The Arizona's didn't have to rebound. They both were underperforming, but were still going to bowl games.
Actually, Arizona finished 4-8 in 2011 when Stoops was fired. They were at the end of a three year slide from 8 wins down to 4 wins. ASU failed to make it to bowl games in 2009 & 2010. They did make a bowl game in 2011 and lost......and they fired their coach. ASU was the more stable situation but when your best season from 2008 to 2011 was the year that you didn't make a bowl game.......you weren't in that good of a spot. To suggest that their new coaches haven't done tremendous jobs is ignoring reality.
As far as WSU goes, I'm optimistic about this season. Lots of upperclassmen on both lines, great receivers, a QB that we can work with, and a battle tested secondary that will look better this year (even if they still aren't all that good). I agree with many of the comments above but I have to say that the Rutgers game is going to be the linchpin for our entire season. It's dangerous to put too much emphasis on one game, but if we lose to Rutgers, I can't forsee us making a bowl game in 2015. Rutgers would be the 9th best team in the Pac-12 (at best) and if we can't beat them, even on the road, it's hard to imagine WSU going 4-5 against the rest of our schedule. It would certainly make the California game a must win game. If we are sitting at 3-3 at the midpoint of the season with Arizona, Stanford, ASU, UCLA, CU and UW remaining, it would be hard to plan on getting more than two wins. I think we beat both Cal and Rutgers and shock the football world and start 5-1.
The other reason for optimism is the schedule. We get CU on the schedule and miss Utah. I would not want to play a pissed off Ute team this year. Rutgers is going to be a good test but any bowl team needs to head into a game against them feeling like they should win. They went 2-5 in the regular season against bowl teams last year. OSU and UW are going to struggle. Cal has to prove that they can win after finishing 1-6 last season. For all of their improvement, the Bears were two plays away from 3-9. Lots of winnable games if we get it together.
W - Portland State is an easy win. 4+ TD margin of victory.
W - Rutgers is a road game and I think we get revenge. Blown coverage on the first play of the game and a muffed punt return cost us that game.
W - Wyoming will be confident coming into the game but I think the two creampuffs will hurt them. They are going to be blown away by our offense.
W - Cal has a difficult early schedule with a sneaky tough SDSU team early followed by a road game against Texas that features a physically gifted team with something to prove. We get a week off before them. I think we come out rested and blast them.
L- Oregon is going to beat us. I think we give them a tough fight in the first half (like we've done so often) but they score 21 points in the third quarter to blow the game open.
W - Oregon State is going to have a brutal start to the season. Michigan with Harbaugh as coach is going to pummel them. Stanford is going to wear on them physically. They get a week off and have to play an Arizona team that is going to run them ragged. If we just play football, we should handle them easily to reach 5-1.
L - Arizona loses some important pieces but I'll be surprised if we pull off the upset. They toyed with us last year.
W - Stanford is my upset special for the Cougs. This is the year where everyone starts to question David Shaw. I say the Cardinal finish 7-5 again with us being one of their losses.
L - ASU is going to roll us. They have things humming right now. They do have a brutal schedule with Texas A&M, USC, UCLA, Utah, and Oregon on the slate before us. They could be the best 4-4 team in the country heading into our game. I figure their either rolling along with confidence or desperate with something to prove. Either way, I'm not excited about this game. One bit of historical news on the series with them is outside of the debacle in 2013, we normally play them tough in Pullman.
L - UCLA on the road late in the season is a recipe for disaster for the Cougs. They'll have things figured out and we'll be wearing down. It's hard to remember the days when we owned the Bruins. From 1994 to 2007, WSU went 9-3 against the Bruins. with one stretch at 6-1. Ahhhh, the good ol' days. This will be our sixth straight loss in the series.
W - Colorado is going to get better, but they haven't been a good football team in a while. We'll be beat up but they'll be even more beat up. I see them starting out 4-0 but going 1-6 heading into our game. If this was in Boulder, I might give them the advantage.
W - UW was dumped in a bad place by Sarkisian. They just lost most of their better players and got stuck with a tough schedule to boot. Sacramento State is the only legitimate cupcake on their schedule. OSU is their next weakest opponent. I think that they are going to be 3-8 and melting down when we play them. 2-9 or 1-10 are unlikely but not out of the question.
The above look puts us at 8-4 (5-4). I would expect us to be behind Oregon, USC, UCLA, ASU, Arizona and Utah. If a Pac-12 team makes the CFB playoff, that puts us in Las Vegas for a bowl game. There would be nothing wrong with that.