Your 2008 Pac-10 Preview: Washington State Cougars

College football commences on Thursday, August 28th, which makes us very happy.  Pac-10 play also opens up that same night, with Oregon State visiting Stanford.  So from now until then, we'll break down every Pac-10 team, their strengths, weaknesses, and what we generally think of them and their chances for the upcoming season.  Stay tuned to see what we think of your team.

WASHINGTON STATE COUGARS: FINISHED 5-7 IN 2007

We are going to start picking the Pac-10 teams apart, going from the bottom up.  And since the 2003 season, Wazzu has been near or in the Pac-10's basement.  From 2001-2003, they went 30-8 and went to the Sun Bowl, the Rose Bowl (!) and the Holiday Bowl.  Since then, just a meager record of 20-28 with no bowl appearances.  

The Cougars haven't really seen much in the way of consistent success since the days of Ryan Leaf, if you can believe that.  Say what you will about Leaf and his fall from grace, but he was a real good college QB.

"ANALYSIS"*

I guess I have to put something here right?  Well he was still in college, QB Alex Brink was considered their only real strength of the past couple years.  He is now gone and playing for the Houston Texans.  This year, Senior wideout Brandon Gibson returns and ranks as one of the best in the entire Pac-10.  Last year, he was actually the only wide receiver in the conference to average over 100 yards receiving per game.  He was pretty much the only bright spot last season, and seems to be the only projected bright spot for the upcoming season.

Washington State's new coach, Paul Wulff, will have his boys running a new up-tempo, no huddle spread offense, pretty much like every other team in the Pac-10 runs these days.  As we know though, it's pretty hard to take over a team, insert a brand new offensive scheme, and have any sort of success in the first year or two.  It's even harder when your team sucks like the Cougars do.

In 2007, Wazzu had six games where they gave up 34 points or more.  Five of those games they actually gave up 40 or more.  Tell you what, I probably could have suited up and played corner for the defense, and they would have done just as good.  It ain't very good.      

PREDICTION: 3-10 (1-8 in conference)

Wins: Baylor, Portland State, Washington

Losses: Oklahoma State, California, Oregon, UCLA, Oregon State, USC, Stanford, Arizona, Arizona State, Hawaii

(* You may ask why the word 'analysis' is in quotation marks?  Well, it's because I pretty much have no idea what in the hell I'm talking about when it comes to being an "analyst.")