Playing Houston home & home
- Thread starter cr8zyncalif
- Start date
I like the opponent, but I don't think it's good scheduling. Long road trip, tough opponent. Would rather us schedule MWC or low tier power 5s.
There is no reason to go that far. Again, with feeling... Fresno State, San Diego State, San Jose State, Hawaii, UNLV. Put your coaches in the area they recruit when you go on a road trip. Whip their arse and flood their local news with your victory to get some positive press out.
Houston? In the last 75 years, how many kids from Houston have played for WSU?
Illinois played in Pullman in 1998. They sucked....we sucked....nobody wants to remember that season at this point.
As far as playing against Houston, I think this is a good choice overall. They have been good enough in the past six years that a win over them will be respected but they are still a team that we should be able to compete well against at home or on the road. We have a number of guys from Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and Florida that would find Houston to be a good place to watch the Cougs. Looking at the long game, a good showing by WSU fans in Houston may bolster future chances at an Alamo Bowl invite if we are trying to get selected ahead of someone else.
In general, I agree that we need to be selective on our OOC foes to make sure that it serves a purpose, but if a game in Houston gets us a win and one recruit....that's good enough for me.
Long road trip and (likely) BRUTAL humidity in September in advance of a 9-game Pac-12 schedule. I don't hate it, but it's not a trip I'll make and not a game that really helps WSU. If you're going to invest all that travel time, I'd rather line up against a mid-tier SEC, ACC, Big-10, or Big-12 team.
Hey, don't sell the city of Houston short. It's got terrible traffic, it sprawls for miles and if you're near the ocean......it smells bad. Why wouldn't you want to visit?
I see the access this will bring. Houston and potentially Dallas/FW are some of the largest markets in the nation, and that's if it's only aired locally. And it's rich in recruiting potential. With the growth I see in WSU, I'm OK with this, although it's approaching the threshold. Gonna cringe a bit at the kickoff for each game... if both are played.
Illinois came to Pullman in 1998? Really? Where was I? For the life of me, I can't remember Illinois playing in Pullman, only remember COUGS playing in Champaign.Illinois played in Pullman in 1998. They sucked....we sucked....nobody wants to remember that season at this point.
As far as playing against Houston, I think this is a good choice overall. They have been good enough in the past six years that a win over them will be respected but they are still a team that we should be able to compete well against at home or on the road. We have a number of guys from Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and Florida that would find Houston to be a good place to watch the Cougs. Looking at the long game, a good showing by WSU fans in Houston may bolster future chances at an Alamo Bowl invite if we are trying to get selected ahead of someone else.
In general, I agree that we need to be selective on our OOC foes to make sure that it serves a purpose, but if a game in Houston gets us a win and one recruit....that's good enough for me.
Wait, just looked it up. You're right. September 5th, we won 20-13.
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Not that WSU couldn't be successful recruiting in Texas, but there are plenty of options in Texas already AND other options that are literally 1000 miles closer to home.
Seems to me like there are plenty of kids on the West Coast. Unless you've got a kid that grew up in Houston dreaming of playing for WSU, why go???
With Biggs on this. I think there are worse OOC games to line up (like the ridiculous home-and-home with Central Michigan, which this replaced), but there are a ton of better ones. Houston will either be pretty good then, like they are now, in which case this is one hell of a tough road trip (115 degrees, with humidity, against a good team), or they aren't, in which case this is still a really, really tough road game where we'll get very little credit for winning despite circumstances that likely will be extremely difficult.
I'm with Biggs that we should just be racking up wins against teams like Hawaii, Fresno State, UNLV, and maybe even Texas State (if we're after exposure in Texas). I think UNLV is one of the best OOC opponents outside of the Power 5 (a bad Power 5 like Iowa State might be the best, but everyone wants to play them). Consistently terrible but most people have heard of them. Sounds dumb to people like us who actually follow this stuff, but I'd spitball that 95% of the general public, 60% of national-level football fans, and probably even 40-50% of sports media, don't really know or care about the full extent of the difference in difficulty between a road game at UNLV and a road game at Houston.
We were all for scheduling the Portland States, EWUs, MSUs, etc. and now I'm not sure that's a great idea given how that's turned out (2 losses and a near loss). All downside, and no upside. Houston is willing to do a home and away with us (not "home and home" guys), so it's not a bad idea. I'd rather see us play Utah State, Colorado State, BYU, UNLV, Fresno State, etc. though.
Agree, in principal. But, there are 11 other schools in our conference that want to schedule games with Fresno, SDSU & SJSU for that very purpose. Those schools have no trouble scheduling Pac12 opponents. We gotta get in line and wait for those games.
The one advantage to playing someone like Houston instead of the MWC teams is the media exposure that it brings to the midwest. If WSU wins at Houston in a game that starts in the early evening in Texas......it might get watched by people in Texas and the midwest. If WSU is playing Utah State in a game that kicks off at 9:30 pm CST, nobody east of the Rockies is watching it. That doesn't matter a lot overall, but at the same time, if we have a QB or other player looking for national recognition, the more eyeballs that have seen him.....the better.
If Hilinski has a Heisman campaign going, it isn't bad if people in Texas know who he is.
If Hilinski has a Heisman campaign going, it isn't bad if people in Texas know who he is.
Bring your checkbook and offer a return trip. How many times in the last 100 years has SC played at San Jose? How bout UCLA playing at SDSU?
Create a partnership that isn't one sided. Bring your checkbook and out bid if you have to.
We've all seen what WSU is when it goes cheap. It's time to invest in more than just buildings. Get some 1A non conference wins.
All that travel time? Once you are in the air, another 1000 miles takes 2 hours. Big deal.
A home and home against a quality intersectional opponent? Sure.
I'm all for power-5 teams coming up to Pullman. I like the PAC 12 and all, but a new/different power-5 team coming to Pullman every so often would be a real treat in my opinion.
The 2019 out of conference schedule is the perfect example about why I'm not a fan of WSU over-extending themselves.
Since 2019 is an odd numbered year (obviously), we play a road Apple Cup, 5 conference away games, and only 4 conference home games. On top of that, here's what our non league schedule looks like.
vs. Northern Colorado (Sept. 7th)
at Houston (Sept. 14th)
vs. BYU (Oct. 12th)
Sure, we can beat Houston, but it's not a given, and the travel and expected climate really suck. The BYU game comes in the middle of our conference season. Playing BYU is always physically brutal. They have an older team given the number of returning missionaries on their roster, and they're loaded with big, strong Polynesian kids up front. Not exactly an opponent you want play sandwiched between (for example) Oregon and UCLA.
From a fans perspective, this will be a fun schedule, but strategically, I think WSU is better off playing a more bowl favorable schedule. In order for us to qualify for a bowl game in 2019, we'll need to win (2) of these non-conference games and go 4-5 in league play (again, with 5 conference road games). Not exactly a walk in the park.
Since 2019 is an odd numbered year (obviously), we play a road Apple Cup, 5 conference away games, and only 4 conference home games. On top of that, here's what our non league schedule looks like.
vs. Northern Colorado (Sept. 7th)
at Houston (Sept. 14th)
vs. BYU (Oct. 12th)
Sure, we can beat Houston, but it's not a given, and the travel and expected climate really suck. The BYU game comes in the middle of our conference season. Playing BYU is always physically brutal. They have an older team given the number of returning missionaries on their roster, and they're loaded with big, strong Polynesian kids up front. Not exactly an opponent you want play sandwiched between (for example) Oregon and UCLA.
From a fans perspective, this will be a fun schedule, but strategically, I think WSU is better off playing a more bowl favorable schedule. In order for us to qualify for a bowl game in 2019, we'll need to win (2) of these non-conference games and go 4-5 in league play (again, with 5 conference road games). Not exactly a walk in the park.
I think it's actually 6 home games, unless we're planning on playing BYU in Seattle. Either way, Houston and BYU are often times as good as good as the competition we face in the Pac-12, so we've got 11 tough games and one cupcake. Again, good for the fans, but a tough task for the team.
Well, I don't know that there are any easy outs any more. So put your big ballz on and go play ball.
agreed, besides, when we were playing idaho every year people complained that the schedule was too soft
I know. It's ridiculous.
Honestly though, if Power 5 conferences went to playing every team in your league with 1 non conference game I'd be fine with it.
That schedule could be great if Hilinski turns out to be a great QB for the air raid and Leach (and his assistants) continue to grow the program. Hilinski will be a senior QB hoping for Heisman attention. Assuming that Houston doesn't fade to irrelevance, that game will get the attention of voters in the Midwest. With BYU in mid-October, we will have played at least two Pac-12 teams and should be battle tested. According to the interwebs, BYU is scheduled to play the following games before us: Utah, @ Tennessee, USC, UW and @ Toledo. They will either be highly regarded or beaten into submission by the time they play us. Unfortunately, they do get a bye week before us but maybe we can get one as well and play the game on Thursday October 10th for a nationally televised game.
I'm digging that 2019 schedule!
98 was forgettable in so many ways -
I think most of Coug nation, including the staff and players, were still hungover from the RB loss.
MenkenBaum
Wasn't there Gilmore drama?
Perfect explanation and reasoning, Bleed! Agree. Thanks, (on why 1998 was a season to forget).
I'd say that losing Leaf was bigger than the loss in the Rose Bowl. There were obviously other key graduation losses, but if Ryan would have done the right thing for himself and WSU, he would have stayed and he would have been enough to get us back to a bowl game. We wouldn't have had a very good team, but with Leaf, we would have been good enough to get to 7 wins. Dropping from Pac-12 champs to barely bowl eligible might have taught him some humility and helped our team more in the long run too.
Perhaps not SC or UCLA, but SDSU has Stanford at home this year, and had Cal last year. OSU in '13 & WSU in '11.
FSU has had Utah, Nebraska, Rutgers & CU all at home over the last 5 years.
Just pointing out, we're not the only ones trying to do this.
Are you thinking of the RB, Deon Burnett? He left during half time of the AC.
It's ok if WSU isn't the only one that is trying to do this. WSU is the one that needs to be the most successful at doing this. It is crucial to building a winning tradition, something WSU has never had.
