College football’s preseason bottom 10 of 2010: #9 Washington State

When Bill Doba took over at Washington State following Mike Price’s departure back in 2003, the program was pretty much at its zenith. Prior to that there were a few six and seven win seasons sprinkled throughout the Cougar record book. But there was nothing of note that really jumped out at you.

Price directed the Cougars to back-to-back 10-win campaigns his last two years on the job, including a 34-14 loss to Oklahoma in the 2003 Rose Bowl that proved to be his last game. Doba debuted with a 10-win season of his own in 2003 that culminated in a 28-20 victory over Texas in the Holiday Bowl.

The good times were pretty much over after that. Doba stumbled to a 5-6 mark in season two and didn’t generate another winning record before being let go in 2007. Paul Wulff came over from Eastern Washington to assume the head coaching reins and the Cougars went from being mediocre to being very, very bad. In his two years on the job, Wulff is 3-22 and his Wazzu teams have been outscored to the tune of 1,032-309 in those games. Ouch.

The good news is that Wulff returns eight starters on offense and nine on defense. The bad news is that these same players generated the following statistical rankings last year: 119th nationally in total offense (248.6 ypg), 120th in total defense (512 ypg) and 119th in scoring offense (12 ppg). Wazzu also allowed a mind boggling 53 sacks on the season.

There’s really not a player on the current roster who appears to be a threat to make the All-Pac 10 first team. How pitiful is that? Junior wide receiver Jared Karstetter has a chance to put up some decent numbers if Cougar quarterbacks can stay upright long enough to get him the ball. On the defensive side of the ball, linebacker Alex Hoffman-Ellis might be a beast if he were surrounded by better players.

Unfortunately for Cougar fans, it doesn’t appear that Wulff is in the process of dramatically upgrading this team’s talent. His best signee this past February was quarterback Connor Halliday out of Spokane. Wazzu had to fight off superpowers like Hawaii, Idaho and Montana to get him. Deone Buchannon might turn into a productive defensive back for Wazzu, but Cal Poly, Nevada and San Diego State were the other schools that extended offers to him. Basically, there’s no influx of Rivals 100 talent that’s making its way to Pullman.

Until Washington State goes head-to-head with other Pac-10 schools and starts beating them for recruits, then the program’s talent level will remain roughly what it is at a Villanova, Montana or other top FCS program. For the Wazzu faithful, 2003 must seem like it was decades ago.

Why Wazzu is in the bottom 10: BCS conference teams don’t get much less talented than this. If you compare Wazzu to the bottom feeders in other BCS leagues then the difference is pretty damn noticeable. Take Syracuse, for instance, a team that is pretty much considered to be the worst in the Big East right now. There might be three or four guys for Wazzu who could start for Syracuse. Yikes.

How Wazzu can avoid the bottom 10: If Wazzu goes on the road and pulls an upset over Oklahoma State in the opener then this team MIGHT be able to build a 4-win season off of that momentum. An injection of confidence can do wonders for a marginally talented team.

Preseason bottom 10 of 2010: #10 UL Monroe