WSU/Leach and OSU/Riley parallel
Dec 3, 2016 21:17:38 GMT -8
beaverintheberg, jefframp, and 5 more like this
Post by nforkbeav on Dec 3, 2016 21:17:38 GMT -8
It's pretty obvious OSU and WSU share a lot of the same challenges in football, so it's always interesting to look at their successes and failures and see the similarities for me.
I couldn't help, but view their season this year as an almost mirror image to some of MR's best at OSU. Riley built a team who could knock off the conference bully at the time, USC, and also win a lot of conference games. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the conference a new conference bully was being put together to take USC's place and unfortunately for us it was our hated in state rival and so history goes.
Compare to strikingly similar that is to what WSU experienced this year. Before entering conference play WSU lost at Boise and vs E. Washington, sound familiar, are you seeing the similarities yet? Well after their fans had declared the season lost 3 weeks into the season, WSU then proceeds to win eight P12 conference games. It's got to be sinking in by now right, it's almost a mirror image of past MR season at OSU. To cap it off they defeat the conferences most recent bully in hole, only to find out there's a new conference bully rising and low and behold it's their own hated in state rival. So after winning 8 conference games with several great wins an otherwise great season ends up feeling hollow to WSU fans because it ends with dominating loss to the hated in state rival huskies.
Much like us limping into Civil War games missing key players with the conference title on the line, the same happened for WSU this year and so they lost to their more depth filled in state rival. I've seen this story before. Coaching and system can play a huge role in a programs success, but at the end of the day......or actually at the later part of the season that is, depth and talent matter more and it's a story that gets told over and over again every single year.
I couldn't help, but view their season this year as an almost mirror image to some of MR's best at OSU. Riley built a team who could knock off the conference bully at the time, USC, and also win a lot of conference games. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the conference a new conference bully was being put together to take USC's place and unfortunately for us it was our hated in state rival and so history goes.
Compare to strikingly similar that is to what WSU experienced this year. Before entering conference play WSU lost at Boise and vs E. Washington, sound familiar, are you seeing the similarities yet? Well after their fans had declared the season lost 3 weeks into the season, WSU then proceeds to win eight P12 conference games. It's got to be sinking in by now right, it's almost a mirror image of past MR season at OSU. To cap it off they defeat the conferences most recent bully in hole, only to find out there's a new conference bully rising and low and behold it's their own hated in state rival. So after winning 8 conference games with several great wins an otherwise great season ends up feeling hollow to WSU fans because it ends with dominating loss to the hated in state rival huskies.
Much like us limping into Civil War games missing key players with the conference title on the line, the same happened for WSU this year and so they lost to their more depth filled in state rival. I've seen this story before. Coaching and system can play a huge role in a programs success, but at the end of the day......or actually at the later part of the season that is, depth and talent matter more and it's a story that gets told over and over again every single year.