Looking for new direction

PULLMAN – If the foundation has loosened beneath the Washington State University football program, the Cougars coaching staff appears to be doing everything in its power to shore things up in a hurry.

In the aftermath of a third consecutive season without a bowl game, WSU is in the midst of an all-out recruiting effort to shore up the depth problems that have plagued it.

As such, head coach Bill Doba hasn’t bothered to do his normal postseason wrap-up news conference to assess his program, even though the Apple Cup was more than three weeks ago. The silence speaks volumes, because it’s clear that the Cougars have a lot of work to do after watching a seemingly magical season turn into disaster in November.

Following the Apple Cup, quarterback Alex Brink said he saw a 6-6 season as one much better than most had predicted for the Cougars. That may be true, but after a 6-3 start the .500 year could end up being as damaging as either of the sub-.500 years before it.

Heading into 2007, WSU has to face the reality that its three consecutive 10-win seasons are nothing but a memory, and it has essentially no success to show for it. While the coaching staff is surely explaining the program’s relatively recent success to recruits visiting this weekend, not one player who played a down on one of those teams is still in the program.

The current squad will have to build a new tradition of winning for itself.

WSU certainly had a chance to do so in 2006, and if the current players and coaches don’t get things turned around they will certainly rue the three-game slide that cost them a bowl game. Favored in all three games – heavily in two of them at home – WSU managed to let one opportunity after another slip away, the crescendo being a 35-32 loss to Washington, losers of six straight beforehand.

Still now there are no good answers for why WSU folded in November, although the number of injuries sustained over the course of the season had an obvious effect. At one position after another – offensive line, defensive end, defensive tackle, wide receiver – the Cougars watched as multiple players went down. Even the kicker missed three games and the punter one because of injury or illness.

But the Cougars managed to win a number of games while missing multiple starters, so their medical issues weren’t the sole cause of the slide.

Whatever the reasons, the sense of urgency has to be greater now than it has been for WSU. Work began on the Martin Stadium renovation this week, but significant fundraising is still left to do, and a bowl game this year surely would have helped in that effort.

Also, Washington may be on the rise across the state and another Northwest foe, Oregon State, appears to be developing into an annually competitive Pac-10 program. That means the overall landscape for the Cougars is growing more difficult, and without a winning tradition to rely upon things could get tough for WSU.

A return to bowl season is not impossible in the future, and there are talented players at a number of positions coming back in 2007. Brink returns as a senior quarterback and will be among the most experienced players at his position in the nation. He’ll have receiving threats in Michael Bumpus and Brandon Gibson to assist him. On defense, middle linebacker Greg Trent has shown big potential, as have a trio of returning defensive tackles.

But without the wins to back it up, all the talk of experience and potential seems empty. For three seasons the Cougars have watched as close losses – preventable losses – cost them trips to bowl games. The question is: How much more can the Cougars sustain before things start to crumble under their feet?