It's hard to define WSU's weaknesses when everything goes so poorly

STANFORD, Calif. — Someday, perhaps Saturday's dreary tableau will merely be a faded memory of a unspeakably bad time:

Steady rain descended, the clock expired and a Washington State assistant coach barked at a handful of WSU players slogging off the field toward the locker room, to remind them to shake hands with Stanford.

Water spilled from a roof as Cougars explained their latest crime against competitiveness, while in an adjoining room, Stanford players engaged in a happy chant after their fifth victory.

Stanford 58, Washington State 0, the worst WSU defeat in the history of the series. And on the first day of November, the Cougars had given up a total of 350 points to six Pac-10 opponents, more than any Pac-10 team ever.

"Like coach [Paul] Wulff says, you have you and 10 other people counting on you," mused starting quarterback Kevin Lopina. "Right now, we can't count on everybody."

Judging from this latest implosion, what WSU can count on is an early vague hint of a pulse, followed by dropped passes, missed blocks, missed tackles and after a couple of scores by the opposition, the inevitable collapse of whatever wisp of a positive psyche existed.

"That's pretty fair to say," nodded Wulff, when asked whether this is a team with a fragile mental makeup right now. "It's that old saying, you've got to have kids you can lose with."

As they say in Nevada, the oddsmakers haven't caught up with the Cougars yet. Seemingly, it's impossible. As outrageous as it looked when Stanford was installed a 30-point favorite early in the week — Stanford, a team whose starting QB has a 7-9 touchdown-interception ratio — the Cougars can only dream of covering a spread. They trailed 31-0 at half in this one.

It's obvious this is a shattered team, one without enough Pac-10-level talent and seriously bereft of resolve. As to the question of whether coaching is part of the deficit, it's honestly hard to tell, inasmuch as the Cougars execute so poorly, it's almost as though they can't move the debate to that next level.

As Wulff noted, early on they did appear to have benefited from a week off. On their first four possessions, they got the ball into Stanford territory, which this season seems worthy of a sticker on the helmet.

But on their initial series at the Stanford 45, Lopina chose to throw on the move for tight end Ben Woodard when he could have run for a first down, and that drive died. Next series at the Stanford 49, Lopina throws behind freshman Kevin Norrell on an incomplete middle screen that looked like it could have gone for a score. On the next play, Lopina throws perfectly to stalwart receiver Brandon Gibson, he muffs it and Stanford intercepts at the Cardinal 36.

This is a bad team that seems certain the next negative play is right around the corner.

J.T. Levenseller got his first action and played passably, allowing the Cougars to be more than the shell of an offense they presented against USC. But this is not an outfit that's going to be saved by a true freshman.

Afterward, Lopina repeated some of the comments he made recently, about not everybody being on board. If that's a problem, clearly it hasn't gone away and won't, probably not until what looms as a soul-searching offseason.

"We have some people on the team that are competitors, and they'll get down about this," Lopina said. "And there are some that want to quit. We can't have that. We have to have everyone on board as a team.

"Being a competitor and going out against a good Pac-10 team and putting up no points — to me, that's embarrassing."

Outside the WSU locker room, longtime assistant coach Mike Levenseller greeted a player from a better day — receiver Shawn Tims, one of the Fab Five of the 1997 Rose Bowl team.

Levenseller has more perspective than anybody, having coached during two Rose Bowl seasons, sandwiched by a three-year, 3-21 siege in Pac-10 games from 1998 to 2000.

"I'm looking forward on this," he said doggedly. "Paul has a very solid plan. It'll get there, I guarantee it'll get there. Sometimes you get in a situation where you've got to battle through this stuff and it feels like you're never going to get to the other side."

The chilling possibility is that WSU recruiters can't continue what appears to be solid work to date because of its disastrous season on the field.

"I see where it's going," Levenseller continued. "It's a great staff, good guys, and there's a vision. Every day we work hard for that vision.

"I see the future."

Good thing. It can't be as distressing as the present.

Bud Withers: 206-464-8281 or bwithers@seattletimes.com