2005 Washington State Cougars football team

The 2005 Washington State Cougars football team represented Washington State University in the Pacific-10 Conference during the 2005 NCAA Division I-A football season. Led by third-year head coach Bill Doba, WSU played its home games at on campus Martin Stadium in Pullman, with one at Qwest Field in Seattle.

2005 Washington State Cougars football
ConferencePacific-10 Conference
2005 record4–7 (1–7 Pac-10)
Head coach
Offensive coordinatorMike Levenseller
(5th season)
Defensive coordinatorRobb Akey (3rd season)
Home stadiumMartin Stadium
(Capacity: 35,117)
2005 Pacific-10 Conference football standings
Conf  Overall
Team W L    W L 
No. 2 USC † $  8 –0     12 –1  
No. 13 Oregon  7 –1     10 –2  
No. 16 UCLA  6 –2     10 –2  
No. 25 California  4 –4     8 –4  
Arizona State  4 –4     7 –5  
Stanford  4 –4     5 –6  
Oregon State  3 –5     5 –6  
Arizona  2 –6     3 –8  
Washington State  1 –7     4 –7  
Washington  1 –7     2 –9  
  • $ – Conference champion
  • † – USC later vacated 12 wins (8 in conference) due to NCAA sanctions.
Rankings from AP Poll

Season

Washington State was picked fifth in the pre-season Pac-10 conference poll. They were even classified by some as a sleeper pick for the national championship, with Alex Brink at the helm. They opened with three non-conference wins in September, but the results were different in league play. In the Pac-10 opener at Oregon State, Brink passed for over 500 yards, but WSU lost by eleven.[1]

The Cougars lost their next three games (Stanford, UCLA, Cal), by a combined ten points; their inability to close out games cost them. After a blowout loss in Los Angeles to top-ranked USC,[2] three-point setbacks at home to Arizona State and #11 Oregon followed, as the conference losing streak extended to seven games.[3] In the Apple Cup at Seattle, they defeated struggling rival Washington by four points to finish at 4–7 overall.[4]

Schedule
DateTimeOpponentSiteTVResultAttendance
September 17:00 pmIdaho*
FSNNWW 38–2628,339
September 97:00 pmat Nevada*
ESPNW 55–2717,552
September 174:00 pmGrambling State*
W 48–751,486
October 11:00 pmat Oregon State
L 33–4442,908
October 82:00 pmStanford
  • Martin Stadium
  • Pullman, Washington
L 21–2433,442
October 153:30 pmNo. 11 UCLA
  • Martin Stadium
  • Pullman, Washington
FSNL 41–44 OT35,117
October 227:15 pmat No. 25 California
FSNL 38–4252,569
October 2912:30 pmat No. 1 USC
ABCL 13–5592,021
November 52:00 pmArizona State
  • Martin Stadium
  • Pullman, Washington
L 24–2731,054
November 127:15 pmNo. 11 Oregon
  • Martin Stadium
  • Pullman, Washington
FSNNWL 31–3427,595
November 1912:15 pmat Washington
FSNW 26–2270,713
  • *Non-conference game
  • Homecoming
  • Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game
  • All times are in Pacific time

Game summaries

Washington
1 234Total
• Washington State 10 367 26
Washington 7 078 22

[5]

References
  1. Rodman, Bob (October 2, 2005). "OSU defense finally makes its case". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). p. D1.
  2. Nadel, John (October 30, 2005). "Trojans determine BCS stands for Beating Cougars Soundly". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). Associated Press. p. D4.
  3. Clark, Bob (November 13, 2005). "Ducks cool, collected". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). p. D1.
  4. Fox, Tom (November 21, 2005). "Not a bad Apple". Moscow-Pullman Daily News. (Idaho-Washington). p. 1B.
  5. ESPN
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.