Cougars have put themselves in line for a prestige bowl game
PULLMAN – Washington State will not play in the Rose Bowl in 2015, but every other prestige football bowl affiliated with the Pac-12 is still in play.
That includes the Alamo Bowl, the Pac-12’s No. 2 bowl, which could potentially pit the Cougars in a sizzling matchup against another high-powered offense from the Big 12.
No. 24 WSU (7-3, 5-2 Pac-12) currently sits in a four-way tie for the second-best conference record behind Stanford (8-2, 7-1). But the Cougars cannot catch the Cardinal, because Stanford has the head-to-head tiebreaker. It is still possible for Oregon, Stanford and WSU to all finish 7-2, in which case the Ducks would represent the Pac-12 North in the conference championship game due to their superior record against other teams in the division.
But should the Cougars lose one of their remaining two games, they might still find themselves in San Antonio for the Alamo Bowl, because even though the seven Pac-12 affiliated bowl games are expected to select teams in order of their conference finish, the Alamo, Holiday and Foster Farms bowls may drop down to a team with one more loss in order to create better matchups.
“Today, we are looking at five teams in the Pac-12,” said Alamo Bowl chairman Jack Rogers. “In no particular order: in the north, Stanford, Washington State and Oregon; in the South, Utah and USC. Those are the five teams on our radar screen.”
The Cougars have had a resurgent season while Oregon and USC have fallen short of the lofty standards set by their fans and the media in the preseason, meaning they might not travel well to a far away bowl game.
Furthermore, the potential storyline of Mike Leach returning to Texas would be sure to bring publicity to the bowl game, should it host the Cougars. Particularly if the matchup involved a nearby Big 12 team – say, Oklahoma or Baylor – that runs its own Air Raid offense.
Alamo Bowl representatives have been in the press box for WSU’s last three games, and will again be in attendance when the Cougars host Colorado this weekend. Rogers warns that the bowl’s continued representation at WSU games should not be read as an advantage for the Cougars, however, and notes that bowl executives will also be in attendance at Stanford, Oregon and Utah games this weekend.
Falk support
The are rumors and whispers about Luke Falk’s Heisman worthiness as a Heisman Trophy candidate, but Mike Leach thinks they should become roars.
During his weekly Monday press conference, Leach noted that one issue with the most prestigious individual award in college football is that voters have differing ideas about what the award should represent.
Some voters, said Leach, try to anticipate who the best player on the best team will be, in which case it does not make sense to give the award prior to the national championship game. Others, he says, try to select the player who elevated his team’s standing with his play more than any other.
In that case, he says he knows who should win it.
“Everybody needs to vote for Luke Falk,” Leach said. “And anybody who doesn’t needs to reexamine why they’re voting for the Heisman to begin with.”
Not rolling over
WSU’s players spoke again about the disrespect they felt when UCLA’s players came over to their side of the field to warm up prior to Saturday’s game, noting that the Bruins paid for their gamesmanship by facing an extra-motivated team in the Cougars.
“We’ll punch you in the mouth and we’ll outplay you,” said linebacker Peyton Pelluer. “We’ve continued to show that all season. And it’s taken a while for teams to realize that we’ll punch you in the mouth.”
Simone out
Arizona State senior safety Jordan Simone, the national leader in tackles per game, is out for the season after injuring his right knee last weekend.
Simone, a transfer from WSU, was injured in the first half of the Sun Devils’ 27-17 win over Washington on Saturday and did not return. Arizona State coach Todd Graham announced Monday that Simone will not play again this season.