Cougars Beg For Support

Count Washington State quarterback Ryan Leaf among those who think the nation’s 10th-ranked college football team should draw more than 31,137 fans for a home game.

“Come on,” Leaf said after Saturday’s victory over Arizona. “A chance to go 7-0 for the first time since 1930, and we can’t sell out a 37,000-seat stadium, while somewhere in Knoxville they have 104,000 people every game, even when they play somebody like UNLV?”

WSU’s next home game, against Southwest Louisiana on Nov. 8, might have trouble drawing 30,000. Leaf, for his part, volunteered to help.

“I’ll even sit out there on Wednesday or Thursday with a sign,” Leaf added.

We can see it now: “Will Work For Fans.”

Gleason: blitz, blitz, blitz

Frustrated by his team’s inability to stop Arizona using its standard defenses, WSU linebacker Steve Gleason lobbied defensive coordinator Bill Doba for more blitzes in the second half.

Doba listened, apparently, and the additional blitzing paid off. Arizona quarterback Ortege Jenkins, who completed 12 of 21 passes in the first half, hit on just 8 of 23 thereafter.

“At the beginning, we were just playing some base coverage and we weren’t getting to the quarterback and we were still getting beat,” Gleason said. “I talked to coach and said we’ve got to get some pressure on them.

“But he didn’t want to blitz and leave the cornerbacks one-on-one. I was just like, ‘Well, they’re getting beat anyway, so we might as well try it.’ So we tried it and got a little pressure on him.”

By unofficial count, the Cougars blitzed only twice before halftime and at least five times thereafter.

Wildcats lose Salave’a

Arizona senior Joe Salave’a, one of the best defensive players in the Pacific-10 Conference, did not return after suffering an ankle injury with 6:14 left in the second quarter.

Boose offers fire, brimstone

When the Cougars went into the locker room trailing 21-14 at the half, they received an unexpected jolt from defensive end Dorian Boose.

“Dorian got a little fired up,” offensive tackle Rob Rainville reported. “He’s a team leader and everything, but he’s more quiet and calm. He just started blowing up. It was pretty awesome.”

Cool, calm and absolutely wired

When Arizona elected to go for a two-point conversion that would either win or lose the game in overtime, WSU’s offensive players could do little more than watch.

While receiver Kevin McKenzie and Leaf said they sought divine intervention, teammate Nian Taylor said he wasn’t the least bit worried.

“I knew our defense was going to stop them,” said Taylor. “We always do that. Just like against UCLA. When it comes down to it, we get after it.”

Apple Cup predictions

While Jenkins is giving Washington State no chance in the Apple Cup, his teammates were a bit more level-headed and a lot more diplomatic in their predictions.

“They (WSU) do a lot of zone blocking, so it’s easier to run blitzes on them,” defensive end Joe Tafoya said. “But Washington State has got an excellent running back and a great quarterback. It’s going to be a great game.”

Tafoya and teammate Stadford Glover’s most memorable play came in the fourth quarter. On third-and-long the two sacked WSU quarterback Ryan Leaf for an 8-yard loss.

“He’s a big guy. I had to,” said Tafoya, a 6-foot-4 freshman. “We had a full freshman D-line at one point and we had to put some kind of pressure on him.”

Crowd too loud?

Say what?

Mystified why the 10th-ranked team in the nation can’t sell out its stadium? The Cougars were even more baffled that a crowd generously listed at 31,137 - or what was left of it - could somehow generate enough noise to keep Jenkins’ snap count from being heard by his teammates.

It may have been the play of the game, before the final play of the game.

Faced with fourth down at the 6-yard line in overtime, Jenkins brought the Wildcats to the line of scrimmage as the play clock dipped under 5 seconds. With the clock at :01, he turned to the referee to plead an inability to be heard - and was granted a new clock.

“How about that one?” said WSU coach Mike Price. “The end zone stands were empty!”

Cougar safety Duane Stewart said he told the official such relief was “absurd.” He noted that the Cougs “got a ton of penalties at Oregon because we couldn’t hear, and nothing happened.”

Leaf said if he’d known he could ask for quiet then, “I would have turned around to the ref and said, ‘Hey, pal, shut ‘em up.”’

This man is an island

Cougar cornerback LeJuan Gibbons had a tough day - being victimized on three Arizona touchdown passes. But he didn’t have a tough time owning up to it.

“This is a performance I wouldn’t accept from anybody - especially me,” he said. “I’m a better player than this.”

What may have hurt more than the touchdowns was an overtime pass-interference call on fourth down, which gave Arizona new life.

“I want to say it’s a bad call, but in my heart I know it was a good one,” he said. “I wasn’t playing the ball, I was playing not to get beat.”

So why did he protest it so vigorously?

“I’m a DB,” he said. “I have to wave my arms and say, ‘Hey, what’s the problem?”’

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