THIS STORY ORIGINALLY APPEARED SUNDAY AT COUGFAN.COM.
BEND, Ore. -Normally during a Cougar football game, I don’t want to be bothered by anyone. I’m locked in on every play, not wanting to miss a thing.
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But last night I didn’t mind when trick or treaters knocked on our door. Instead of a blown fourth-down conversion or a stupid 53-yard field goal attempt in the rain or a curiously conservative approach before halftime, I saw smiling kids in costumes instead.
I’ve seen a lot of bad football from the Cougs over the years – 52 of them to be exact – and this 2026 team officially became a contender for the worst one ever last night.
You probably had already determined as much – maybe after the Fresno State game or the Utah State game, but I kept hanging on to a bunch of maybes.
Maybe we’d start winning when we faced Pac-12 opponents after opening the season with three games against Power 4 opponents.
Maybe we’d start winning after the change at quarterback.
Maybe our defense, which seemed fairly good as it was, would be even better with an offense that could keep the ball for a while. Surely that would reduce fatigue for our defense in the second half.
Maybe we’d start winning when we played against the lesser-talented teams in the Pac-12, beginning with San Diego State last night.
And after that, maybe we’d finish the season with a four-game winning streak and carry some hope and momentum into the 2027 season.
But I’m done with the maybes, done with thinking we might be a halfway decent team at least and finally realizing like everyone else who has watched this team all year – we’re terrible, gawd awful in every way.
The only thing dumber than some of Kirby Moore’s in-game decisions is betting on this team, which I have done on a regular basis, which makes me wonder if I should call that 1-900 Gamblers Anonymous number.
“Hello, yeah, my name is Jim.”
“Yes, hi Jim, please tell me why you called today.”
“Well, I’ve been betting on the Cougs every week, and I think I might have a problem.”
“The Cougs? You’re talking about Washington State? A team that has only one win against an FCS team? And you’re betting on them? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA…yeah Jim, I’d say you have a BIG problem.”
I can relate to what Adam Lewis tweeted after yesterday’s 26-20 loss in San Diego in front of what couldn’t have been more than 1,500 drenched fans.
Lewis, if I’m not mistaken, is a contributing writer to Coug Fan and a gambling fool like me who lives and dies with the Cougs.
“I’m not even mad anymore about WSU football being an absolute disaster,” Adam tweeted. “I just feel sad and embarrassed that we are fielding a product like this in our first season in a conference we fought like hell to keep alive.”
That hit home with me.
I wasn’t upset that we lost. I just shook my head and shrugged. But I admit to still being a “Pac-2 for life” guy who is disappointed that the Beavers are holding up their end and we’re not.
As Coug fans, we’re lashing out, wanting to blame someone or someones, whoever’s responsible for this lost season, and demand that things get fixed.
Moore is the most obvious target for a variety of reasons, from piss-poor game management to his choice of Caden Pinnick over Owen Eshelman for the first six games to the selection of his staff.
Has he made a bunch of mistakes? Certainly.
Even Greg Woods, who covers the Cougs for the Spokesman-Review, wrote this morning that it doesn’t seem like Moore, through nine games, has learned on the job.
But I’m hanging with him for several reasons.
He’s a first-year head coach who’s expected to have growing pains. But more than that, he’s limited by a subpar roster across the board. And it’s a makeshift roster he didn’t put together himself, arriving in December after Jimmy Rogers abruptly departed for Iowa State.
Then there’s this – maybe you feel differently, but I don’t see signs that he’s lost the team. The players appear to be playing hard for him.
If we’re brutal next year and show no signs of improvement, OK, let Kirby have it. In the meantime, I will hope he doesn’t go down in history as the coach of our worst team ever.
For now that dubious distinction belongs to one of Paul Wulff’s two teams – the 2009 team that went 1-11 and was outscored 426-144 in its 12 games or the 2008 team that beat Portland State and the winless Dawgs and finished with a 2-11 record.
This team could already be the worst of all if you compare the level of competition – those Cougs were losing to teams from the original Pac-12; these Cougs are losing to inferior teams in a reconstituted Pac-12 that is nowhere close to the caliber of the old Pac-12.
I like to think we have a shot in our next game after the bye week against Colorado State, where Jim Mora seems to have train-wrecked the program in his first year. Then we’ll likely get walloped by Texas State of all teams and by the Beavs or whoever we’re playing on the flex week after Thanksgiving.
But to expect this team to have any success at all the rest of the way is foolish based on how it’s played in the first two months of the season.
Which leads me to a guy named Rick, who emailed me before yesterday’s game and said:
“I guess it’s possible they could win today, but there really is no practical reason to see that happening other than blind hope. But if you’re a WSU fan, blind hope is a familiar old friend.”
Even with our familiar old friend, we can see – for this season anyway – there’s no hope whatsoever.
Thanks for reading and subscribing. Have a good Monday.
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