Washington State is clearly improving at the midpoint of its season, throwing a scare into No. 2 Oregon before a late-game fade led to another loss.

Through six games, the Cougars (1-5, 0-3 Pac-10) are more competitive than they have been the past three seasons, and it is showing up in most statistics except for wins.

Their next chance for their first Pac-10 win in two seasons comes Saturday, when No. 17 Arizona (3-1, 1-1) comes to Pullman on the heels of its first loss of the season.

Coach Paul Wulff is 4-27 in his third season, and there has been plenty of grumbling among WSU fans about the slow pace of progress. Saturday’s homecoming game with Oregon drew just 24,768 fans. The Cougars’ lone win is over Montana State of the FCS.

But the mood around the downtrodden program is noticeably brighter after good showings against UCLA and Oregon.

“We are playing a tremendous amount of freshmen,” Wulff said Tuesday. “They are growing as the season moves along, about what we figured we would do.”

Freshmen who are contributing include receiver Marquess Wilson, plus defensive players C.J. Mizell, Sekope Kaufusi, Nolan Washington, Deone Bucannon and Casey Locker.

“We’ve got something special brewing here,” Wulff said. “People have got to let it evolve.”

Arizona coach Mike Stoops, who faced similar criticism as he rebuilt the Arizona program the past seven years, advised WSU fans to have patience.

“You can only get better by recruiting, developing players and getting rid of players. It takes time,” Stoops said.

The Cougars are showing a lot of improvement under Wulff, Stoops said.

“This is by far and away his best team,” Stoops said. “They are narrowing the playing field, tightening the gap with each team.”

What is causing the optimism for the Cougars is that both their last two losses, 42-28 at UCLA and 43-23 versus Oregon, were competitive deep into the third quarter. That has not been the case much under Wulff.

They were 35-point underdogs against Oregon, yet except for a goal line interception of a Jeff Tuel pass late in the third quarter, they might have trailed just 36-30 heading into the fourth. Their defense knocked several Oregon players out of the game.

“The Cougars are a strong team and will only continue to get better in time,” Oregon coach Chip Kelly said after the game.

This is a much different team from the one Washington State fielded the past two seasons, when the Cougars ranked near the bottom of all FBS teams in both offense and defense. The last Pac-10 team they beat was winless Washington in 2008.

The defensive woes continue. This year the Cougars rank last in yards allowed, 517 per game. They are 85th in offense, at 338 yards per game, and 33rd in passing attack.

Tuel has completed 58 percent of his passes for 1,478 yards, with nine touchdowns and five interceptions. Those numbers are similar to what WSU standouts Drew Bledsoe and Ryan Leaf had posted six games into their sophomore seasons.

Wilson, a freshman, has caught 29 passes for 515 yards, a 17.8 average. He leads all freshmen in the nation at 4.83 receptions per game and 85.8 yards per game. Jared Karstetter, a junior, has caught 33 passes, and is averaging 7.7 catches and 88.3 yards per game in Pac-10 play.

The Cougars have topped 200 yards passing all six games this season. They did it a total of seven times the previous two seasons.

The road doesn’t get much easier after Arizona, as Washington State must still play at Stanford, Arizona State and Oregon State, and at home against California and Washington. Only the cross-state rival Huskies have a losing record.