Washington State Football: 5 Reasons Cougars will take down Oregon

With College Gameday in Pullman for the first time, Washington State football will look to take down Oregon and position themselves for a run at the PAC-12 North title.

The PAC-12 is almost certainly eliminated from the College Football Playoff chase, but the conference may sport the two most intriguing divisional races in the nation. The PAC-12 North, in particular, appears to be wide-open on the heels of Oregon’s upset of Washington a week ago. The division boasts four teams with one conference loss, and all four look like contenders to represent the North in the PAC-12 Championship game.

Saturday night’s game in Pullman could be an elimination game in the PAC-12 North race with the winner positioning themselves for a run at the divisional crown.

This was supposed to a rebuilding year for Mike Leach’s club after winning 26 games over the previous three seasons. Most prognosticators projected the Cougars to finish near the bottom of the PAC-12 standings and struggle to gain bowl eligibility. The graduation of decorated QB Luke Falk left Leach without a proven signal-caller heading into 2018, which was a big reason for the pessimism surrounding the program.

Oregon Ducks Football

Leach was able to peruse the graduate transfer market, and convince East Carolina transfer Gardner Minshew to eschew a verbal commitment to Alabama to come take the reigns of Leach’s air-raid system. Minshew was planning on heading to Tuscaloosa as more of a learning opportunity to prepare for a future in coaching, but couldn’t pass up the opportunity to start at a power-five program for a coach with a proven track record of developing his position.

Minshew has been everything Leach and company could have hoped for and more, currently leading the country in passing yards and the PAC-12 in passing touchdowns. He has led Washington State to a 5-1 start, with a three-point road loss to USC being the only blemish on their resume. A win here could potentially set up a winner-take-all Apple Cup at the end of the regular season for the division title.

Oregon seized control of the PAC-12 with their overtime victory over Washington last weekend in Eugene. The Ducks showed tangible signs of progress last season under Willie Taggart, and Mario Cristobal has made the most of his second chance as a head coach, picking up where Taggart left off. The Ducks also sit at 5-1, and are a late CJ Verdell fumble against Stanford away from being undefeated and being in control of their playoff destiny. While a playoff berth seems unlikely, Oregon can still smell the Pasadena roses, a smell that will get stronger if they can navigate through a tricky road game in Pullman on Saturday night.

That will be much easier said than done against a Washington State team with Rose Bowl aspirations of their own, a feat the Cougars haven’t accomplished since 2002-03 when Mike Price was still roaming the sidelines.

It will be a tall order for Washington State to get to Pasadena, but the Cougars seem to be well positioned to take down the Ducks.

Here’s 5 reasons they will get it done: