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2005 Washington State Cougars football
Conference Pacific-10 Conference
Record4–7 (1–7 Pac-10)
Head coach
Offensive coordinator Mike Levenseller (5th season)
Offensive scheme Spread
Defensive coordinator Robb Akey (3rd season)
Base defense 4–3
Home stadium Martin Stadium
Seasons
←  2004
2006 →
2005 Pacific-10 Conference football standings
Conf Overall
Team   W   L     W   L  
No. 2 USC † $   8 0     12 1  
No. 13 Oregon   7 1     10 2  
No. 16 UCLA   6 2     10 2  
No. 25 California   4 4     8 4  
Arizona State   4 4     7 5  
Stanford   4 4     5 6  
Oregon State   3 5     5 6  
Arizona   2 6     3 8  
Washington State   1 7     4 7  
Washington   1 7     2 9  
  • $ – Conference champion
  • † – USC later vacated 12 wins (8 in conference) and 1 loss due to NCAA sanctions.
Rankings from AP Poll

The 2005 Washington State Cougars football team represented Washington State University in the Pacific-10 Conference during the 2005 NCAA Division I-A football season. Led by third-year head coach Bill Doba, WSU played its home games at on campus Martin Stadium in Pullman, with one at Qwest Field in  Seattle.

Season

Washington State was picked fifth in the pre-season Pac-10 conference poll. They were even classified by some[ who?] as a sleeper pick for the national championship, with Alex Brink at the helm. They opened with three non-conference wins in September, but the results were different in league play. In the Pac-10 opener at Oregon State, Brink passed for over 500 yards, but WSU lost by eleven. [1]

The Cougars lost their next three games ( Stanford, UCLA, Cal), by a combined ten points; their inability to close out games cost them. After a blowout loss in Los Angeles to top-ranked USC, [2] three-point setbacks at home to Arizona State and #11 Oregon followed, as the conference losing streak extended to seven games. [3] In the Apple Cup at Seattle, they defeated struggling rival Washington by four points to finish at 4–7 overall. [4]

Schedule

DateTimeOpponentSiteTVResultAttendance
September 17:00 pm Idaho* FSNNWW 38–2628,339
September 97:00 pmat Nevada* ESPNW 55–2717,552
September 174:00 pm Grambling State*
W 48–751,486
October 11:00 pmat Oregon StateL 33–4442,908
October 82:00 pm Stanford
  • Martin Stadium
  • Pullman, Washington
L 21–2433,442
October 153:30 pmNo. 11 UCLAdagger
  • Martin Stadium
  • Pullman, Washington
FSNL 41–44 OT35,117
October 227:15 pmat No. 25 CaliforniaFSNL 38–4252,569
October 2912:30 pmat No. 1 USC ABCL 13–5592,021
November 52:00 pm Arizona State
  • Martin Stadium
  • Pullman, Washington
L 24–2731,054
November 127:15 pmNo. 11 Oregon
  • Martin Stadium
  • Pullman, Washington
FSNNWL 31–3427,595
November 1912:15 pmat WashingtonFSNW 26–2270,713
  • *Non-conference game
  • daggerHomecoming
  • Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game
  • All times are in Pacific time

Conference opponent not played this season: Arizona

Game summaries

Washington

1 234Total
Washington State 10 367 26
Washington 7 078 22

[5]

References

  1. ^ Rodman, Bob (October 2, 2005). "OSU defense finally makes its case". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). p. D1.
  2. ^ Nadel, John (October 30, 2005). "Trojans determine BCS stands for Beating Cougars Soundly". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). Associated Press. p. D4.
  3. ^ Clark, Bob (November 13, 2005). "Ducks cool, collected". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). p. D1.
  4. ^ Fox, Tom (November 21, 2005). "Not a bad Apple". Moscow-Pullman Daily News. (Idaho-Washington). p. 1B.
  5. ^ ESPN