I flipped through a couple of the preseason prediction magazines yesterday. From what I saw, the experts have us pretty much pegged for #5 in the North, behind UW, Stanford, Oregon, and Cal and ahead of OSU. I hope Leach and the boys find a way to over-achieve again this year.
Most of these publications have a scratch-the-surface mentality. They simply see WSU losing Luke Falk, Hercules Mata'afa, Cody O'Connell, Daniel Ekuale, and Cole Madison, and fall back on past assumptions that WSU can't maintain success when it loses this many key players.
I'd like to say they're wrong.
But in watching the replay of the Holiday Bowl, I wonder if they're right. Granted that Michigan State's O- and D-lines are better than most Pac-12 lines, I wonder how we'll stand up with four key pieces missing on the lines. Starting with the d-line, if Nick Begg and Taylor Comfort are Ekuale's and Mata'afa's replacements, we're
possibly in significant trouble. MSU simply manhandled them both (Mata'afa sat out the first half). The only hope is that WSU can come up with a committee that holds up. This means newcomers such as Lolohea, Echevarria, Crowder, and Aiolupotea have to contribute immediately. Will Rodgers III and Dallas Hobbs also factor in, assuming their growth continues. One can always hope Hunter Mattox finally shows up. But it's safe to assume that not one of these guys, as an individual, matches the skill set of Mata'afa.
The O-line doesn't concern me as much - yet. The coaches nearly ripped Abraham Lucas' s redshirt off last year, and Robert Valencia is entering his third year with the program. I like Keenan Forbe's physical presence.
But there's a lot of proving to do here, and that's what the mags assume won't happen.