So here's a wrinkle. The author of that Athlon article wasn't some schmuck East Coaster, not some Athlon committee... It was our own Theo, from the Spokesman.
Is 27th ranking acceptable for next year?
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There's no denying that we've been far better than Oregon over the past 4 years, but as far as name recognition, it's not even close. They've won multiple league titles, NY6 bowl games, played in the National Championship game, and their other sports teams compete at a high level.
He's not in charge of the preseason rankings.
Blanchette used to do the Lindy's preview.
I'm not overthinking, I'm simply looking at the obvious. WSU >>>> ISU in every aspect, and we proved it on the field. Our record is better, our players (recruiting rankings) are better,
You (and the writers) give a ton of credit to other teams but none to WSU. Yes, we lose our qb, the lynchpin of our offense. Also, CML has never struggled to find someone to put up gawdy numbers EVERY YEAR HE'S COACHED. We are stacked at WR. And our defense has gotten better every year for the past 10.
I don't really care about #24 and #27, but to act like these things are anything but east coast bias puff pieces (what's new) you are fooling yourself. No one in the country can objectively look at ISU and WSU and say they are a better team than us.
Right. So so many of these points being made have been surrounded by the idea of, "We have to earn their respect. We don't have the tradition. We have to be more consistent." And it was some obligatory person/people out there that we had to prove something too.
This goes to the heart of sports writing... Are they unbiased? Should we have a "fair" sports writer or should we have a Coug fan as a beat writer? Does anyone on this board think the local Texas writers or Okie writers aren't drinking the kool-aid out there? So these big perennial programs have sports writers that have bought in (thus helping the program as above outlined, the better the ranking the more exposure for recruiting), while we have our local guy trying to be fair? We all know that sports writers aren't unbiased. They shouldn't be. Never have been.
Has Blanchette drank the Koolaid for a certain local basketball team?
I like Theo. He does a bang-up job. But this blew me away to see he wrote this.
Your comment here goes to my response to Gib's. It isn't some east coast bias puff piece. It's a local writer that should know better.
not really a wrinkle. it was fairly complementary. he has no say in how the teams were ranked though (I suspect.)
he only wrote the WSU part. He didn't rank the teams. I'm fine with what was written about WSU - it was surprisingly (but not, since now I know it was Theo) well informed and insightful.
Agree to disagree. The article was fine. The ranking wasn't. I don't know that he had zero say in the ranking. He'd have to, I think.
Example: He writes an article thinking WSU is Top 10, lets say. It's full of praise, etc. And then Athlon ranks WSU as 45? No way. Of course he had say in the ranking. I'll bet you, if someone had the time to go through a bunch of articles, there is another Athlon preview of some other team with the ranking of 27. Or at least 2 teams of whatever ranking.
That's the thing that killed me about Blanchette's reviews in Lindy's- they were actually good. Not his normal back handed, sarcastic BS. The dude was actually capable of good writing, he just chose not to do so most of the time.
Maybe they ranked them up front. told the writers what the rankings were, and then said "write your story".
Maybe it's because I'm originally from the East coast, I'm not exactly sure, but I've always liked Blancette's columns. He's not pro WSU, he makes a lot of cutting remarks, he clearly favors Spokane over Pullman in everything he writes about, and he's butt hurt to some degree about how he's been treated by WSU over the years, but his writing makes me laugh. When we lose games, make bad decisions, or especially when a coach (even Leach) manages a game badly (re: Colorado State bowl game), I expect and enjoy the press to rip into us.
I'm not a typical WSU fan though. I don't have little brother syndrome. I don't cry, nor do I care, when Gonzaga or UW get more press than we do. I genuinely believe (know) that WSU is the best place to attend college in the NW. I wish we had more resources, but the remoteness of Pullman is why I chose it and it's what makes it such an awesome place.
You are fooling yourself. What has our QB done at WSU and what has their's done at ISU? We had a record type season from Minshew, and we beat them by 2 points.
Whooop de f'n doo.
I thought the rankings were for this year. Silly me. We were ranked 13th in the way-too early poll at the end of the season.
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QB and RB depth were question marks going into last season as well. Leach's QB's always do well and I think the RB situation is better than better than people believe.
I agree with you, but it’s also presumptuous to assume that grad transfers will always be plug and play. A preseason forecast of 27th suggests that we’ll be a 7-5 / 8-4 team, and given our schedule and the questions surrounding QB, RB depth, and our secondary, that doesn’t seem unreasonable.
My thinking is that the QB for WSU is going to do well because all of Leach's QB's do well, whether it be at Kentucky, Oklahoma, Texas Tech or WSU. I think that there is enough offensive talent coming back that the QB is set up for success.
Tuel wasn't great, but he wasn't bad. With the talent on this team, I am guessing he would have put up much better stats.
It's good to see that you, for the moment, have broken free from your addiction, but I see you have a new one (or is it an old one? Iowa State/Walden residual?).
Flatforbrains, Cougpatroll, and Cougirictile all seem to be of one mind on this one. The three stooges have tied their miniature pony to a post that 37-15 was a fluke.
WTF are you talking about? When I have ever said anything about Leach being a fluke? Scott really needs to rein your dumb a$$ in. I get it that you're an insecure prick who loves to randomly attack other posters without provocation, but leave me out of your little fantasy world that you live in.
You're the perfect example of the type of poster that should be banned from a message board.
I agree that the Cougs will be fine at QB but I'm still wait and see at RB. One of the freshman will have to step up for there to be quality depth at that position.
A freshman had to step up last season for the team to have quality depth. Borghi will carry the bulk of the load. The rest will be a combination of freshman and Cole Dubots depending on the situation. Last year, the Cougars used two RB's. In years past, the Cougars used three. They will go back to using three.
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Flat - WazzuWatch and Scott Hood approve of YakiCoug's ongoing personal attacks, insults, stalking and other behavior that would get him banned from any other college football site. Which is why I quit subscribing after 15 years here.
Lying comes easily to you, doesn't it? Flat doesn't need a mommy, btw. Find a new purpose.
Day and night stalking. Busy schedule. Go ask your BFF Scott Hood how long I was a paying subscriber.
"Find a new purpose". Coming from you, stalker, that is pretty funny.
2 points - when on a neutral field with emotional college kids, and one team is insulted to be there vs that opponent, and the other team insulted to be dismissed like that - is a country mile. ISU gave us everything they had with a full roster on a neutral site to go out in one last blaze of glory... and they couldn’t beat us. Fortunately the record is one of wins and losses and not “context” or near misses.
We have had some teams with enough returning players to look good several times in the last 50 years. Usually it resulted in a good season. Occasionally ('73 still sticks with me) not.
If we give CML the benefit of the doubt at QB (I think his track record merits that confidence), then in looking at the rest of the team we are probably the best returning team thus far of the Leach era. Without McDougle it would be a tough call...and he isn't even a returning starter on this team...but with him, we clearly have most of the boxes checked in terms of what you would want. Heck, we even have both a solid kicker and a solid punter. That is rare in the annals of Coug history.
And I think that hands down this is the best returning coaching staff in the Leach era, and you could make a case that we have not had a DC to go with a quality HC/OC that matches Leach/Claeys since at least the Price/Zimmer days. Last year's body of work makes the abilities of the staff pretty clear, and the lack of staff turnover for this year promises some good preparation.
If we give CML the benefit of the doubt at QB (I think his track record merits that confidence), then in looking at the rest of the team we are probably the best returning team thus far of the Leach era. Without McDougle it would be a tough call...and he isn't even a returning starter on this team...but with him, we clearly have most of the boxes checked in terms of what you would want. Heck, we even have both a solid kicker and a solid punter. That is rare in the annals of Coug history.
And I think that hands down this is the best returning coaching staff in the Leach era, and you could make a case that we have not had a DC to go with a quality HC/OC that matches Leach/Claeys since at least the Price/Zimmer days. Last year's body of work makes the abilities of the staff pretty clear, and the lack of staff turnover for this year promises some good preparation.
I think it's a bit insulting to our team to say that they didn't give it everything that they had in the Alamo Bowl. That game didn't play out like a game where our guys didn't care. If anything, our guys came out pumped up and with something to prove.
FWIW, I think it's hilarious that WSU fans have the audacity to look down their noses at Iowa State's history and worthiness. The Cyclones have beaten far better teams than WSU in the past couple years and we can be proud of our team for knocking them off. To take a dump on Iowa State is to take a dump on our 2015-17 teams......because the 2018 Cyclones are roughly equivalent to those teams. I do feel that our team was the better team and I'm proud of what Leach has been able to accomplish at WSU, but it's kind of myopic to bitch about the way that our team is perceived and then pull the same sh!t ourselves.
Dude, you don't have east coast bias, you have mid west bias. Your head is so far up the b10/12 asses it's pathetic. You again give those conferences a TON of credit and shit on ours, and our team transitively.
In every measurable, WSU>>>> ISU including the head to head. But if course you're going with the "ISU 7-5 with a big win over an over rated team x is better than our 8 or 9 wins.'
Oh, and nowhere did chip say the Cougs sandbagged it, and it's pretty tough to read that into what he did post. I'll spell it out for you since you can't see through your ISU tinted lenses: the Cougs we're ripe for the upset because they easily could have/might have over looked ISU as a worthy opponent. Happens all the time.
Btw, are you flatlandcyclone over at the ISU board? I think that'll be your new name here from now on.
I don't believe that I've ever posted on the Cyclone board.....so no, I'm not that person. FWIW, his post said......"2 points - when on a neutral field with emotional college kids, and one team is insulted to be there vs that opponent, and the other team insulted to be dismissed like that - is a country mile. ISU gave us everything they had with a full roster on a neutral site to go out in one last blaze of glory... and they couldn’t beat us. Fortunately the record is one of wins and losses and not “context” or near misses." There is a clear implication that Iowa State gave everything that they had and we didn't......and they still couldn't beat us.
If that's not how you read it, that's fine, but he took the time to say that our team was insulted to be there. What's kind of funny is that if you read my post....right in the middle I said that I thought that WSU had the better team when compared to Iowa State.....so while you are searching for outrage, we actually agree on that.
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