Simming The Season, Week 16: Cougars Stop To Smell The Roses, Beat Oklahoma

Yes, you read the title correctly. Your 2013 Rose Bowl Champions are the Washington State Cougars. With a 30-27 win over Oklahoma, WSU improved to 12-2 on the season, and Mike Leach was given a lifetime contract and eleventy billion dollars. He also had a hot dog named after him, which didn't include mayonnaise or yellow mustard because, gross.

The Sooners took a 20-17 lead going into the half, and extended their lead with another TD to start the 3rd quarter. Now down 10, the Cougs kicked a field goal and then scored on a 38-yard TD pass from Jeff Tuel to Marquess Wilson to tie the game. With 0:17 seconds left to play, Andrew Furney nailed a 41-yard FG to give the Cougs the lead and the eventual win.

After the game, Leach was quoted as saying, "I think Pullman is going to run out of beer tonight." He then went on a 20 minute ramble about the origins of hops and malt liquor. Apparently it was a fun conversation for those in attendance.

Passing:
Jeff Tuel: 34/52, 435 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs, L38, 10 sacks

Holy crap, 10 sacks? Tuel was sacked 10 times?

Rushing:
Jeff Tuel: 24 carries, 22 yards
Rickey Galvin: 7 carries, 11 yards
Carl Winston: 3 carries, 9 yards
Max Hersey: 1 carry, 3 yards

In college, they take the negative yards from a sack out of your rushing total. That means Tuel was sacked
10 times, yet still managed 22 yards rushing. That's pretty remarkable.

Receiving:
Marquess Wilson: 14 catches, 211 yards, 1 TD, L38
Andrei Lintz: 10 catches, 113 yards, 1 TD
Bobby Ratliff: 6 catches, 63 yards, 1 TD
Kristoff Williams: 2 catches, 19 yards
Max Hersey: 1 catch, 22 yards
Gino Simone: 1 catch, 7 yards

Taylor Meighen: 3 pancake blocks, 4 sacks given up
Matt Goetz: 1 pancake block, 4 sacks given up
Wade Jacobson: 1 pancake block, 2 sacks given up

Defense:
Darren Markle: 5 tackles, 4 solo, 1 sack, 1 FF, 1 FR
Damante Horton: 1 tackle, 0 solo, 0 sacks, 1 INT, 2 deflections

Around the Pac-12:
Oregon 35, Nevada 14 -- Las Vegas Bowl
Stanford 28, Florida State 23 -- Sun Bowl
Utah 28, Kansas State 21 -- Tostitos Fiesta Bowl
Oklahoma State 45, Arizona 24 -- Holiday Bowl
Texas Tech 35, USC 31 -- Alamo Bowl
Army 45, UCLA 35 -- Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl

• Marquess Wilson broke the NCAA record for single season receiving yardage racking up 2,579 yards. He also broke the NCAA record for most receptions in a single season with 160.
• Jeff Tuel shattered Ryan Leaf's school record of 3,968 passing yards by tossing 5,381 himself. He also bested Leaf's school record for TD passes in a single season by 20 -- 54 to 34.
• Wilson set the WSU single season record for receptions last year with 83. He doubled that this year.
• Wilson's 22 TDs were the best in school history, and 9 more than the previous record holder (Jason Hill).
• Just for Mark: Bobby Ratliff finished the season with 65 catches for 1,110 yards and 12 TDs.
• Kansas offered Mike Leach their head coaching vacancy after firing Charlie Weis. Sometimes life imitates art, and sometimes art mocks a fanbase with an undeserved sense of self worth.
• Offensive coordinator Jim Mastro took the head coaching job at Memphis after the Tigers fired Justin Fuente.
• To replace the departed Mastro, WSU hired North Texas OC/QB coach/associate HC Mike Canales. I was hoping for Kilff Kingsbury, but he was hired as the HC at Louisiana Tech after Sonny Dykes took the head job at Rutgers.
• North Texas hired Charlie Weis as offensive coordinator :)
• Here's a list of players leaving who aren't graduating:
  
  RB Teondray Caldwell is transferring to UNLV due to playing time concerns.
  WR Bobby Ratliff is declaring for the NFL Draft. He is a projected 7th round pick.
  WR Gabe Marks is transferring to San Diego State due to playing time concerns.
  WR Henry Eaddy is transferring to Florida International due to playing time concerns.
  WR Isiah Myers is transferring to UAB due to playing time concerns.
  C Denzell Dotson is transferring to San Diego State due to playing time concerns.
  OT Sam Flor is transferring to Idaho due to playing time concerns.
  DE Darryl Paulo is transferring to San Diego State due to being home sick.
  DE Logan Mayes is transferring to Nevada due to playing time concerns.
  LB Darryl Monroe is transferring to Troy State due to playing time concerns.
  LB Jeremiah Allison is transferring to San Jose State due to playing time concerns.
• 10 players are transferring, including 3 WRs.
• Bobby Ratliff is the only player leaving early, which means another year of MQW. If you could have one more year of Wilson, but the trade off was that 10 guys were going to transfer out, would to still do it? Discuss.
• The only two graduating seniors projected to be drafted are Jeff Tuel (R3) and Travis Long (R1).
• Not to be completely left out in the cold, San Diego State QB Chad Jeffries is transferring to WSU.

That's it for the 2012 Simming the Season, folks. It's been fun. Remember, if you're thinking that this hasn't been realistic enough and want to know if someone with default roster can do this, you probably need to re-evaluate things. It's a video game! This whole exercise was an excuse for us to talk about football when there was no actual football being played. It was silly and fun and I honestly thought no one would care. I guess I forgot how amazing our community is. You guys are great*! Thursday can't come soon enough.

*even you, B-Lot Tailgater