Cougars vs. Everybody, but, especially Wisconsin
Wazzu gets another shot at blood against the Big Ten
I don’t want to diminish the weight of Washington State Athletics’ ‘Cougs Vs Everybody’ campaign because it’s perfect. I just want to assure every Coug across the world that Wazzu has more than a few supporters in Corvallis and in every corner of Beaver Nation.
https://twitter.com/WSUCougars/status/1692295383932912026?s=20
If you’re not cheering for the Beavs and the Cougs this year then you can go fuck yourself. Our latest realignment nightmare has created two clear candidates for America’s Darlings. I’ve never been much of a ‘second favorite college football team’ kind of person, if anyone has ever been a legit candidate for such a thing, then it would be my hometown Golden Gophers of the University of Minnesota. Something Gopher fans love to say in regards to their arch rivals to the east is ‘better dead than red!’ (Isn’t maroon a shade of red??)
I may not be a true Golden Gopher, but I hate Wisconsin too, at least by adjacency. Very few non conference results made me happier in 2022 than the Cougs shocking the Badgers almost exactly one year ago today by a score of 17-14 at Camp Randall.
The stakes of the Pac 12 vs Big Ten matchup were big last year in the very first matchup between the conferences after USC and UCLA revealed their true colors. Those same stakes have multiplied 364 days later even with the Pac 12 on death’s doorstep. Wazzu taking down Bucky won’t mean anything for the Cougs and Beavs when it comes to the courtroom (ooooh boy more on this later!!), but it will remind the Midwestern based power conference, the conference of my childhood, that even after pillaging and destroying the Pac 12, the Big Ten is still just a conference of Ohio State and a bunch of teams that wouldn’t be favored against Utah.
I’ve got the Cougs winning this one on the Palouse by last year’s exact same scoreline of 17-14. Former Badger Nakia Watson found paydirt twice last year in Madison, once on the ground, and later added the game-winning score on a 31-yard touchdown catch from Cam Ward with just over five minutes remaining in the third quarter.
A big game out of Watson will be needed once again if Wazzu wants to send Bucky the Badger back to Madison unhappy. The Cougar defense will also need to be even better than they were in last year’s win as well. The Badger offense, despite not looking great in their Week One win against Buffalo, is almost certainly a more dynamic unit under new head coach Luke Fickell and with SMU transfer Tanner Mordecai under center.
Watson carried the ball only seven times and for a total of 15 yards in Wazzu’s 50-24 dismantling of Colorado State in Week One. A limited number caused mostly by the Rams’ inability to stop Cam Ward’s aerial assault than actually shutting down the run. The Cougs’ offensive line will be huge in this one, as Wisconsin’s notoriously plucky defense will make you earn it between the tackles at least a little bit.
Much like the Beavs, the Cougs don’t need any additional bulletin board material than what they’ve already been given. The chip on the shoulder can’t get any bigger. They’ve already been left for dead by their soon-to-be former conference brethren and now here comes Wisconsin, a representative of the greener pastures those traitors are abandoning the Palouse for, and they’re rolling into Pullman as six-point favorites.
The game kicks off at 6:30 pm PT in front of a national audience on ABC. The curtain riser on new Reser Stadium a couple hundred miles to the southwest starts ninety minutes later. Oregon State is expecting a sellout crowd and a big win against UC Davis. It’s not crazy to think one of the biggest eruptions of crowd noise on Saturday night in Corvallis would be for a Cougs win over a foe from the evil Big 10.
17-14 Cougs win with two touchdowns and 150 rushing yards from Watson. Count it!
Cougs vs. Everybody, but especially Wisconsin.