[Each week during the football season I will be breaking down the WSU Cougar’s weekend match up and then predicting the outcome; let’s see if I can get one right!]

Week 1: WSU at Wisconsin
Oh the burning! One week into the season and we’re looking into the mouth of a ravenous beast. Terrible way to start out the year… right?

Well, depends on your school of thought. The debate is, whether or not its in the best interests of the team/ school to take a payoff and agree to play a juggernaut on their turf; almost certainly walking into an 0-1 season. At CSU, I spoke with members of the university’s athletic department and they seemed vehemently opposed to challenging the big boys and preferred instead to pack their preseason with “sure wins” knowing that postseason play hinges on being at least mediochre - that being bowl eligible with a 6 win season.

On the other hand, WSU seems to have the foresight to realize that there’s no better way for your team to learn than to play the best, a school isolated in the Northwest needs games like this to get national and regional exposure, and above all that you don’t ever count your losses before the final whistle blows (i.e. they have the balls of a… well, of a Cougar I suppose). So I’m all for the challenge of opening against the Badgers… and honestly I believe that in college football there is no better week to play above your pay grade than in week 1 when you can only hope that a team isn’t in sync yet.

But can the Cougs actually pull this one off? My answer: maybe, but it doesn’t look good. If there were two things the Cougars did well last year was step up to their top competition and did an alright job stopping the run. Although the Badgers by all means should run all over the Cougs, week 1 is notorious for an excessive amount of holding penalties as lineman adjust to the real thing and it seems like every year refs aim to get rid of holding until they realize that it happens every play and they probably need to let at least a play or two count every game so the teams can actually play.

That being said, my final, and bold prediction for the game is:

WSU 27
Wisconsin 30

Over under on passing yards in the game: 550
Over under on rushing yards in the game: 250

We’ll do much better against Idaho the following week; I guarantee it.