As June starts to roll into July, and July eventually leads us to the start of fall camps at the beginning of August, the 2023 college football season will be here before we know it. What a season it projects to be in the Pac-12 Conference, as well. With a handful of College Football Playoff contenders, and a group of Heisman Trophy candidates leading their prospective teams, we could be set up for one of the best football seasons out west that we’ve seen in decades. To help get us prepared, we at Ducks Wire wanted to go through each team in the conference and give a comprehensive breakdown of each school, breaking down their 2023 outlook. Welcome to our Pac-12 Previews. New editions will be published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday leading up to the start of fall camp.
Check out our previously published previews: Arizona Wildcats — Arizona State Sun Devils — California Golden Bears — Colorado Buffaloes — Oregon State Beavers — Stanford Cardinal — UCLA Bruins — USC Trojans — Utah Utes — Washington Huskies
Five years after Washington State’s 11-2 season, the Cougars will look to recreate that greatness, but they will also settle for just making a bowl game. The Cougars have a talented enough team — particularly in their QB Cameron Ward — to reach a bowl game, but every contest will matter in order to achieve that goal. In the interconference play, Washington State could easily become “an any given Sunday,” kind of team (never mind the games are played on Saturday) as they should be able to put up a good enough fight against every team on their schedule.
Ward’s all-around talent and the presence of exciting young receivers should make for a WSU passing offense that causes any opposing defense trouble. The key for Washington State in 2023, will be playing a complete four quarters of football. They have the talent to win a lot of the games on their schedule, but it will all depend on their ability to close games — unlike they did against Oregon in 2022 (sorry I had to).
Below is the preview for Washington State’s 2023 season.