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Oregon Ducks @ Washington State Cougars Football Preview

Oh, this is not going to end well for the Washington State Cougars. All of America knows it, too.

One of the emergent stories in college football this season is the battle between Oregon and Boise State for supremacy in the land west of the Rocky Mountains. Boise State might have beaten Oregon in 2008 and 2009, but the Ducks' 52-31 rout of Stanford this past weekend vaulted them past Boise in the national rankings. Oregon stands third and Boise fourth, while Alabama and Ohio State hold onto the top two spots in the polls. From here on out, it will be a beauty contest between Oregon and Boise unless or until Alabama and Ohio State both lose. Only then could the Ducks and Broncos both make the BCS National Championship Game, and even then, the matter might not be an open-and-shut case.

What we have on our hands, then, is a reality in which Oregon and Boise State will try to thump each and every opponent with noticeable ferocity. Pollsters who have to cover their own teams - and who don't watch as much nationwide football as any respectable voter should - will often look at the final score and little else in comparing Oregon and Boise each week. Therefore, it's of appreciable significance for the two Western powers to bring the hammer to their foes.

This weekend, while Boise State takes on an undistinguished Toledo team, Oregon travels to the Palouse to take on Washington State, which is easily one of the 10 worst programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Put Wazzu against the bottom-feeders in the Sun Belt or the Mid-American Conference, and it would win some games. However, if you limited Wazzu to BCS conference competition, the Cougars just might be the single worst team in America; there are few power-conference clubs with resumes as barren as the one fashioned by the Cougs in recent years. Wazzu has won just four games since the start of the 2008 season under head coach Paul Wulff, with only one of those wins coming in Pac-10 play. It's news when Washington State plays anyone within two touchdowns, so last week's 42-28 loss at UCLA - in which the Cougars were one yard away from taking a fourth-quarter lead (they never got that yard, though, in true Wazzu fashion) - represented a giant step forward for the program. Truly, it did.

This week, don't expect Washington State to take an additional step forward. Oregon's thermonuclear and turbo-charged offense is coming to Martin Stadium in Pullman, Washington.

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Oregon has already posted 72-0 and 69-0 wins over New Mexico and Portland State. The easy joke here is that Washington State is already a non-BCS conference team, so Oregon won't exactly be playing a team that's appreciably better than the woeful Lobos or the Vikings from the Football Championship Subdivision. It's fair to say that Oregon can name the score on a weekend when Boise State can do the same thing against Toledo.

If Boise scores 60, Oregon will want to score 70. That's why this game could get out of hand in a hurry.

If you like train wrecks, please watch this game.

By Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer