I’m always amazed at how fast these seasons fly by after spending so many months looking forward to them. Bye weeks give us an opportunity to at least pause and breathe, but with it coming so late this season, it’s set up a sort of sprint to the finish.

How you feel about there only being three games left probably depends on how much faith you have left in this coaching staff. Without a doubt, a bye week represents and opportunity for a kind of reset, and for WSU, it’s a chance to give fans something to be thrilled about with the disappointment of the season — and San Diego State two weeks ago in particular — just a little farther than normal from the front of our minds.

Of course, the opposite opportunity also is there. This game against Colorado State has been circled for a long time as one the Cougs should win. Vegas still thinks we should, but those of us who have been a bit traumatized by a 1-8 start have probably changed that to “could.” I know I have. And if it goes badly … man, I don’t know if the vibes could go much lower, but we’ll find out in a big way.

For now, let’s focus on the possibility of a win. Circumstances certainly are lined up in our favor: Playing at home against a bad team that has been worse on the road. CSU’s travel troubles — which hit all teams yesterday afternoon, but resulted in the Rams having a walk through on the tarmac while waiting — hopefully makes them just a little less effective, too.

Consensus via TeamRankings.com.

Predictive model probabilities: 64% chance for WSU to win, 44% chance to cover the spread (at -9.5)

If you were able to listen to the podcast this week, you heard about how Craig and I are pretty concerned with Colorado State’s offense. CSU has only won three games, so the temptation is to think they’re a pretty bad team, and they are, but they are not a bad team in the way you typically expect, which is by being bad on both sides of the ball.

Remember WSU’s 2019 offense with Anthony Gordon at the helm? Remember the loss to UCLA? Colorado State in 2026 is sort of like if you paired that kind of offense with that kind of defense every single game.¹ The Rams’ offense ranks third nationally in adjusted EPA/play (which is only a hair behind No. 2 Boise State), but if you like your stats a bit less fancy, they rank 25th in plain old yards gained per game, 29th in yards gained per play, and 20th in points per game.

The Rams are good across the board on offense, but where they’re sort of out of this world is in running the ball. They’re only No. 52 in rushing yards per game, but that doesn’t tell the whole story: They’re No. 2 in the country in EPA/rush and No 12 in yards per carry, thanks largely to being in the 99th percentile in explosive runs.

Oh. Oh no.