Cougs miss big target

PULLMAN – When the final score is 52-17, the loss of one player wouldn’t seem to be a big deal for the team on the losing side of the ledger.

But when that one player is Washington State’s Jed Collins, it means more than just having his 56 catches out of the lineup.

“Losing Jed hurt us a lot,” quarterback Alex Brink said. “We thought he was going to be able to go; he went for a series. That was tough. He went out there, battled, you can’t ask much more than that. His ankle injury is pretty bad.”

Collins’ injury was listed as a left ankle sprain and he didn’t practice all week. As late as Friday’s walk-through, he was still in a boot. But the Cougars hoped he would be able to go.

He did, limping through the pregame Senior Day activities, then through the first series, which ended near midfield with a failed fake punt.

Collins never returned and was in street clothes at the end of the game.

“You’re talking about a 50-catch tight end,” Brink said. “That’s a guy who is big target for you on third down and in big situations, so that hurt.”

Quarterbacks coach Timm Rosenbach thought the loss of Collins left a gap in the Cougars’ offensive attack, though it might have been more of a psychological gap than a physical one.

“We didn’t get the ball to the tight ends much at all,” he said. “When (you lose a guy like Jed), subconsciously you kind of check out of that mentality a little bit as a quarterback and maybe that’s what happened to him a little bit.

“I thought (Brink) got the ball to the tight ends a couple times, but probably not as much as he would have if Jed had been in there.”

Ben Woodard and Devin Frischknecht filled Collins’ role at tight end, but WSU went away from the H-back sets that feature the senior.

Frischknecht had a couple drops, but also made one of the game’s better catches. Planted in the middle of the field late in the first half, Frischknecht reached back to grab a Brink pass in a crowd of three OSU defenders. The junior held on for a 24-yard gain.

Two of Brink’s six interceptions were on passes intended for Frischknecht, both times after Brink had scrambled out of the pocket. Both times the interceptor stepped in front of the tight end to make the pick.

The Beavers were without a few players themselves, losing secondary starters Bryan Payton and Brandon Hughes for the first half. The two were ejected from the win over Washington last week. Both, along with the third player suspended, James Dockery, played in the second half.

Sparse crowd

The rain combined with the Thanksgiving break limited the crowd Saturday. It was announced at 22,660, but that included 12,000 student tickets. Less than half of the student tickets were used.

Before the game, Martin Stadium was nearly empty. Rain pelted the few die-hards in attendance.

As the score mounted, so did the defections, with seemingly less than a thousand Cougar fans sticking around the end.

“It definitely felt like a high school game a little bit, because half our fans weren’t there,” junior offensive guard Dan Rowlands said. “But they were supportive of us. Most of the good fans stayed throughout the game. It was tough for them to stay and watch this.”

The defense may have missed the roar the most, as WSU’s rabid student section has caused numerous false starts for the opposition over the course of the season.

“Our home crowd is big for us, it’s like a 12th-man on the field for us, especially our defense,” junior linebacker Cory Evans said. “It also hurts when you don’t have them. You don’t have that extra energy.

“But you can’t depend on the fans to go out and play. The fans don’t play every play. We do.”

The most prominent absence throughout the stadium was public address announcer Glenn Johnson.

The voice of the Cougars missed the games due to commitments with his other part-time job. The WSU professor is also the mayor of Pullman and was attending a national workshop for mayors.

It meant the seniors, who were honored before the game, were announced by Dave Andrew instead of Johnson.

Replay madness

When last week’s Oregon State win over Washington was nearly washed away on a fumble from Yvenson Bernard that wasn’t, the Pac-10 vowed to do a better job in the replay booth. Then the conference suspended the crew.

It may have put fear into the heart of the replay officials. Saturday’s game was stopped four times for reviews, the first time to review a penalty.

An illegal man downfield was called against the Beavers in the second quarter, and the game was stopped to confirm the call.

Later in the same quarter, Brink was sacked while trying to throw, with the play originally ruled a fumble and OSU’s ball at the Washington State 5. After further review, it was overturned and WSU retained possession.

With the Cougars on the OSU 2 after a third-quarter pass interference penalty, Brink tried to find Kevin McCall in the left flat. The replay seemed to show the WSU quarterback releasing the ball between the 9- and 10-yard line and McCall hitting the high toss backward at the 8. But it was ruled a fumble, though McCall pounced on it at the 16. Cougar coach Bill Doba waited for the replay official to chime in. When he didn’t, Doba used his one challenge on the play.

The replay upheld the ruling on the field and WSU lost a timeout.

Early in the fourth quarter, Brink found Brandon Gibson on streak down the left sideline for a 68-yard touchdown that turned out to be a 67-yard reception when the replay official ruled Gibson was down just short of the goal line. McCall scored on the next play.