Iceland12
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So what will be the first point of reference for Washington State’s 2016 football season?
The eight-game winning streak in the middle? The belly-flop start and finish to the regular season?
The record-breakers and honor recipients – Luke Falk, Cody O’Connell, Gabe Marks?
The third bowl trip in four years?
Captain Jamal Morrow’s uncanny coin-flip calls? Assistant coach Roy Manning’s Twitter vids?
The police “targeting” tantrum? The Student Conduct Board evisceration? The Board of Regents ambush? The … well, you get the idea...
The Cougars came into this game with every advantage, with the possible exception of not taking their opponent as seriously as Minnesota took them. True confession: Wazzu had company in that notion. It was hard to believe as overwrought as the Gopher players were about their suspensions and as much of a hit their big moral stand took from the public that they’d have much of an investment in the proceedings in San Diego...
Those alternatives rarely included Marks, who was dogged thoroughly by Minnesota’s Jalen Myrick and managed just four inconsequential catches for 27 yards. The running backs were forgotten in the first half, forgettable when resurrected – especially as pass-catchers.
Three of the Gophers’ suspended players were secondary starters. Had they been there, Wazzu might not have scored at all.
And the vaunted Cougars offensive line? The Gophers were getting push on Falk with three-man rushes, allowing them to drop eight men into coverage. At one point, junior tackle Cole Madison excoriated his mates on the sidelines – after which the Cougs went out and threw incomplete three times, under pressure....
Afterward, Leach bemoaned this lack of “killer instinct,” though at that point it was more about just playing with desperation. From the Non-Explanation Explanation Dept., he also trotted out a couple of his greatest hits about his guys trying to “run the perfect play” and “trying to do too much.”
But the truth is, this was a prototypical Leach season in every regard – and the kind the Cougars were told to prepare for when the hired him on five years ago after his Tilt-a-Whirl tenure at Texas Tech....
But his teams will always win a game or two they shouldn’t – maybe only Stanford qualifies this year, but Wazzu winning eight straight is kind of in that same against-the-odds vein. They will lose games they shouldn’t – to FCS opponents, no matter how good, two straight seasons now. They are likely to take a big beating from a big-time opponent. And they arrive underprepared seemingly when they have the most time to get it together – openers and bowl games.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/dec/27/blanchette-uninspired-bowl-game-puts-topping-on-wh/
The eight-game winning streak in the middle? The belly-flop start and finish to the regular season?
The record-breakers and honor recipients – Luke Falk, Cody O’Connell, Gabe Marks?
The third bowl trip in four years?
Captain Jamal Morrow’s uncanny coin-flip calls? Assistant coach Roy Manning’s Twitter vids?
The police “targeting” tantrum? The Student Conduct Board evisceration? The Board of Regents ambush? The … well, you get the idea...
The Cougars came into this game with every advantage, with the possible exception of not taking their opponent as seriously as Minnesota took them. True confession: Wazzu had company in that notion. It was hard to believe as overwrought as the Gopher players were about their suspensions and as much of a hit their big moral stand took from the public that they’d have much of an investment in the proceedings in San Diego...
Those alternatives rarely included Marks, who was dogged thoroughly by Minnesota’s Jalen Myrick and managed just four inconsequential catches for 27 yards. The running backs were forgotten in the first half, forgettable when resurrected – especially as pass-catchers.
Three of the Gophers’ suspended players were secondary starters. Had they been there, Wazzu might not have scored at all.
And the vaunted Cougars offensive line? The Gophers were getting push on Falk with three-man rushes, allowing them to drop eight men into coverage. At one point, junior tackle Cole Madison excoriated his mates on the sidelines – after which the Cougs went out and threw incomplete three times, under pressure....
Afterward, Leach bemoaned this lack of “killer instinct,” though at that point it was more about just playing with desperation. From the Non-Explanation Explanation Dept., he also trotted out a couple of his greatest hits about his guys trying to “run the perfect play” and “trying to do too much.”
But the truth is, this was a prototypical Leach season in every regard – and the kind the Cougars were told to prepare for when the hired him on five years ago after his Tilt-a-Whirl tenure at Texas Tech....
But his teams will always win a game or two they shouldn’t – maybe only Stanford qualifies this year, but Wazzu winning eight straight is kind of in that same against-the-odds vein. They will lose games they shouldn’t – to FCS opponents, no matter how good, two straight seasons now. They are likely to take a big beating from a big-time opponent. And they arrive underprepared seemingly when they have the most time to get it together – openers and bowl games.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/dec/27/blanchette-uninspired-bowl-game-puts-topping-on-wh/
