When Washington State hired Mike Leach as its coach, the school immediately began advertising its potential rise to prominence. Leach made 10 bowl games in 10 years at Texas Tech, open your wallets and the same success could be achieved in Pullman, its pitch seemed to say.
The success hasn't come as quickly in Pullman.
The Cougars have only a 2-3 record after five games and must start winning soon if they hope to make a bowl. And while Washington State showed signs of improvement last week against No. 2 Oregon, it still ended up with a loss.
To make a postseason appearance, the Cougars need to win four of their last seven games. A loss at Oregon State today, and the margin for error gets incredibly slim. It's not the cliche "must-win" situation everybody talks about, but a loss would keep WSU winless in Pac-12 play at the season's halfway point.
Unfortunately for the Cougs, when they take on No. 14 Oregon State (3-0, 2-0) at 3 p.m. in Corvallis today it will be against a team that has beaten ranked opponents in its first three games. And its done so with physical play at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball - "blue collar," Leach called it.
Washington State's offensive line has been anything but blue collar this season, having been called out for a lack of toughness multiple times by Leach, and will need to keep quarterback Connor Halliday upright against an aggressive OSU defense if it hopes to pull off the upset on the road. That hasn't been an easy task this season for Beaver opponents, as Wisconsin offensive line coach Mike Markuson found out the hard way. He was fired for his group's poor performance against OSU earlier this season - in just his second game in the position.
The Cougars are coming off a game against Oregon that saw the passing game begin to take consistent shape, but the running game was nonexistent (-8 yards) and will need to give Oregon State's defense a little something to worry about to keep them honest.
Defensively, the WSU front seven needs to put pressure on emerging star quarterback Sean Mannion, while the secondary tries to contain the fourth most potent passing offense in the country (362.7 yards per game).
It isn't just Mannion getting it done, however, as the Beaver offensive line, featuring tackle Michael Philipp and freshman Isaac Seumalo, has given the signal-caller all kinds of time to throw. Add in a pair of receivers averaging over 100 yards per game in speedy Brandin Cooks and Markus Wheaton, as well as a freshman running back in Storm Woods who ran for 161 yards last week at Arizona, and it could be a long night for the Cougar D if they don't improve dramatically upon its past performances.
Andrew Nemec can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 231, or by email to anemec@dnews.com.
