Cougars continue process of learning what they’re all about

PULLMAN – It’s been three games and two wins for Washington State thus far in the football season.

Now comes the interesting part.

Coming into the year, 2-1 is exactly where the Cougars would have been expected to sit, and in many ways this fall has played out to plan. What happens next, though, is still anyone’s guess.

In beating Baylor on Saturday to clinch a winning record in the non-conference season, WSU proved that it has the gumption to win a close game – something it lacked all of last season. The Cougars did not, however, prove that they are necessarily that much better of a football team.

That’s a lesson that will be learned in the next few weeks, as Washington State launches into a nine-game Pac-10 season for the first time.

Before playing Baylor, it seemed likely that anything worse than a 2-0 record against the Bears and Stanford (this coming week) would portend ugliness for the rest of the season. That still could be the case, especially with the Cardinal reeling after an 0-3 start.

WSU has found itself in the same spot in both of the last two seasons, however, playing a pivotal game against Stanford that the Cougars seemingly should have won. And both times – in Pullman, no less – the Cougars returned to the home locker room with a loss.

This time the game will be played in Stanford’s brand-new stadium, one the Cardinal opened with Saturday’s 37-9 loss to Navy. But the site doesn’t change the value of the game for WSU.

Even if Stanford looks like it’s in for a long year, the Cougars have to prove sooner rather than later that they are capable of beating conference opponents. Baylor, a member of the prestigious Big XII, hasn’t had a winning season in more than a decade. So Saturday’s victory said relatively little about WSU’s strength, especially considering how close the Cougars were to making the return trip from Seattle at 1-2.

Now the Cougars will get their chance to show that a little late-game magic is possible in the games that everyone else in the Pac-10 will be watching as well. And if they manage to pass this next test, there might be some reason to think that 2006 could be different than recent years after all.