Ranking Cougar football anthems

Good morning Coug fans. One week from today, we'll all be waking up to Cougar Football Saturday. It's been too long.

You know what gets me pumped for Cougar football? Original anthems, that's what!

(Also: bacon-wrapped brawts at the tailgate. My goodness they are amazing.)

This past week, The Seattle Times reported that Alexa Shea Falk-Johns—the sister to Luke Falk—penned an anthem/pump-up song for the team and fans as we approach the 2017 season.

Both Falk-Johns and Falk intend to use the song to raise money from iTunes sales for an endowment for walk-on football players, with a longterm goal of creating the Falk Football Freedom Foundation (A+ on the alliteration).

So let's rank the anthems that I could remember and that I could find. If you know of any that I missed, please share, but the songs must have original lyrics. Parodies are eligible.

OK, let's rank:

E-Drid: Say Go, Say Cougs

This is the most well-known anthem, at least to those that went to WSU in the mid-2000s. This came out after the 2003 Holiday Bowl victory and things were looking good for WSU football. Unfortunately, the confidence within the lyrics didn't translate to the win-loss column.

Tay Ali: Wazzu

I have to admit, Tay Ali's "Wazzu" (that's Taylor Taliulu to you) grew on me. They played it over and over again during home games and I've warmed up to it.

Alexa Shea Falk-Johns: Claws are Out

This is just a sample of the full-length song.

E-Drid: Crimson and Gray Thing (Go Cougs)

"The Apple Cup is ours baby, so true / that's old news / we've been better for years / the Pac-10 is our playground, ahead of our peers."

That lyric sure didn't age well, but blame the football program for that.

perfectragedy: The Cougar Song

This is a parody of Veruca Salt's Seether. It was made for the Legends of the Palouse soundtrack, a three-part documentary on the history of WSU football that came out in 2006.

Also, listen to this once and I bet you'll have "Can't beat the Cougars!" in your head throughout the rest of your day.

Cougar Football Saturday

This one was technically a TV commercial, but I wasn't going to exclude it. Do a little tailgatin'!

I am the least musically-inclined person on the planet, so I actually have admiration for those that take the time to put together lyrics, structure the music and record these. I'm a consumer thankful for the creators. These songs are all fun, and they give us a good excuse to pass the time a week before the season starts.

Again, if you know of other original anthems, please share (the fight song doesn't count). And feel free to rank them yourselves.

Links!

Football

Practices are now closed to the media, so we won't be getting much insight into how the team's doing and such. But when The Spokesman-Review's Theo Lawson came out with his projected two-deeps this week, it had me both excited and terrified.

Excited: Luke Falk is back (duh) and all indications are that Tyler Hilinski is good to go if his time comes. Should Falk go down, we have a capable backup. I can't remember the last time I felt good about our QB depth heading into the season.

Terrified: That d-line size and depth still worries me, but #SpeedD and all that. Also, Nick Begg is just a junior? I swear he's been in college forever.

Excited: Tons of experience in the starting linebacker spots. Lawson's projections don't even include Dylan Hanser, who has apparently been hobbled lately.

Terrified: Two true freshman at the H receiver position in Travell Harris and Jamire Calvin. I know they're highly touted—Calvin especially—but they're still true freshman.

Excited: Running backs. They're going to be so fun to watch.

Terrified: Depth in the secondary. There's experience atop each position, but the backups are raw or completely green.

We'll all find out how good everybody is in one week.

Cornerback from Texas verbally commits to Washington State | The Spokesman-Review
Erick Hallett II is leaving the Lone Star State for the Palouse and an opportunity to contribute as a part of Alex Grinch’s “Speed D.”

2017 Pac-12 expert picks: Overrated, underrated, predicted order of finish - CBSSports.com
One CBS writer has the Cougs in the top 10 in the first CFB rankings. Another has Mike Leach leaving for Ole Miss after the season.

College football coaching candidates: Top 30 names to watch | SI.com
Alex Grinch gets a small mention here.

Soccer

Haro's Penalty Strike Nets The Cougs Their First Win Of The Season - WSUCougars.com | Washington State University Athletics
A penalty kick was all WSU needed to defeat Saint Mary's.

Women's Basketball

Cougs Draw South Florida As The Gulf Coast Showcase Brackets Finalize - WSUCougars.com | Washington State University Athletics
Hitting the road for Thanksgiving, the Washington State women's basketball team will head to Florida to take part in the Gulf Coast Showcase from Nov. 24-26.

Old YouTube Clip of the Week

• Dom Williams had seven touchdown receptions in 2013. These are all seven.
• Four of his seven TDs came against teams from the state of Utah.
• The other three came against teams from the Northwest: Idaho, Oregon and UW.
• That UW clip is the shortest of all of these. I appreciate that.
• His second TD against Utah pretty much clinched the game. That gave WSU six wins, making them bowl eligible. I remember the crowd going nuts, and it's crazy to think six wins is now a letdown, just four years later.