is, can they finish drives with touchdowns instead of field goals? Idaho moved the ball really well last year against USC early on, but they couldn’t punch it in. If the Vandals can put up 6’s, and slow down Arizona’s pass offense, they have a punchers chance against the Wildcats. There is a reason for hope here if you are a Vandals fan. Last year Idaho faced one of the top 3 passing offenses in the country in Hawaii and Colt Brennan, and they picked him off 5 times. The downside is, they immediately turned the ball back over to Hawaii, two times for touchdowns. There are two key players in this game, quarterback Nathan Enderle who has to play smart and can’t turn it over, and safety Shiloh Keo who has to make plays on defense, and in the return game.

Idaho - 13

Arizona - 35

EASTERN WASHINGTON - #12 TEXAS TECH

(Touchdown Red Raiders) The Eagles have a lot of expectations this year, but beating Texas Tech isn’t one of them. (Touchdown Red Raiders) Texas Tech averaged 41 points a game last year and is ranked 12th in the country. (Touchdown Red Raiders) They have a heisman trophy candidate in Graham Harrell who passed for 5700 yards and 48 touchdowns last year. (Touchdown Red Raiders) This team put up 43 in a loss to Texas last year, they beat 4th ranked Oklahoma, and won a bowl game. (Touchdown Red Raiders) Eastern will do just fine when they play 1AA teams, but asking them to compete in this game is a little unrealistic. (Touchdown Red Raiders).

Eastern Washington - 20

Texas Tech - 63

Happy College Football weekend everybody.

Over the more than 10 years that my husband Jerry and I have called Spokane home, we’ve become big fans of the WSU Cougars. How could we help it? Those Cougs are almost impossible not to love. Luckily, the Cougars don’t face off very often against our own college teams. Jerry went to Michigan, but I am an Oklahoma State Cowboy (actually,  CowGIRL).  I’m having a hard time deciding who to root for on Saturday, when the Cougs and Cowboys battle in Seattle. Adding to conundrum: I have kin on the Cowboy team. My cousin’s boy, Zach, is the deep snapper for OSU.    Maybe  I’ll just cheer for good weather at game time, and consider it a win/win, no matter who emerges victorious.   Right now, it looks like showers.  CLICK HERE for your Seattle forecast.

Well it’s the beginning of August and that means one thing in the sports office… the summer is over.  College football officially started this morning with both the Cougars and the Vandals hitting the practice field in the palouse.  I know we still have a few weeks before games start, but this day is the beginning of a long season for us in sports.  Every week we will be going down to pullman, moscow, and out to Eastern and Whitworth to cover football and it seems like summer just started.  With the Shock in the playoffs, and the Indians on a record-breaking pace, you would think that summer is in full stride, but with today’s big day down south our summer is over.  I do love football season, but it is much more fun in the middle of October when the NFL is well within their regular season, and high schools are fighting for playoff spots.  But going to football practice in 95 degree weather while baseball is still going is tough sometimes. 

With that said, it is exciting this year with a new coach in pullman, Robb Akey leading the Vandals, Eastern has high hopes, and Whitworth is coming off of a season where they were left out of the playoffs for some strange reason.  With the new season comes hope at every school.   So lets hope together.

Down in pullman the Washington State Cougars are opening the Paul Wulff era today and with that comes a lot of excitement.  Coach Wulff is a proven winner at Eastern Washington and brings with him a no huddle offense that has Cougar fans talking.  Lets not get confused and call his offense a “hurry up” offense because that’s not the truth, it’s a “no-huddle” offense and there is a difference.  The reason for hope in pullman this year is in one man, Brandon Gibson.  He is one of the best receivers in the country, and he will be tough for any team to stop.  This year might be a record-breaking season for Gibson if you take into account the numbers that Aaron Boyce put up in this offense last year, and with the strong arm of Gary Rogers, look out for Gibson this year.  Rogers is one of many question marks on this team.  He is huge, and has a cannon, but he’s unproven.  It’s rare that a senior quarterback has success as a first year starter.  It’s even more rare that they have success when they have to learn a new system.  We’ll have to wait and see with Rogers but those fans who were calling for Alex Brink’s head last year now get their wish.  I think the offense line will be solid this year, but there are a lot of questions throughout the rest of the team.  Who will play on the defensive line?  Can the running backs stay healthy?  Can the defensive backs survive in a pass-happy league?  Who is going to kick?  Can Andy Mattingly continue to dominate?  All of those questions need to be answered for the Cougs to have a shot at a bowl game.

In Moscow we enter year number two under Robb Akey, and anybody who has met the man can’t help but be a fan.  The team returns Nathan Enderle, their starting quarterback from a year ago who will enter his sophomore season.  If Enderle can continue to grow, so can the Vandals.  Idaho was much more competitive last year, and there is reason to have hope in moscow, but it might be a couple years away showing up in the win-loss column.  Knowing coach Akey and the players in Idaho, i do know one thing, they want to win now.  And if they lose, it won’t be because the other team played harder.  I’m pulling for the Vandals, because like i said earlier, I’ve met coach Akey.

The team that might have the most hype around them in our area this fall is the Eastern Eagles.  They are ranked anywhere from 4th to 6th in the country and for good reason.  They have an all-american quality quarterback and receiver, and a good defense coming back.  It’s always scary when a new a new coach takes over when a team is returning a lot of players, but Beau Baldwin has been here before.  Baldwin knows what he’s doing, and he knows the players he has.   Expect the Eagles to challenge for the Big Sky crown, and beyond.

The Whitworth Pirates are still scratching their heads trying to figure out why the didn’t make it into the playoffs last year.  They return starting quarterback Kory Kemp, and with coach John Tully running things the Pirates should contend to get back into the post season.