For most of us -- the ones that weren't part of the 27,018 sun-drenched fans at Martin Stadium on Saturday -- this is the first glimpse of WSU's 59-7 thrashing of UNLV. And what a glimpse it is.
We'll get into some deeper analysis of what's in this package as the week goes on, so I'm not going to get too specific with breaking down any plays at the moment. Instead, I'll just offer up this observation: It's amazing to me the strides this team has made.
WSU made UNLV look more or less like the Cougars of 2008 and 2009. I figured WSU would be able to score pretty easily most of the day, but I never anticipated the defense being so dominant, and never imagined that the Cougars -- our Cougars, the laughingstock of college football for three years -- would exceed the beatdown Wisconsin put on these guys a week ago.
I'm guessing UNLV didn't, either. By midway through this, they looked like a defeated, deflated team. My guess is they came up Pullman believing they had a genuine chance to beat a team that had been so bad, only to get their butts handed to them early and often. As we witnessed for the first 2 1/2 years of Paul Wulff's regime, that's real hard on a young team.
But I don't feel sorry for the Runnin' Rebels. I won't go so far as to say, "Sucks to be you!", but I will say that it feels damn good to be on the other side.
Oh, and one last thing. Marquess Wilson is ours, and you can't have him.