Washington State Previews

Earlier this morning, KGMB had a Football Friday preview of the UH vs Washington State game.

Howie Stalwick of the Kitsap Sun has a preview of the game.

The task now is get a team loaded with inexperienced players to focus on a season-ending, non-conference game played in a tropical paradise.

"We've had to address that," Wulff said. "Really challenge them to see how mature they are, to see how they can come off a big, emotional game and respond.

"How are you going to play? Will you learn from this and come out and do it, or are you going to lay an egg?"

Lew Wright, a Cougar fan, writes a preview for the Washington State Cougars Examiner.

And the WSU Football Blog, an excellent source of Wazzu sports info, starts their preview off with the McLovin references, but gets down to some good pre-game analysis. Here's an excerpt about a key matchup to look out for:

On paper you can see why Hawaii is such a big favorite, opening at 28 points and actually moving to 29.5. There is one thing I think about, however, one shining light, that might make this a much better game the odds-makers are saying. I think the WSU defense will keep this one interesting. Seriously. Why? Because of the run-n-shoot style Hawaii will throw out there plays into the strength of the WSU defense.

In 2008, "strength" and "WSU defense" haven't always existed in the same sentence. Except when headed by "lack of".......but when you think about the Coug D, you don't think about size. If you do, you think SMALL, not big. They are a smallish, speedier defense that has trouble against the power running teams who get five yards on every single rushing attempt. But against the pass, the Cougs are respectable, giving up 185 yards per game through the air or #5 in the PAC-10.