Key On Deon Cougars Freshman Targeted, Grounded After Making Bold Predictions

By Friday night the news had spread across Seattle - Washington State’s Deon Burnett had all but guaranteed a win against Washington.

“I would wager anything that we’ll beat them,” Burnett told a student reporter from The Daily at UW.

A local radio station, KJR 950-AM, got hold of that quote and broadcast it Friday night. Saturday morning the Huskies players picked up the campus paper and read the quote and more like it.

“I’m really confident,” Burnett had told The Daily. “I think I definitely have a shot of breaking it (the Pac-10 freshman rushing record). Burnett needed 213 yards to break that 22-year old record. He now needs 193 yards.

“They need to calm him down a little bit,” said UW linebacker Lester Towns. “I think we did that today. We went and showed him he’s still a young buck.

“There were teams that hardly got 100 yards against us and he is guaranteeing 215,” Towns continued. “He’s a freshman talking.”

Burnett said his quotes were used out of context. Washington State coach Mike Price said maybe they were, maybe they weren’t, but either way Burnett should not have put himself in that situation.

“By God, that was a lesson learned,” said Price. “That 0 in (his) 20 was like a target on his back. He said it, so he better back it up and he didn’t.”

Burnett did have a 48-yard pass play. But the 5-10, 210-pound freshman was caught from behind by the 6-foot-3, 245-pound Towns.

“I threw my hands up a little bit and started walking over to our crowd and he got caught from behind,” said quarterback Steve Birnbaum.

In the fourth quarter, it was obvious that Washington State couldn’t run with Washington, especially Paul Arnold.

Arnold, the other raw freshman running back in the game, took an 80-yard draw play to the end zone. In the process he ran away from Torry Hollimon, LeJuan Gibbons and Marcus Trufant.

For the game, Arnold rushed for a season-high 126 yards. Burnett, who has 877 yards this season, had a season-low 20 yards.

Gesser’s return

Reserve quarterback Jason Gesser stepped into his first game since September in the third quarter and went nowhere. He got anther shot in the fourth and took the Cougars 90 yards on four plays, one of which was his 59-yard scramble.

Then he was out of the game. Price said he was injured. Gesser said he only had the wind knocked out of him.

But Price didn’t put him back in. Some of the coach’s hesitation may have centered on the fact that Gesser could not pass the ball.

Gesser said his right thumb, which required surgery in September was still stiff.

“It wasn’t as good as I thought it was going to be,” he said. “The first series I went in there, it was totally numb and I was having a hard time gripping the ball. I really didn’t have the confidence in my arm with my thumb being numb.”

Gesser did try one pass that fell incomplete. Price expects to play Gesser extended minutes against Hawaii next week.

Gleason out

For the first time in three years senior Steve Gleason was not a factor in the Apple Cup. Gleason, who suffered a high ankle sprain last week, only played two plays in the third quarter.

“Everyone wants to play in the Apple Cup when they are a senior, but I couldn’t do it,” said Gleason. “I couldn’t run.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: Fast enough

The Cougars’ biggest play was a 59-yard scramble by backup quarterback Jason Gesser. He broke into the open and appeared well on his way to a touchdown before being caught from behind at the 19 by Mac Tuiaea.

When Tuiaea, 6-6, 290 pounds, was asked how he managed to catch Gesser, he said, “That’s a good question. I saw him going downfield and I just took off running as fast as I can. It just so happened that my `fast as I can’ was fast enough to catch up to him.”

- Dave Trimmer

Staff writer Dave Trimmer contributed to this story.