Good morning Cougs, and a happy Monday to you and yours.  

As for yours truly?  Well, I'm bummed.  After the craziness of yesterday's Seahawks playoff loss, it stings.  After falling so far behind, looking so dreadful for long stretches, only to come all the way back like that....and then let them get that last second field goal?  Brutal, and a tremendous heartbreaker with the finality in all of it.

I still am in disbelief as to how it all came down though.  They looked so bad early, where they just couldn't get out of their own way and once again got off to a lousy, WTF is going on start to it all.  An early fumble by Marshawn Lynch, going for it on 4th and inches in easy field goal range, not getting points right before the half, and falling behind even further in the 3rd?  I sure thought it was over and was tweeting that I hope ATL plays like this next week vs. the hated Harbaugh's and San Fran!  But what a fourth quarter, what a comeback, what a disappointment, and finally, what a QB the Hawks have right now.

I am still amazed at how far, how fast, Russell Wilson has come on in the NFL.  Early in the season I was just not buying him, I just didn't see it.  He just didn't look good enough early on, looked a little too uneasy in the pocket and the accuracy wasn't there yet, things were not clicking.  After they lost vs. St Louis early on when Wilson threw an INT on the last possession, I was ready for Matt Flynn.  But they stuck with the kid QB, took the growing pains and all that, all the while knowing what they had.  And then he played huge in the comeback vs. New England, and things just sort of took off from there.  And wow, here we are!  And it's not just me being a D-Bag HOMER on Wilson either.  Check out some of this stuff on Wilson from Mike Sando at ESPN.com.  Pretty impressive, even in defeat!

Anyway, it's tough.  Today I can sit here and say "Hey, this is one of the youngest teams in the NFL, they have their franchise QB now and a young, hungry defense.  THEY'LL BE BACK!"  But will they?  There is no guarantee of anything going forward.  And a lot of very good/great QB's have broken through early in their careers, only to never get back when things looked so promising early on.  Dan Marino went to a Super Bowl in his second season, but never got a taste again.  Brett Favre went to a couple of Super Bowls in his first five seasons, but despite getting really close after that and many deep playoff runs, he never made it back either.  It's just so damn tough to get to the promised land, and you never know what the future will hold.  It's hard to be disappointed with an 11-win season and a road playoff win with a rookie QB who tied Peyton Manning's rookie TD pass record.  But at the same time they were THIS CLOSE to playing in the NFC championship game!  So today is truly a "mixed bag" of emotions.  Sad and disappointed that it's over, yet hopeful (cautiously) for what lies ahead.  

Anyway, on to the morning links......

Happy Friday Cougs, and as always we hope all is well for you and yours as we wrap up the week.  Things are pretty chilly around the great NW this morning, as this pic from Martin Stadium shows that the cold-n-snow-n-such has settled in typical January fashion.  I don't know about you, but this week was a flippin' BLUR to yours truly.  Work is work is work and all that, and that always makes time fly based on the size of the pile that you need to get through.  But it was a busy week around the Coug universe too, as well as other "interests" we all seem to have around here.  So let's take a look at what's up out there, shall we?

Hello Followers.  Hope you’re having a great week.

Moments ago, the Pac-12 released the 2013 Cougar Football Schedule which is noted after the jump below.  One word describes it.  YIKES!!!!!

(read on)

Maples was rocking tonight.

For a time tonight, I had visions in my head of writing about a road win and about conference parity and about how maybe this team could somehow scratch out a mediocre conference season. A very late 14-0 Stanford run dashed those hopes and with about two minutes left, I pulled out my laptop and set out to write about another loss. The Cougs and Card looked like evenly matched teams and just prior to the Stanford run, the Cougs even looked superior with only some impressive, if borderline, ridiculous shooting by the home team keeping the good guys from being the team to pull away. Alas, the Wazzu shots stopped falling and the smart guys' just never did. The result was somehow a double digit loss to a team that, quite frankly, isn't very good. For more notes on yet another disappointing Bone Era performance, click on the jump. Then when you're done, leave some comments. We can all talk about it together, like a community and stuff.

A little sideline competition for Jake Rodgers' mullet?

According to the Columbia Daily Tribune, former Missouri offensive coordinator David Yost is close to being the latest addition to Mike Leach's staff. Here are all the details/speculation/rumors etc.

Clearly I was the only Irishman prepared to put up a fight.

Yep, I rooted for Notre Dame. Pretty sure I’ve never done that before (even at the end of Rudy a part of me wanted him to get pancaked), and pretty sure I won’t be doing that again anytime soon. Basically after last year’s debacle I really wanted an entertaining National Championship game and I am SICK of the SEC. Unfortunately we all saw this coming. A Notre Dame team that struggled to handle juggernauts like Purdue, BYU and Pitt at home against a loaded Alabama team that just boat raced the SEC for a 2nd consecutive year? As finales go, this was a letdown. Once again we would have to endure an avalanche of SEC domination chatter and there was nothing that could stop it. (Something tells me that Clemson and Louisville aren’t as awe struck by the dominance of the SEC as all the talking heads on TV are.) Oh well, there I was, dressed like a drunk idiot on St. Paddy’s day (mostly to needle our host for the evening who is from Alabama) without nearly enough Guinness and Jameson to make the game interesting. But was this the worst championship offering of the BCS era?

To be fair, this year’s matchup was not entirely the BCS’s fault. Notre Dame, by going undefeated, may very well have found their way into the title game in a non-BCS year, but the BCS certainly didn’t help. In the end, a lot of things had to fall into place for this to happen. Not only did the Domers get the benefit of a very iffy call at the end of their overtime win over Stanford (clearly Stanford had scored a TD), but they also benefited from a string of ineptitudes from Pitt to eek out a triple overtime win over the Panthers. I guess the throttling they took last night was their destiny, or something. But how about Alabama? After the Tide fell to Texas A&M at home on November 10, it appeared the path was clear for Oregon and/or Kansas State to make their own run at the title with lurkers such as Florida and Georgia also given new life. But it all came crashing down a week later as both Oregon and Kansas State fell to conference foes vaulting Alabama back into the #2 spot. Lets just call November 17 “Black Saturday”, shall we? The result was a Championship Game that can best be summed up by this honest sentiment... I wish I had gone to Les Mis instead.

"I had a dream this game would be, so different from the game I'm seeing..."

As we enter 2013, the final year before we institute a playoff in 2014, lets take a look back at some of the other stinkers we have been forced to endure over the years. Since it’s kinda what we do here, lets rank the top three worst Championship games of the BCS era after the jump...

According the multiple reports, Mike Leach and staff have been cleared of all abuse allegations by the Pac-12.  Apparently, the report issued only three recommendations for improvement moving forward including monitoring the length of workouts as well as eliminating the water spraying stuff.

Personally, I'm not surprised.  A few days ago, Mastro turned down overtures to take over the Nevada job.  While part of his decision to not take that job may have reflected a wise choice to not being "the guy" to follow "the guy," his commitment to Leach hardly seemed like he was following the Pied Piper into the ocean...

In any event, all eyes now go to the replacement of two Assistant coaches as well as recruiting.  Indeed, the nightmare that was 2012 is now officially over.  Thank goodness.

All for now.  Go Cougs.

Hello Followers.  Hope you’re having a great week.

While last night’s overwhelming performance by Alabama put an end to the 2012 College Football season, we here at the WSU Football Blog have our eyes focused squarely on 2013.  For a few, deep thoughts –quick hit style—click on the jumperoo.

Happy Monday Cougs, and a much-belated Happy New Year to you and yours.  After some time off, it's time to climb back into the chair and get after it, Morning Drip style, so here we go.....

Hello Followers.  Hope you’ve had a great week.

Today, we take a few moments to tip our proverbial caps to our feathered friends to the South—especially their leader of men, Chip Kelly.  For more on that, as well as a few observations about the Cougs and the Pac-12 North in 2013, read on.