This is the Game Day open thread for the Game against Washington St.
Please leave your comments, questions, complaints or general rants here. I'll have a summary and thoughts on tonight's game up tomorrow.
Keys to the Game
I put those up last night here. In short we need to come out firing and we must take control early. There is no need to keep WSU hanging around so that they can try and steal a game. Booty needs to find his receivers and the running game needs some big plays.
The defense needs to pressure brink into making mistakes, we need to get and then take advantage of any turnovers. We need to win convincingly in order to shut the critics down and not let any future opponents think that we can be beat.
What to Look For
With a bit of a weakened Cougar O line because of injuries look for SC to take advantage of some of their inexperience. If pressure is established it will be tough for Brink to make plays if he is constantly on the move. The secondary will be a little more tested tonight and Brink will try to exploit freshman Taylor Mays in front of his hometown crowd.
The running game MUST get up to speed. With Jarrett out The WSU defense may try to double up on the receivers, especially Turner in order to take away the deep ball. If the running game is picking up steam then that will allow Booty to pick them apart underneath. Bruce must be contained in order to give both Booty and the RB's time to let the plays develop. If that happens SC should be fine.
Pullman is a tough place to play. The bleachers are pretty close to the field so it makes for a loud experience. SC has struggled here in the past but it has the talent and discipline to let those sorts of distractions affect their game. I think SC wins but I don't think that we will cover the spread. I will be interesting to watch.
FIGHT ON!