Cool stat
- Thread starter kougkurt
- Start date
An interesting stat that I heard Jessamyn MacIntyre say on the radio yesterday was that the Cougars are second in the country behind Alabama in points allowed in the second half of games. They have given up only 88 points total in the second half of games or 8.8 points per game. Only Alabama has allowed fewer second half points per game (not sure what it is).
20 of those were to Oregon, after we took our foot off the gas.
Exclude that game, and it drops to 7.5 per game.
It's also more than Oregon State (5), Cal (3), and Arizona (2).
It's funny. Our program has starting bringing up some pretty serious stats. Some are a little... out there but our program has really jumped forward. Which makes my mind go to the next logical step... How do we separate ourselves from all the other 9 win/10 win teams? This is going to be the stuff like "strength of schedule", "statement games", things like that, that are going to come into play.
Every tackle, every run, every catch, every throw, every block... All help in making a "statement" that will separate us from LSU, Michigan, etc. There's going to be at least a few teams that will have the same record as us... I'm guessing but you get my point. I HATE the fact that some here look at it as "out of our programs hands. Someone has to lose for us to move up". B.S.
And honestly, never taking the foot off the pedal. We are supposed to win against AZ. Do you think the committee sees a score like 21-18 and says that WSU is worthy of being in 7th or 6th place? What if the score was 63-14? Makes you look back and see that CML has had this stuff in his brain the whole time. Remember the UI game where he didn't take the foot off the pedal and he got flack for it?
Every tackle, every run, every catch, every throw, every block... All help in making a "statement" that will separate us from LSU, Michigan, etc. There's going to be at least a few teams that will have the same record as us... I'm guessing but you get my point. I HATE the fact that some here look at it as "out of our programs hands. Someone has to lose for us to move up". B.S.
And honestly, never taking the foot off the pedal. We are supposed to win against AZ. Do you think the committee sees a score like 21-18 and says that WSU is worthy of being in 7th or 6th place? What if the score was 63-14? Makes you look back and see that CML has had this stuff in his brain the whole time. Remember the UI game where he didn't take the foot off the pedal and he got flack for it?
We currently are on our 4th winning season in a row, the 4th of 8+ wins, the 3rd of 9+ wins. We now will have gone to 5 bowls in 7 years.
This is what Program building looks like. A high school recruit today has NEVER seen WSU have a losing season in his high school career. Never.
A senior in high school today has never seen WSU lose at home since his sophomore year.
A high school senior has never seen Oregon beat WSU in his high school career, and hasn't seen Stanford win since he was a freshmen.
They've seen gameday come to Pullman and Luke Falk be the all time Pac 12 passer, and Gardner capture the hearts and minds of the masses.
It is one of the greatest spans in our program's history, and to keep it rolling we just have to maintain the structure and keep building. Leach brought more than his scheme to Pullman. He brought a system and mentality and identity to the program. Hard work, overcome adversity, never give up, and keep plugging away and improving.
He brought the belief that a Walk on QB could be the all time Pac 12 passer, or that a Graduate transfer could walk in and be a valid Heisman contender. He brought the idea that kids from Samoa could make it to the NFL at WSU, or win the Polynesian player of the Year award.
As much as people talk about him as "an offensive coach" he definitely cares about defense because he brought one of the top defenses to the conference with not 1 but 2 different coordinators.
He brought the idea that guys from LA or San Diego can not only make the trek to Pullman, but flourish.
We paid him to rebuild the program, and he's done exactly that, but it can be a long standing, long sustaining endeavor after his time here, and all we have to do is keep the structure and identity rolling. All the former players, all the administration / coaching staff understand what it takes now to win consistently in Pullman, what is necessary, and all we have to do is keep adding to it. Brick by brick by Brick.
Having WSU beat a strong schedule, and blow out teams, and going to the CFP, NY6 bowl games, would be nice in the here, now, short term.
BUT
In the short, mid, semi long term, WSU needs, wants to WIN, and the ONLY way WSU is going to CONSISTENTLY do that is with a weaker schedule.
If WSU plays a weaker schedule, WINS CONSISTENTLY. THAT WILL, WOULD BUILD THE WSU PROGRAM, to such that in the long term future, at some point WSU might probably be able to eventually Win Consistently against a stronger schedule.
Until then, what does WSU losing against a stronger schedule, get WSU? NOTHING.
I would rather have WSU CONSISTENTLY WIN 9 to 12 games, against weak pathetic schedules, in the short to mid term, and go to Alamo, Holiday, Fiesta, Cotton, Rose, bowls, for 6 to 11 years, thus BUILDING A PROGRAM, that could then WIN against strong schedules, goto CFP, THEN TO INSTEAD only win 5.5, 5,6 to 9 games against the strongest schedules in order to try to make CFP NOW.
Only winning 6 to 9 games against the toughest schedules would not build WSU into a good, great program, and instead probably would, could keep WSU at 6 to 9 wins.
WSU wants, needs to play weak achedules, to win 9 to 12 games, instead of 6 to 9 games
So as much as winning a strong schedule, going to CFP, woukd be awesome, if it happened, i would rather have, and WSU needs, wants to win 9 to 12 games against a weaker schedule, and miss the CFP, until the WSU program gets built, ready to handle a CFP schedule.
And that probably wont happen for at least another 5 to 9 years at the very least of winning 9 to 12 games against a weak schedule.
I can see that timetable. It's a bit of a semantics game. Like I said, I was looking at the "next logical step".
The logical next step is to keep doing what doing now for 3,4 years to 7,8 years, in winning between semi consistently to consistently 9 to 12 games vs weak schedules.
During that time. DONT TRY TO FIX WHATS NOT BROKEN, DONT CHANGE WHAT WORKS. KEEP DOING THE SAME
THEN AFTER 3,4 to 7,8 years at MINIMUM,
THEN try to win against a CFP schedule, in order to try to make CFP.
If it works, keep doing it.
If it doesnt work, maybe try 1 more time, then if still doesnt work, go back to weak schedules.
Wait 3 to 6 years.
Then try CFP schedule again. If works. Keep doing. If not, try 1 more time. If still doesnt work, go back to weak schedules for another 3 to 6 years.
Rinse, repeat that cycle until 15 to 30 years.
If after 15 to 30 years WSU cant beat a CFP schedule, then forever beat weak schedule, with a exception CFP schedule every 10 years.
Thats the next logical step
Dude... Ease up. To "...keep doing what (we are) doing now..." is not a step. It's not doing anything. You win. Sheesh.
Without Wulff....we wouldn't be in first place!
And you guys said he was good for nothing!
In
Kind of makes you laugh, doesn't it?
We all know how successful WSU has been the last several years under Leach. One of the winningest programs in the conference. I went back and looked at the composite recruiting conference rankings of 24/7 from 2014 through 2018 and the Cougs were ranked 8th, 8th 10th, 9th and 9th. For the same period, Rivals had WSU 12th, 10th, 11th, 11th and 8th.
Kind of makes you laugh, doesn't it?
