Washington State vs. Portland State (GAME THREAD)

IT’S COUGAR FOOTBALL SATURDAY!

Hello Coug fans. It’s time to write something that hasn’t been written in a little more than nine months: It’s Cougar Football Saturday!

Our Cougs welcome the Vikings of Portland State, a Big Sky team with a unique head coach who once upon a time came to Pullman and upset WSU. Plenty of worse things have happened since then, most recently being the death of the Pac-12.

Before we say a thing or two about today’s game, here’s an offseason refresher for the lapsed fan:

• WSU is technically part of the two-team Pac-12 but is essentially an independent.
• However, they are also essentially a member of the Mountain West Conference, seeing as eight of WSU’s 12 games this season are against MWC foes.
• The Apple Cup is still happening, except it’ll be in two weeks at Lumen Field in Seattle and tickets are way overpriced. This is Twilight Zone stuff.
• WSU did manage to schedule a—this is still weird to say—Power 4 team in Texas Tech. The Red Raiders come to Pullman in a week. Tickets are still available for this nationally televised game.
• Speaking of nationally televised games, you can say the same about today’s matchup because it’s on The CW, the network most known for airing reruns of Gilmore Girls. In fact, you can say the same for all of WSU’s games….except the Apple Cup. Go figure. That one’s on Peacock. This is all still way better than being on the Pac-12 Network, to be clear.
• On the field, WSU lost some guys to transfer, as was expected given [gestures around]. Cam Ward is now the designated savior at Miami, and it’s John Mateer’s team now.
• It’s also Chris King’s team, as he takes over radio play-by-play duties. The 2009 WSU graduate already lived in Pullman and did radio for Idaho athletics. Welcome home, Chris!
• Every year I’m always interested in which newbies will see the field, and luckily so is The Spokesman-Review’s Greg Woods, as he went down the list this week.

As for today’s game, it’s much easier as the season moves along to have an idea of what WSU will look like and what they need to do. With so many new faces and no games to glean from, we’re not interested in throwing darts in the dark here. Safe to say, WSU will need to score more points than their opponent. #analysis

Woods of The Spokesman-Review says WSU should cruise, though be careful defending Portland State quarterback Dante Chachere.

I think they should cruise, too, if only because FBS teams shouldn’t lose to FCS teams picked to finish 10th out of 12 teams in the Big Sky. This is where the degenerate in me reminds you all that Portland State was picked to finish 9th in the Big Sky in 2015. Uh oh!

At least the weather will be better. Go Cougs.

When

Kickoff is at noon PT

Where

Gesa Field at Martin Stadium

How to Watch

The CW. If you’re like me, you’re still searching for it.

The Line

WSU -28.5

Pregame Excitement