The Pac-12 released the 2015 conference football schedule on Tuesday evening and Washington State's schedule is surprisingly good. The Apple Cup will once again be played on a Friday after playing on a Saturday this season. They'll miss USC and Utah next season and play four of their last five games in the state of Washington.
The season will begin on Sept. 5 at home against Portland State before heading on the road to face Rutgers. They'll finish up nonconference play at home against Wyoming. Their only bye week will be after playing Wyoming on Sept. 19 before they open up Pac-12 play on the road against California. The following week the Cougars travel to Eugene to take on Oregon, marking the only time they'll play back-to-back road games.
Homecoming will be the Cougars' Pac-12 home-opener set for October 17 against Oregon State and after heading on the road to play Arizona the following week, the Cougars will return home to face Stanford on Halloween. It will be the second time in three years the Cougars will play on Halloween in Pullman.
WSU gets another home game following Stanford against Arizona State on Nov. 7 before traveling to UCLA and facing the Bruins for the first time since Leach's first year as head coach. The Cougars, after missing Colorado this year, will face the Buffaloes in Pullman with their last home game on Nov. 21 before finishing the season in Seattle for the Apple Cup.
The home schedule is at follows: vs. Portland State, vs. Wyoming, vs. Oregon State, vs. Stanford, vs. Arizona State, vs. Colorado. Here's the road schedule: at Rutgers, at Cal, at Oregon, at Arizona, at UCLA, at Washington.
Full press release in THE WIRE:
https://washingtonstate.rivals.com/wire.asp
MY THOUGHTS...
After a decent nonconference slate, which includes what could be another good game against Rutgers in New Jersey and a decent home opponent in Wyoming, WSU's October gets off to an uneasy start. A road game at Cal to kick things off isn't going to be easy, as you've seen how Cal has improved already this year, even though it's early. The good thing is they'll get a bye week to get ready for that game, which should be beneficial.
Early bye weeks kind of suck, but if it's going to be early, it might as well be right before starting Pac-12 play against an improved opponent that matches up similarly to you. Then a dreadful trip to Oregon to face the Ducks, who despite losing Mariota should be well-stocked to make another push atop the Pac-12 and national rankings.
Then you get Homecoming against Oregon State, who loses Sean Mannion before making a trip to the desert to face Arizona. They had success in Tucson last year, but that's going to be another tough trip with a team that's going to be better next season with the amount of youth they currently have on defense.
They wrap up October by heading back home to face Stanford on Halloween. So, you have three road games at Cal, Oregon and Arizona with home contests against Stanford and Oregon State, culminating in a tough month against quality opponents, but here's not going to be pushover, at least looking at things right now, in Pac-12 play anyway.
Getting Stanford and Arizona State, who they'll face after the Cardinal, at home in back-to-back weeks will be nice late in the season. The second half of the season actual works out pretty well, with their only trip out of the state to UCLA, where they've had success in the past. A home tilt against Colorado and the Apple Cup on Black Friday in Seattle finishes it up.
So, it looks like there's some favorable match ups at home against Portland State, Wyoming, Oregon State, and Colorado with two tough home games against Stanford and Arizona State back-to-back. The beginning of Pac-12 play is brutal, though, with the two road games. All in all, I think the schedule looks pretty good despite a rough second month of the season.
What are your thoughts?
This post was edited on 9/16 8:19 PM by Britton Ransford
This post was edited on 9/16 8:41 PM by Britton Ransford