Gameday Guide: No. 21 WSU vs. Utah State

In today's newsletter ...

• Ready to rock?

• Critical Info

• Gamblin’

• Injury Impact

  • WSU

  • USU

• Key matchups

  • The Cougs against themselves

  • USU’s passing attack vs. WSU

• What I’ll be watching for

  • Offensive explosion

• What you can watch for: Gameday Bingo!

• Other games of interest

  • Next opponent

  • Opponent after that

  • Teams that might help WSU in the CFP by winning

  • Have this on your second screen during the Cougs

Ready to rock?

The Washington State Cougars (7-1) — fresh off debuting in the College Football Playoff rankings at No. 21 — return to the field for the stretch run after hanging out for a weird second bye week, and they’ll get what ought to be a very soft landing: The two-win Utah State Aggies.

This game will be much more about WSU’s readiness than whatever the Aggies bring to the Palouse. I know that coach Jake Dickert handled this bye week a bit differently than the first one; traditionally, the first week of the bye is spent allowing players to get away from football a bit while the coaches head out on recruiting trips before getting back to football activities during the week of the game.

Not this time. The Cougs have been practicing for the past two weeks in preparation for this final four-game stretch that will determine whether WSU, (a) makes a serious case for inclusion in the College Football Playoff, (b) lands in an excellent Pac-12 bowl, or (c) something lesser than that.

The stakes are absolutely massive for each of these final four games. ESPN’s playoff predictor still gives the Cougars 51% odds to run the table, which — as it stands, according to ESPN’s model — would see them selected for the playoff about 1 in 4 times. WSU clearly needs some chaos (and help from Texas Tech and Washington), but for any of that to matter, they have to win their games — and it wouldn’t hurt to do it convincingly.

Critical Info

• Game time: 7:30 p.m. PT

• Location: Back Home

• Weather forecast at kickoff: 44 degrees and cloudy, slight breeze, 0% chance of rain

• How to watch: The CW

• How to listen: WSUCougars.com

• Live stats: StatBroadcast 

Gamblin’

Consensus via VegasInsider.com as of Friday evening.

Trends: WSU is 5-3 ATS, Utah State just 2-6. WSU has gone under the number in 5 of 8 games, while USU has gone over the number in 5 of 8.

Predictive model probabilities: 92% to win, 56% to cover (at -20.5)

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