Cougars Should Be Moving Again, Into The Top 10

Goodbye to the Cal Bears, the Beta Theta Pi of the Pac-10.

This was the year Homecoming at Washington State descended into Homefinding. Before the alums could even stop in for a nostalgic brew on their way to Martin Stadium, Greek Row’s animal house lost its charter - the renegades evicted and forced to locate new digs.

We were going to suggest Cal’s secondary, but the Cougs were already subletting. Not that the Bears went down without a fight - if that’s what you’d call defensive tackle Jeremiah Parker sucker-punching Cougar guard Cory Withrow in the face mask.

Of course, by that time it was 49-6, WSU - so you could say the Bears didn’t start fighting until after the referee’s count reached 10.

Since the final was 63-37 - anybody out there bet the under? - you might be getting some mixed messages about the Cougars’ concentration or killer instinct or attention span.

Ignore them.

Despite the grumpiness of quarterback Ryan Leaf (“I’m not going to savor this one at all”), this was a gutting of painful precision. And holding the Cougars of record responsible for anything that happened after the lead topped out at 50 points would be tantamount to blaming John Belushi and Chevy Chase for the lack of yuks on the new season of “Saturday Night Live.”

Maybe at Nebraska, the second and third strings shut down the other team’s No. 1s. Maybe that’s the difference between a Top 5 team and a Top 10 team.

Pity the Cougs. They’re only Top 10.

Perhaps officially by noon today. Three teams ahead of the No. 13 Cougars in the Associated Press poll fell Saturday, so you do the math.

“I don’t care,” insisted linebacker Steve Gleason. “I mean, it’s an honor, it’s cool. But you can’t stay in the Top 10 if you don’t win. The only way we’re going to stay there is to keep winning.”

But you can tell Mike Price cares.

“We’re a Top 10 team,” he insisted, “and we need to fill the stadium and make tickets a premium.”

Oh, yes. Homecoming - on a brilliant day, featuring an undefeated team and a Heisman-hypeworthy quarterback, with no live TV - drew 35,759, or about 2,000 short of an actual scalper sighting.

But then, there were probably some really good yard sales Saturday.

“We sure appreciate all the fans that were here,” said Price. “Maybe we should give them a bowl stamp - just let those people go to the bowl game, if we go.”

If? The Cougs officially qualified for a bid Saturday with their sixth victory. All that remains on that front, you’d have to think, is outfitting the team with suitable shades to cut the glare of those ridiculous blazers.

So let’s see now. Not winning by 70 points and coming up short of a sellout - that would about wrap up the downside.

The upside, well, where do you want to start?

Six hundred yards of total offense? A cruelty to cornerbacks citation for the Fab Five? Leaf and Michael Black personally embarrassing six different Cal defenders on Wazzu’s second- most spectacular touchdown of the season?

Or is the fact that fans could leave early and resume their homecoming boozing reward enough?

“It wasn’t that good,” Leaf insisted. “We didn’t do things correctly - it looks like we did, but the Cal defense, they let Louisiana Tech score 41 points on them. Until we have a perfect game, I’m not going to say we did a great job because we didn’t.”

OK, if this is Cal, you’d hate to see Lo-Cal. There is probably no point flaming Boise State or Southwestern Louisiana - the two gimmes on Wazzu’s schedule - if you’re not going to lump these Bears in with them. They couldn’t stop Wazzu’s running game with three linebackers and couldn’t stop the pass with six DBs. And for the few minutes the game was still a game, they managed to turn their only weapon - receiver Bobby Shaw - into a decoy.

But there’s a level of preparation and intensity required to beat even the lowliest Pac-10 opponent, and the Cougs fulfilled all the adult minimum daily requirements Saturday - even to the point of not losing their cool when the Bears got thuggish out of frustration.

“Maybe we’re mature enough now not to act on that sort of stuff,” said Withrow.

Added receiver Chris Jackson, “Coach Price has been telling us there’s no team in the Pac-10 that can beat us. The only team that can beat us is ourselves.”

Could Price be right?

“If there’s teams wondering if they’re any good or not,” offered Cal coach Tom Holmoe, “they’re 6-0, they’ve beaten some good teams and they’ve looked good doing it. I don’t see many weaknesses, other than they’re on a roll right now and if they get some adversity, how they would handle that. Apparently, they haven’t had to handle that.”

Not unless there’s a Beta among them.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Blanchette The Spokesman-Review