Cougs have a tradition to continue
PULLMAN – On the surface, today’s Pac-10 football game at Martin Stadium should be an easy one to figure out.
The home team, Washington State, will take the field in what can only be called a tailspin, having lost its last two games to teams it easily could have beaten.
The road team, UCLA, will make its appearance having soared to No. 12 in the nation thanks to a 5-0 start that includes wins over Oklahoma and California.
But one thorn remains stuck in the logic that says this should be a gimme road win for the Bruins: They haven’t been able to beat the Cougars.
No one on the UCLA roster has ever experienced victory against WSU, and, likewise, no one on the WSU roster has ever lost to UCLA.
The Cougars have won four straight in the series, including 31-29 last season in Pasadena, Calif. – a win, incidentally, that came on the heels of a four-game losing streak.
The last time UCLA won in Pullman was in 1993, when the Bruins were Rose Bowl-bound. (And their quarterback that year is now a sideline reporter on the team’s radio broadcast.)
“Our focus has really been the best it’s been all season,” UCLA head coach Karl Dorrell said. “It’s going to be pretty easy (to be motivated) given our lack of success against Washington State, particularly going up to Pullman.
“This will be the true challenge for our football team, this particular week.”
The challenges are also plentiful for the 3-2 Cougars, which despite their successes against UCLA have been dealing with much more insidious trends of late.
In the last six quarters, which have sent them spiraling from undefeated to ugliness, the Cougars have managed to look bad on offense, defense and special teams.
“One of our coaches brought up a good point just the other day,” head coach Bill Doba said. “He said, ‘You know, a game-and-a-half ago walking into the locker room at Oregon State, we thought we were pretty good.’
“And now we’re struggling. According to everybody, we’re not going to win another game and all that stuff. But it’s amazing what a game-and-a-half can do to you. We’ve got to remind our kids that we were pretty good a game-and-a-half ago and we’ve got to get our chins up off our chests.”
The confidence that WSU as a whole seems to lack these days can still be found in abundance in running back Jerome Harrison, who went for 247 yards against the Bruins last season and has gone for at least 100 yards in all seven games since. The Cougars are sure to give him the ball early and often as they try to choke away both the clock and the opponent simultaneously.
“It ceases to be a surprise after eight games. We’re starting to expect it from him,” Doba said. “Obviously, we’ll try to run the football a little bit.”
A bowl game may already be a long shot for WSU this season given the strength of its remaining opponents. But any hope almost certainly rests on a win today, and even with a ranked team coming to town, the Cougars have to hope UCLA is the one elixir for their ills.
“We’re scratching our heads ourselves, men, honestly, to try to figure out what in the heck happened to that swagger,” Doba said. “But hopefully we can get it back this week.”