What are your expectations for the season's final five games?

Good morning Coug fans, and welcome to the first weekend without WSU Football since August. I don't know about you, but it's kind of refreshing, especially given how the first seven games have gone. Seeing as how the season is roughly half over (seven down, five to go) this is probably as good a time as any to talk about expectations for the rest of the season. Having seen the Cougs play over half of their schedule, we have a pretty good idea of who they are.

The offense has been about what we expected, if not better. The offensive line has played better than I thought it would and Connor Halliday is piling up yards and touchdowns. He has also avoided the terrible decisions that plagued him in the past, for the most part. I don't think it's a stretch to say that the defense is worse than we expected. Outside a couple good performances at Nevada and Utah, that unit has been a disappointment. We knew going into this season that the defensive backs would be a serious weakness, and that has proven true. However, we thought the front seven would be a strength. While they haven't been awful, they haven't exactly exceeded expectations either.

Given that, my expectations for the last five games are pretty low, especially considering the fact that WSU's last five opponents have a combined record of 22-7. Yikes. As always, I hope WSU wins out, but I don't think anyone could realistically expect that. If we manage to win two games, see a marginal improvement on defense and get the young players more quality experience, I think that would be a decent way to end the season.

I'd love to see them win more than two, but if they get to 5-7, I'll look back to all those near misses early on and mutter quite a few swear words. Clearly, winning two games down the stretch to make it to 4-8 wasn't something any of us hoped for in August, but we are where we are. What are you expecting from this football team's final five games?

Football

No Friday practice and no Saturday game means a barren landscape on the football front.

Men's Basketball

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After a last-place finish in 2012-13 and a 11th place finish in the Pac-12 last year, the Cougars opted for a change and replaced Ken Bone with Ernie Kent.

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If you were one of those people who went out of your way to avoid watching Washington State play basketball last season, no one can blame you; and second, and more to the point, you missed out on watching one of the best players in the conference put on a pretty impressive performance out of the spotlight.

Volleyball

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The Washington State volleyball team (9-10, 0-7) lost at No. 16 Arizona (16-3, 5-2) Friday night at the McKale Center with set scores of 25-19, 25-21, 23-25, and 25-17.

Beer

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I"ve to the GABF twice, in 2010 and 2011. If you're a fan of beer, you should go. It's a great time. 2011 was the best because we did GABF on Thursday and watched the Cougs win in Boulder on Saturday.

Non-Sports

Finding a Video Poker Bug Made These Guys Rich—Then Vegas Made Them Pay | WIRED

John Kane was on a hell of a winning streak. On July 3, 2009, he walked alone into the high-limit room at the Silverton Casino in Las Vegas and sat down at a video poker machine called the Game King. Six minutes later the purple light on the top of the machine flashed,…