Washington State Football: How Many Wins Can the Cougars Get In 2011?

After a win on the road in Boulder against the Colorado Buffaloes, the Washington State Cougars sit at 3-1 (1-0) in the 2011 season.

In order to bowl eligible, the Cougars will need at least six wins, meaning they would have to win at least three of their remaining eight games.

The Cougars are undefeated in conference play, and have only Pac-12 opponents ahead of them on the schedule.

Here are the win(s), losses, and tossups for the Cougars for the remainder of the season.

The Win(s)

Oregon State

The only game that I think Cougars fans can chalk-up as a “W” is that against the Beavers in three weeks.

Oregon State is clearly the easiest game on the Cougs’ remaining schedule, and this should be a win in the Palouse.

Record: 1-0

The Losses

Stanford, Oregon, Arizona State

The reasons these three are losses should be pretty obvious.

The Stanford Cardinal are currently ranked No. 6 in the country and primed for a BCS run.

The Oregon Ducks, the two-time defending conference champions, have the most speed and talent in the Pac-12.

The Cougars could maybe pull a fast one on the ASU Sun Devils, but I think the speed and experience Arizona State brings is too much for the Cougs to handle.

Record: 0-3

The Tossups

UCLA, Cal, Utah, Washington

These four games will decide the fate of Washington State. The Cougars must go into Pasadena on Oct. 8th to face the UCLA Bruins in a game that could go either way.

After three weeks of Stanford, Oregon State and Oregon, the Cougs play the Bears on the road in Cal’s home stadium (AT&T Park, San Francisco). Washington State concludes its 2011 season with back-to-back games against the Utah Utes (Pullman) and Washington Huskies (Seattle).

I only see the Cougars winning two of these games: against UCLA and against Cal. The Cougars have to go into Seattle to face the Huskies and the Utes are slightly better then Cougars both offensively and defensively.

Record: 2-2

Recap

If you’ve kept up with my projected wins and losses, you’ll see I have the Cougs going 3-5 in their remaining eight games to finish at 6-6. Yes, I think the Cougs will be bowling once again.

The Cougars haven’t played in a bowl game since the 2003 Holiday Bowl, and it seems Washington State has finally gotten the program going in the right direction. Wulff’s first three seasons brought about a combined 5-32 record, including a 2-10 season in 2010.

The improvement from last season to this might be the biggest in all of college football.

Record: 6-6