Burnett Zips Past Mayes WSU’S Freshman Back Runs Into Record Book
Deon Burnett walked right past Rueben Mayes on Saturday. Twice.
The first time was when the Washington State running back left his dorm room on Saturday morning.
“I have his poster up in my room,” said the freshman. “It’s right on the front door, so I see it every time I leave and it can motivate me.”
The second time Burnett passed Mayes was on a 73-yard run through the left side of the line and into the end zone. The run pushed Burnett past Mayes’ freshman rushing record of 425 yards. After his 110-yard performance on Saturday, Burnett has 488 rushing yards in six games. His nine touchdowns are also a freshman record.
Those accomplishments have people around WSU less distraught over Kevin Brown’s move to Sin City and UNLV.
“When I first got here, people were talking about him a lot,” Burnett said. “I’m not hearing about him so much anymore.”
“What he has that people really don’t know is he has really good vision as far as hitting the hole and when he catches, he’s looking and seeing what is going on downfield,” said quarterback Steve Birnbaum. “Compared to Kevin just sticking his head in there, he has vision and picks out holes instead of just hitting it hard.”
“Every week, he looks more and more like one of the best rushers in the Pac-10,” added quarterback Paul Mencke.
The season opened with Burnett going for 38 yards against Utah. Since then he has rushed for 52, 91, 96, 104 and 110.
“He’s pretty good for a freshman,” said Washington State coach Mike Price, when asked how Burnett compares to Brown. “He’s not going to get worse, I don’t think.” And from the sound of things, he’s not going to find himself in the same type of trouble Brown did last summer.
“You’re a freshman starting on a Pac-10 team that is getting better and will win some games and he is starting to flourish and he really has a solid base and a good head,” said Mencke. “You never hear him talking about himself. He is not a loud guy. He just comes out, does the job and gets the job done.” “He’s not a prima donna,” added Price. “He’s just a really good kid. God, I hope he doesn’t grow up.”
Mencke makes big plays
Paul Mencke had his hand in several big plays, starting on the Cougars’ first play from scrimmage. WSU opened with a long-awaited reverse pass as Mencke took a handoff and fired a 29-yard completion to Nian Taylor. Three plays later, WSU scored to take a 7-0 lead.
“We had it called last week (against California), but they noticed it and called it out, so we checked,” coach Mike Price said. “On the reverse, (Taylor) wasn’t wide-open. He (Mencke) had to throw it in there.”
With the outcome decided, Mencke stepped in at quarterback late in the third quarter. His first pass was actually a one-hopper behind the line that went for a 2-yard run.
“I was just a little cold,” said Mencke, who returned to quarterback two weeks ago when Jason Gesser suffered ligament damage in his thumb. “It was a bad throw, but after that I felt fine. I got a little blood through the system.”
Enough blood to put a lick on the Ragin’ Cajuns’ Kyries Hebert to punctuate a 29-yard bootleg run.
“I haven’t hit anybody for a while. I saw him and he looked like a pretty big guy (6-1, 192 pounds), so I said, `Hey, why not try him out,”’ Mencke said.
“Now everybody in Spokane is going to want Mencke to play running back because he ran it so well,” Price joked.
Mencke, of course, wouldn’t mind. “I love catching passes, that’s something that is real fun for me,” he said. “I’d like to see if I could catch and throw some passes and kind of become the utility man on the team.”
One more chance
The Cougars will have to play Lafayette-Louisiana again sometime in the next three years. WSU worked out a two-and-one deal with the Ragin’ Cajuns three years ago.
The Ragin’ Cajuns visited Pullman in 1997, losing 77-7. WSU athletic director Rick Dickson said he is looking to set a return date for the 2001 or 2002 season. The Ragin’ Cajuns have penciled the Cougars in for Nov. 3, 2001, but WSU is already scheduled to play UCLA that day.
Extra points
Steve Birnbaum’s interception was his first in a 113 pass attempts… . The Cougars gave up 15 first downs in the first half and only five in the second half… . Paul Mencke was the Cougars’ second-leading rusher with 29 yards… . Seven Cougars saw the first action of their careers… . Steve Gleason, the leading tackler in the Pac-10, led the Cougars with 13 stops… . The crowd, announced at 23,276, was the smallest to see a Washington State game at Martin Stadium since 1993. That year, the Montana State-WSU game only attracted 19,068.