New kid on block

SAN ANTONIO – Defensive tackle Toby Turpin tries to make himself tough to block. Because of that, he’s making a reputation as a guy who can block kicks.

The 6-foot-5, 284-pound Turpin slithered through to block his second kick in as many weeks Saturday, giving Washington State its first positive note in a 40-14 defeat to Notre Dame before 53,407 in the Alamodome.

Turpin, who blocked a field goal last week at California, got through a small hole in the left side of the Notre Dame line and got his left hand on Nick Tausch’s extra point.

The ball bounded toward the right sideline, where safety Chima Nwachukwu scooped it up at the 8-yard line.

The blocked extra point proved costly, as Nwachukwu sprained his right ankle when tight end Mike Ragone ran him down 8 yards short of the end zone – and two points.

Nwachukwu did not return.

Not too late for Tardy

Dwight Tardy knows one thing about the rest of his senior year.

“I’m hungry,” Tardy said after rushing for a season-high 72 yards on eight carries. “I haven’t gotten too many carries so I know whatever limited carries I get, I’ve got to make something out of them.

“I’m just trying to do whatever I can to get our team going in the right direction.”

With the emergence of freshman Carl Winston and sophomore Logwone Mitz, Tardy has seen his time at running back diminish as the year’s gone on.

But he had a good week of practice and earned his time, according to WSU coach Paul Wulff. He made the most of it.

The senior, who hasn’t rushed for 100 yards in a game since hurting his knee his sophomore year against UCLA, helped jump-start the Cougars’ offense on their first scoring drive late in the first half.

He opened that seven-play drive with a 20-yard run.

“We hadn’t been executing,” he said of a Cougars offense that had hardly moved the ball before marching down the field.

Then he tried to explain what clicked.

“Same guys, same plays,” he said. “Nothing changed. We just executed better.”

Turpin terrorizes QBs

Turpin, who was the last WSU player to block a PAT, doing it last year, also had a hand, literally, in knocking two Notre Dame quarterbacks from the game.

The first came late in the third quarter. Notre Dame, leading 30-7, had a second-and-goal at the WSU 2 when Jimmy Clausen, who has led the Irish to four fourth-quarter comeback wins this season, began to drop back to pass.

“I crawled right in between both (offensive linemen) and got his foot,” Turpin said. His swipe at Clausen not only caused a 7-yard loss – the Irish settled for a field goal – but sent the junior to the sidelines for the rest of the game. He had reaggravated a turf toe injury. He was well enough to return, but wasn’t needed.

Ten minutes later, Turpin was at it again. The junior from California was being used as spy in case reserve quarterback Dayne Crist decided to scramble.

He did with the Irish facing a third-and-18. Turpin ran him down, diving at Crist’s right leg as the sophomore tried to slip away. He did, but when Crist took another step he landed awkwardly, fumbled the ball and went down with what was later described as a knee injury of undetermined severity.

“I’ve never taken out two quarterbacks in one game before,” Turpin said, before adding he hoped they were OK.

Good family show

Jason Stripling returned to Texas for the first time and made the most of it.

The senior linebacker had the game of his career, credited with a team-high and career-best 13 tackles.

“Coming back to Texas,” said Stripling, from Tyler, about four hours away, “I had a lot of family members here. It was just a good environment.”

Stripling had fond memories of the Alamodome, having won a state football title in the building as a high schooler.

Though WSU wasn’t nearly as successful Saturday, Stripling took pride in the way the defense played in the second half.

“We kind of got a read on what they were trying to do,” he said. “They were trying to spread us out to run the ball. We figured out how to stop that in the second half.”

If there was one play he could take back, Stripling said, it was Notre Dame’s 50-yard Hail Mary touchdown pass that ended the first half.

“That was like a punch in the gut,” he said.

“That kid, all year long, has been there and done a great job for us,” co-defensive coordinator Chris Ball said of Stripling. “He gets better each week. This time last year, if I was a betting man, I would have bet he wouldn’t have been on the team.”

Ball said Stripling was discouraged by his season-ending injury last year and had to think long before deciding to return. Now he had his best game in front of family and friends.

Ex-Cougars coach dies

Former Washington State football coach Forest Evashevski died early Saturday morning. Evashevski, 91, coached at WSU in 1950 and 1951. He was 11-6-2, including a 7-3 record in 1951. That year the Cougars won the Apple Cup 27-25 in Seattle and finished 17th in the nation.

He went to Iowa in 1952 and later led the Hawkeyes to Rose Bowl wins in 1956 and 1958.