Why settle for six wins if you’re affiliated with the Washington State football team? How about seven? Maybe eight? Nine perhaps?

That’s the way the Cougars (6-3, 4-2 Pac-12) are looking at it.

At Monday’s football press conference, the win over Arizona State Saturday sounded like some long-overdue validation for veterans at the podium. For players like senior linebacker Kache Palacio and senior wide receiver Dom Williams – who first arrived in Pullman while Paul Wulff was the head ball coach – Saturday’s primetime showdown with No. 18 UCLA (7-2, 4-2) embodies the now vibrant future the football program appears to have under fourth-year Head Coach Mike Leach.

“Obviously every game we’re in it to win it,” junior offensive lineman Eduardo Middleton said. “We didn’t come into that first quarter against ASU like we expected to but obviously 14 points is nothing. We knew that we just had to do what we do and definitely could come back from it.”

Four years ago, a Cougar football team likely would have wilted after allowing the opposition to score two touchdowns on its opening drives and bulldoze its way to the goal line following an offensive turnover.

This year, the Cougars came up with a defensive stop on fourth-and-two from their own 3-yard line to keep the game at a two-score deficit. Effectively, it gave the Cougs a fighting chance to stay in the game, and that’s all the team needs this year.

“It’s hard,” Leach said of trying to improve each week. “I think that’s what everybody battles to do. That’s what the good teams do.”

Through nine games, there has not been an instance when WSU did not have a chance to earn a win. There is no doubt the Cougars’ three losses to Portland State, California and No. 8 Stanford were all somewhat in part due to self-inflicted wounds.

Whereas last season’s team finished 3-9 and never seemed to finish off its opponents, a reverse of the numbers in the win and loss columns is within the betting realm by way of players actually transferring coaching onto the field.

“He’s just excited,” Palacio said of first-year Defensive Coordinator Alex Grinch. “He always tells us ‘get me the ball’ before each series. That’s our mindset now. We always look at another play for the (other) offense as a chance for a turnover.”

The shakeup in attitudes and execution did not appear instantaneously, however. Even before spring workouts, the program began going in a different direction. Williams said everything got started last winter with “midnight maneuvers” – extra workouts held late in the evenings following official practices or events.

“My first year here, everyone set up for the big play,” Williams said of the biggest differences with the team in the last four years. “Now, it’s ‘use your talents to go and make the play and win.’ You’re here for a reason, and we expect to win.”

Williams, like Leach, said team bonding off the field created an improved team chemistry in games.

“Without naming names, we have a far less selfish locker room,” Leach said. “Everyone is pulling for one another. (We’re) more focused.”

Solidarity will be invaluable come Saturday night in the Rose Bowl against a talented Bruins team. Middleton is expecting a physical defensive front and depth on both sides of the ball from UCLA. True freshman quarterback Josh Rosen has proven capable of throwing the football as well as anyone in the Pac-12, and fourth-year Bruins’ coach Jim Mora likes to sling the ball around. Hence, there could be a shootout in Pasadena for the many Los Angeles Cougars returning home with friends and family who will be in attendance.

Williams said his team has yet to play a full 60-minute game this season and that it is coming. UCLA will be one of the toughest teams the Cougars play on the road this season, so Saturday would be a good time for WSU to put a full four quarters together.

WSU is an 8.5-point underdog as of Monday, but this is not the first time the Cougars have entered a road contest in this role. They were not projected to win games against Rutgers, Oregon or Arizona this season, and they pulled off thrilling victories in all three of those games.