Harrison harasses Bruins for 247 yards

PASADENA, Calif. — As a running back for two years at Pasadena City College, Jerome Harrison had the opportunity to see a couple of parades leading up to the Rose Bowl. On Saturday, he returned to the same city and held one of his own – right through the UCLA defense.

Harrison etched his name into the Washington State University record book with 42 carries for 247 yards and three touchdowns against the Bruins defense, sparking a much-needed Cougars victory and prompting head coach Bill Doba to call him the difference-maker.

“I’ll just hop into the cold pool,” said the weary, but still giddy, running back.

The 42 carries broke a school record held by Steve Broussard, and the yardage total is good for No. 3 in Cougars history, behind a 261-yard effort by Bernard Jackson in 1971 and a 357-yard day by Rueben Mayes in 1984.

Harrison spent much of his post-game interview giving credit to an impressive performance by the offensive line, which opened big holes for him between the tackles and along the sidelines.

“You could almost run in a blindfold the way they were blocking. I don’t think I really did much but just run,” Harrison said. “This whole week, our offensive line has stayed after practice just working on blocking their blitzes.”

UCLA’s run defense has been soft all year, but the Cougars exploited that in a way that didn’t seem possible, given the team’s struggles running the ball for much of the year. The week before against USC, Harrison had rushed for 15 yards and no other running back added a single yard to that total.

But against UCLA, Harrison went for a 25-yard scoring run on the first offensive play, and added another 45-yard touchdown scamper – untouched, at that – by the end of the first quarter. He reached 100 yards on WSU’s first play of the second quarter, and by halftime his 133 yards were better than his previous career high of 117.

The gaudy rushing totals were enough to overcome Harrison’s first-quarter fumble that skipped into the Cougars end zone and was recovered by UCLA’s Brigham Harwell for the first Bruins score.

The Cougars had two other running backs at their disposal, but Allen Thompson finished with nine carries for 49 yards and Chris Bruhn, available for the first time after missing two weeks with a knee injury, didn’t play a single snap.

“I’d say after the first two or three drives we knew we could score points and we were going to be able to run the ball pretty much all day,” WSU left tackle Calvin Armstrong said. “You could tell they were frustrated.”