Jovial Cougs crank it up

PULL- MAN – Somewhere out there is a Cougars fan – possibly hundreds – angry with the team for interrupting his crankiness, at which he figured to go undefeated this season. This is what following football has come to at Washington State.

But by late afternoon Saturday, Martin Stadium was a cranky-free island.

The fumigants were many and varied – two brilliant interception runbacks, a textbook 2-minute drive, a clutch overtime pick-and-kick, faith, determination and an insanity unique to those unwilling to accept that they always belong on the bottom side of a boot heel. And when Nico Grasu sent a placement through the east uprights to beat Southern Methodist 30-27 in overtime, it marked Wazzu’s second victory of the day.

Because before that – when the Cougars were en route to their biggest comeback victory in 15 years – they made people care, when few thought there would be reason to this season.

Like the students who first rushed back into the stadium – having adjourned to various kegs and coolers, presumably – when word of the rally spread, and then rushed the field in delirium.

Bless ’em all.

Sure, the victim on Saturday is one of college football’s most reliable punching bags – only one winning season in the 20 since the NCAA gave it the death penalty for, well, being so inept at cheating in the Robber’s Roost that was the old Southwest Conference that it actually got caught. Celebrations over such sad sacks, according to Those Who Know, are supposed to be beneath even fellow sad sacks.

Yes, the field rush has become a cliché. But sometimes you just have to shuck self-importance and live in the moment.

Especially this moment. Don’t think for a second that the Cougars themselves weren’t aware that popular wisdom even among their, uh, devotees had them destined for a 0-12 record.

“There’s been this thing on my back, this monkey – on all our backs – and to get it off feels so good,” said WSU linebacker Alex Hoffman-Ellis, whose interception return launched this improbable deliverance. “Even though my back still hurts – from the game.”

It should. Hoffman-Ellis and his defensive mates carried their offensive brothers through major chunks of this one – actually, through everything but 2-minute drills to end both halves.

It surely didn’t quiet the debate over coach Paul Wulff’s decision earlier in the week to shelve senior Kevin Lopina, elevate Marshall Lobbestael to the starter’s job and tug the redshirt off freshman Jeff Tuel. In fact, Lobbestael did little to keep the customers calm and the kid at bay until the game-tying 80-yard drive. Somehow in that cauldron, he was sharp and commanding.

“I was able to stay on an even keel, because I hadn’t been performing too well earlier in the game,” he said. “I owed it to the rest of the offense to have a solid drive.”

Owed it to the defense, too.

Without the spectacular touchdown plays of Hoffman-Ellis and Myron Beck, Lobbestael doesn’t take a meaningful snap in the last 10 minutes. And after looking helpless against SMU quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell – whatever happened to Jimmy Joe and Joe Bob down in Texas? – and H-back Emmanuel Sanders, the Cougars began to create some time and space problems.

“Just better execution getting to our drops and playing our assignments,” insisted Hoffman-Ellis. “Nobody trying to be hero. Just people doing ordinary things very well.”

Indeed, for all the big-play picks, just as meaningful was a garden-variety three-and-out the defense forced to give Lobbestael and Co. a do-over after they’d gummed up their first crack at a game-tying drive. Then it was back to the grander stuff – Chima Nwachukwu’s end-zone interception on the first play of overtime.

“They like to take shots,” he said. “We called a special coverage and that’s exactly what he did. Attribute that to the coaches.”

The coaches? Well, they understand any relief from the cranky constituency will be measured in minutes. Relief from the schedule, too – next is USC, bound to be in a bad mood after its pratfall against Washington.

But at least there is some confirmation that the keep-fighting message is getting through, even if the fight is between lightweights.

“This team really wants to do well,” Wulff said. “When they don’t play well, a lot of times it’s because they’re too tight. That comes with youth and immaturity, whereas not being motivated or giving up is totally different. This team has changed that a lot.”

Among themselves, anyway.