ESPN announcing that its College GameDay broadcast is headed for Temple University and Stanford’s pedigree were relatively moot points at Monday’s press conference for Washington State football Head Coach Mike Leach and his players.

The primetime kickoff against the Cardinal – scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on ESPN – and the physical reputation No. 8 Stanford (6-1, 5-0 Pac-12) is known for, appeared to be distanced from the Cougars’ (5-2, 3-1) mindset.

“We’re just going into another game,” redshirt junior receiver Gabe Marks said. “First place is on the line, but we can’t put more importance on it. Once you do that, you start letting the outside noise get in your head.”

Marks and Leach – who dismissed the notion of the team feeling slighted for College GameDay not coming to Pullman this Saturday – were far more fired up about the way the receiving unit played in Saturday’s 45-42 win over Arizona (5-3, 2-3).

“It’s really important,” Leach said of his team’s success last week due to wide receiver blocking. “We’ll flat-out not play people if they don’t block.”

It became increasingly clear on Monday that with each passing week, this unit is becoming a mold of Leach’s powerhouse teams at Texas Tech, who operated the Air Raid down to every block and route on each passing attempt.

Growing up and playing prep football in Los Angeles, Marks saw some correlation in the way this Cougar team as a whole is playing. Marks said that it doesn’t matter whether you’re the most talented player on the field or not, and that winning games comes down to out-competing the opponent, something the Cougars have done on their current three-game win streak.

“In LA, you either find an edge or get picked last, and nobody wants to get picked last,” Marks said. “Robert Lewis is one of our best blockers and he’s the smallest guy out there.”

Leach acknowledged that Stanford is indeed a physical team, but said that reputation should not influence the course of a game.

“I think it depends on the other team,” Leach said of the mental edge the Cardinal can because of their physical reputation. “It’s only if you let it.”

What Leach, Marks and redshirt sophomore quarterback Luke Falk all pointed out, however, was that Stanford will have an edge on Saturday if the Cougars do not play a clean game. They didn’t turn the ball over against the Wildcats, though they suffered from another third-quarter lapse in concentration.

“It’s just a matter of us being lazy,” Marks said. “We’re a young team so we’re still trying to figure out how to finish games. We just have to not be complacent out of halftime and play based on the score. We’re not coached to play that way.”

Leach praised Stanford running back Christian McCaffery and quarterback Kevin Hogan, but said that, ultimately, the game will come down to his team’s mentality at kickoff.

Standing tall since its opening week loss to Portland State – which now feels like an eternity ago – WSU is now in sole possession of second place in the Pac-12 North Division standings, and will be looking to improve its situation in the conference as a whole in a game that is sure to be a battle from start to finish against the Cardinal.