With the arrival of the WSU branch campus, I know Everett has sort of become a Cougar town, so some of you are going to have to forgive me. This week we’re talking Husky football, and well …

BOW DOWN TO WASHINGTON! Prince may be gone, but the Purple Reign lives!

These are heady times for those of us who bleed purple and gold. The Dawgs are supposed to be a national contender this season, ranked No. 14 in the Associated Press preseason poll. If the AP voters are right, this could be the year they return to their rightful place of national prominence. They’re ranked higher than USC, higher than UCLA, even higher than Oregon, which the UW hasn’t beaten during my 11-year-old son’s lifetime.

So punch their tickets to a national playoff or at least a major bowl game, right? In our latest poll at HeraldNet.com, we asked if you believe the hype.

The biggest share of our voters – 44 percent – said “I’ll believe it when I see it.” That seems like a reasonable position, since the Huskies were last seen eking out a victory in a third-rate bowl game to finish 7-6 last season. It’s a pretty big leap from there to powerhouse status.

About 30 percent were on board, saying “yes, they’re a championship contender.” There are some good reasons the prognosticators are picking the Dawgs. On paper, they have a sharp young quarterback, a potentially stifling defense and a smart head coach, even if he does become math-challenged at the end of games.

And 25 percent said no – they’re overrated. It’s nice that WSU and Oregon fans were able to figure out how to operate an online poll.

As for the Cougars? Yeah, they could also make it to No. 14 – not in the AP poll, but in the Pac-12 standings.

— Doug Parry, parryracer@gmail.com; @parryracer

For our next poll, we’ll stick with football but turn our attention to the pros: