It's nice to see the Cougs stacking wins again, even if the rest of the season has felt like watching someone try to build a house with wet cardboard. Three more wins on day four of regional play is the kind of news that reminds you this program can still execute. It's not a headline that will shake the national media, but for a team that has spent the last two weeks trying to figure out who it is, a clean day of work matters.
The contrast with the other stories in our feed is hard to ignore. The football team has been a mess, cycling through quarterbacks after Cougs turn to Owen Eshelman at QB, Pinnick benched for Oregon State and leaving fans wondering if the offense can string together four quarters. That was followed by a performance where the Cougs hand Utah State a win with an offense that forgot how to finish, which was exactly as painful as it sounds. Meanwhile, the doubles squad quietly owned the Northwest Regionals, no qualifiers needed. That is the Cougar way. One unit stumbles, and another one steps up and does the job without drama.
What this means for you, the Coug who still texts your buddies about Pullman weather, is that the athletic department has a split personality right now. The teams that do not have to audition for the spotlight are playing clean, confident ball. The teams that carry the brand name into living rooms are making you explain to your coworkers why you still care. That is not a crisis, but it is a pattern. When the doubles squad can sweep regionals without needing a qualifier, and the football team cannot finish a drive, the problem is not talent. It is preparation and, frankly, trust.
The takeaway is this: stop waiting for the football team to fix everything. The Cougs who are winning right now are winning because they are playing like they belong. The ones who are not need to borrow that energy. Watch the doubles squad. Watch how they handled business. That is the standard. If the football program wants to stop being the subject of articles about benched quarterbacks and blown leads, they need to start acting like the team that just stacked three wins and made it look routine. Go Cougs.