John Blanchette: This deal with Brink, receivers could catch on

SEATTLE – It’s always a pleasure to watch a quarterback at the top of his game, even if he’s staring at a defense on the bottom end of bad.

But nothing can devalue Alex Brink’s 469-yard dissection of San Diego State on Saturday afternoon, and nothing should.

Now then, kiddo – can you do it 10 more times?

There are still indications Washington State’s senior quarterback might have to if the Cougars are to fulfill the destiny they’ve chalked out for themselves this football season, doubters and other know-it-alls be damned.

Their 45-17 barbecuing of the Aztecs at the annual Cougfest at Qwest settled little more than whether Wazzu can overcook an overmatched opponent. The 17 surrendered points look vaguely reasonable unless you saw the actual proceedings, which Bill Doba did and – wearing his defensive coordinator hardhat – conceded “scared the hell out of me,” during the early stages anyway.

Then a check of the Pacific-10 standings shows the rest of the lodge brothers a cool 14-3 so far, with six of them having scored more than 35 points at least once. Also, it may have been noticed that Wisconsin had to slug it out for real estate – for survival – against mighty UNLV until the midnight hour, one last low blow to Wazzu’s defensive profile a week ago.

Sounds like the Season of the Shootout. If Brink’s wearing a holster, he might as well use it to carry his bottle of Gatorade and keep his arm cocked.

Not that he isn’t up to it, necessarily. He leapfrogged past Jack Thompson, Drew Bledsoe and Ryan Leaf on various school passing lists, and those 469 yards – third best in Wazzu history – give him four of the nine best all-time efforts among Cougars quarterbacks.

And to throw a bone to his detractors, yes, Saturday’s win made him just 2-2 in those games.

But the compelling part of Saturday’s trifle was the evidence that Brink may indeed be better supported in his cause – that and the obvious disparities between his adieu at Qwest and the harsh baptism he endured here three years ago, along with his co-star in that chapter in the Big Book of Cougar Quarterback Controversy Lore, Josh Swogger.

This game was not yet five minutes old and the Cougars behind 3-0 when Brink delivered his first pass, low and well behind senior Charles Dillon and destined to be second-down-and-10. Except that Dillon caught it.

Then Brandon Gibson pulled in a 50-50 ball, and Michael Bumpus, too. And inspired just a bit by potential incompletions being turned into positive yardage, Brink found both rhythm and a remarkable touch.

“You like when your receivers can make those plays for you,” said offensive coordinator Mike Levenseller. “Instead of coming off the field, they made two or three really nice catches that kept us on the field and kept the drive alive. Instead of them being ahead and getting the ball back, we’re ahead when we get back to the sideline.”

Think back, then, to Brink’s debut here in 2004 against Colorado.

It came after Swogger had five balls dropped in the first quarter alone and got a quick, damaging hook. Brink was summoned – twice – and eventually rallied the Cougs in the fourth quarter, but threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown and a 17-6 Colorado lead. That was the difference in a 20-12 loss – and quite likely the difference between Wazzu extending its streak of bowl game appearances rather than starting the current drought.

“Those trials I went through that first game,” he said, “made me better.”

But the fact is, his current receiver corps can make him, well, more better.

“He knows we’re all great athletes,” said Gibson, and not immodestly, “and he can put the ball anywhere and we can go and get it.”

Levenseller, one of Wazzu’s best all-time receivers and a hard-to-please position coach, is of no mind to disagree. He likes their speed, he likes their effort and he likes that they understand that practice translates to Saturdays.

“If you practice making the great catches, you’ll make them in games,” he insisted. “Charles may not always make that catch, but he goes down on every single ball (in practice) to do that. Bumpus sells out to make catches in practice. Brandon makes acrobatic, athletic plays in practice.

“And this is the most speed I feel like I’ve had. You put Jeshua in the mix and it might be the fastest five we’ve had here.”

That would be freshman Jeshua Anderson, who torched SDSU’s Aaron Moore on a 39-yard streak for his first collegiate touchdown.

The Cougars may never have had a weapon like that with the luxury of using him as a pinch-hitter or situational relief.

Still, after those early assists, Brink returned the favor. Bumpus, Gibson and Dillon didn’t top 100 yards in catches on their own.

“This is the best game I’ve seen him play,” Bumpus said. “He was efficient. He audibled great. Two tight ends caught touchdowns and I don’t know the last time that happened – maybe my freshman year with (Cody) Boyd and (Troy) Bienemann. It was nice to see him spread the ball around. It made everybody happy. Some guys hang their heads down when they don’t get the ball a lot.”

Oh, the guess is they’ll get it a lot. The guess is they’ll have to.