Posted by ESPN.com's Ted Miller

There's a good side of ugly (winning) and a bad side of ugly (losing). But no one involved in Stanford's visit to Washington State on Saturday is looking back at the ugliness that happened last year when these two teams crossed paths and the Cougars ended up flat on their backs covered by Cardinal footprints.

Ugly? It was 58-zip ugly.

"We really don't have any rear view mirrors in this car," said Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh in his inimitable way.

We do. And objects are sometimes closer than they appear.

Want ugly? Combine that result with Washington State's 69-0 home loss to USC the previous weekend and the second half of the loss to Oregon State and the Cougars were on a run of giving up 172 unanswered points.

"We burned all our film from last year," Cougars coach Paul Wulff said.

Rightly so, and Wulff's breezy mood suggested the he and his team expect to put together a far more competitive effort this weekend.

In last year's game, the Cougars were riddled with injuries, a handful coming after the physical decimation by the Trojans. Moreover, the malaise of a season sinking into the muck had set in, and some players appeared to wave a white flag against the Cardinal.

Wulff isn't willing to revisit the myriad issues -- "too many to go into," he said -- but he also admits that, for coaches and players, "it was a struggle to get us on the same page."

Stanford's senior linebacker Clinton Snyder, who will be making his 35th career start, believes 58-0 is irrelevant. He played through a disastrous season himself -- the Cardinal went 1-11 in 2006 -- and, before last year's game, had dropped two in a row to Washington State by a combined count of 53-20.

Things can change quickly in college football, and you don't always see them coming.

"We know that feeling and we know that they are going to come out hungry -- we're not taking anyone lightly," he said. "I know the mindset they are going to come out with because I've been there, personally."

The Cougars biggest issue is figuring out who their quarterback is. Senior Kevin Lopina will start; sophomore Marshall Lobbestael will play. Probably.

"Lopina will start and definitely go a few series," Wulff said. "If things are going real well, then he may stay in for a longer period of time. If things are just going OK, we could probably put in Marshall and give him an opportunity to go a little bit. We want to get a feeling for how things are going when those guys are in there and what kinds of decisions they are making in a live situation."

Basically, Wulff is eager for someone to win the job by showing poise when the lights are on.

"It's more or less an opportunity to allow somebody to try to separate themselves in game time," he said.

Stanford also has its own curiosity at quarterback: Will redshirt freshman Andrew Luck be as good as advertised? Harbaugh and Snyder both suspect he will be.

"He's just one of the guys who can make every throw and put the ball right where you need it to be," Snyder said. "He puts it where the defense can't get it. That's what impresses me most. And he's not afraid to stay in the pocket. He's not going to get flustered."

Nonetheless, the primary challenge for the Cougars will be stopping Stanford running back Toby Gerhart. Washington State ranked last in the nation in run defense a year ago.

"We're not going to stop him... he's going to get his yards," Wulff said. "He's too good of a player not to."

The Cougars can't overexpose a questionable secondary by over-committing to Gerhart with eight or nine players in the box every play.

Of course, if they are going to notch an upset, they can't let Gerhart be an easy option on third-and-3, either.

A reporter asked Wulff if he thought this year's game would be more competitive. He seemed mostly amused with the inquiry.

"I sure darn hope so!" he said, then added. "I think we've improved a lot."