This year, it was all going to be different.
This year, Washington State was no longer going to be the Apple Cup doormat. The Cougars weren’t going to have their hopes and dreams snuffed in a swirl of purple. They weren’t going to allow Chris Petersen to look, once more, like he had smuggled out Mike Leach’s game plan.
This year, the Cougars had the motivation, they had the defense, and they had the quarterback, to change the story line and seize the night.
Except it wasn’t different at all. For the Cougars in the Petersen era, it was the same as it ever was, and that means a stunning blow to a season that had been dripping with the promise of greater things to come.