PASADENA, Calif. -- It was just shy of midnight when Washington State quarterback Luke Falk found Gabe Marks on 21-yard touchdown pass with three seconds left to give the Cougars a 31-27 win against a ranked UCLA team on Saturday.
The win qualifies as one of the program’s most significant in over a decade and propelled the Cougars to their first ranking in the AP poll since 2006 (No. 24), but, for those paying attention, it shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise. Not in the Pac-12, where everyone can seemingly beat anyone, but more so because this type of performance has become standard for WSU, which over the past several weeks has quietly established itself as one of the best teams in the conference -- maybe the best.