Forecasting WSU’s chances in its four remaining games.

Good morning. Back during WSU’s first off week, we tried to forecast the chances of our beloved football team to win each remaining game. What ended up happening? Well, so far the Cougs won the one game we thought they would and lost the two games we thought they would. While those two losses didn’t play out exactly how we thought, they still went in the right hand column, unfortunately.

So with one game remaining until the quarter pole, have our expectations changed? Have long shots turned to sure things or vice versa? Well for one thing, ain’t no such thing as a sure thing when you’re a WSU fan. Ok there’s one but whatever. So let’s try once again to figure out how things will go down the stretch.

WSU at Cal: Four weeks ago, we gave the Cougs a 32% chance to win this game even though we already knew Chase Garbers would probably be out. Since then, Cal hasn’t won and seems to get worse by the week. WSU should win this game. With the remaining slate, WSU pretty much has to win this game. None of us should be surprised if WSU does not win this game.

Chances of a WSU win: 49.9%

Stanford at WSU: Four weeks ago, we gave the Cougs a 61% chance to beat Stanford. The Cardinal have been a mixed bag since then, beating bottom-feeder Washington, losing badly to UCLA, and then throttling Arizona (it wasn’t as close as the score would indicate). As with most teams, the quarterback is the difference, and if K.J. Costello starts in Pullman, the degree of difficulty goes way up.

Chances of a WSU win: 55%

Oregon State at WSU: When we last took a look at the Beavers, they were coming off a 17-point win in Westwood. That win looks better by the week. They also (barely) won at Cal and throttled an Arizona Wildcats team that is circling the drain. Still, any time you go on the road, in-conference, and hang 56 on the board, you’re going to get people’s attention. The Beavers have a damn good offense, and the Cougars defense...never mind.

Changes of a WSU win: 69%

WSU at Washington: Look, I know the Huskies are lousy, especially at home, and especially when they have a double-digit lead early on. I also know that y’all are smart enough to realize it won’t matter.

Chances of a WSU win: Blutarski

The guess here is that the Cougs will somehow figure out a way to win two of their next three and squeak into a bowl game. Hopefully it’s an educated guess.

Football

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Basketball

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The first year of the Kyle Smith era at Washington State won’t be as telling as the second or third, but a program that averaged 11 wins per season under Ernie Kent and never won more than 13 should expect to be more competitive, and more capable on defense, than it has in the past.

This Week in Parenting

Got home from work Friday night as the boys were trying to get Netflix fired up, and they were having some issues. I conducted what we used to call the “Lockheed Fix” in my gunship days, which just means you turn the affected device off and then on. Wouldn’t you know, it worked.

After I left the room, I overheard the eight year-old say, “Dad is a genius at technology. He should work at T-Mobile.” I am absolutely nothing other than “caveman+” when it comes to technological acumen, but I will need an actual job here in a few years, so maybe I should think about sending T-Mobile a resumé.

I was going to spare you all the “Kids on Halloween” pictures etc. because God knows there’s enough of that on social media. The boys went trick-or-treating on base Thursday night, and the best part was that we let them go on their own while we hung out by the bon fire in order to avoid frost bite. Mrs. Kendall was scrolling through the FaceTube Saturday, and was directed by a friend to the comment below.

My older boy was in the Captain America costume, and the eight year-old was wearing the unknown outfit (Spider Man). Their buddy had the scary mask on. Now I’m not posting this to try and convey that Mrs. Kendall and I are some breed of special parent. After all, there are no good parents, there are only parents and bad parents. What I’m trying to figure out is why these two boys seem to drive mom and I positively insane when they’re at home, yet put them out in the wild and they turn into decent human beings! I guess it’s our version of “Why can’t the Cougs play this great for the whole game/season?!”

Of course Mrs. Kendall told the boys about this, and of course they used is as equity to act like jerks the rest of the day. Even as I write this they’re at each other’s throats over some sort of Lego dispute. Some things never change.

As one last (hopefully unintentional) twist of the knife, this afternoon we were driving home and listening to Stuff You Should Know. The hosts were talking about the interstate highway system and brought up Sammy Hagar, who was once part of the greatest band ever. Naturally, the first question the boys had was, “Who is Sammy Hagar.” My heart broke just a little more, but it’s really my fault for not introducing them to the greatest band ever before today.

Beer

Best beer I had this week: Still have a few selections that I brought back from the States last September, and one of them was Epic Brewing’s Big Bad Baptist. Actually I brought back two of them. Apparently Friday was International Stout Day (which, what?) so I opened my final bottle and partook. Also congrats to beer drinkers in Utah for the new ABV law!

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The University of Louisiana at Lafayette and more than 20 universities license their own brands of beer. Those deals seem like no-brainers, but they come as the N.C.A.A. grapples with letting athletes strike their own.

Non-Sports

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