Brink takes his shot, receives a few in return
CORVALLIS, Ore. — Alex Brink wasn’t perfect. But if you ask his coaches, he wasn’t the reason Washington State lost, either.
“At times he did some real good things, at times he did some things that a freshman does,” quarterbacks coach Timm Rosenbach said. “But he always kept his composure and stayed positive, and played tough. He made some plays, so that’s a positive thing you can build on.”
Brink’s numbers certainly weren’t impressive, most notably a completion percentage of just 36.6 percent (15 of 41). But the redshirt freshman clearly brought his own style of play to Oregon State on Saturday, his first start as a college quarterback.
Both Rosenbach and head coach Bill Doba said the offense was altered little to fit Brink’s abilities, but Brink’s ability to move out of the pocket — in sharp contrast to the quarterback he replaced, an injured Josh Swogger — was on display almost from the first snap.
The majority of Brink’s throws came on the run, and while some of those plays were of an improvisational nature, many were on designed rollouts.
Putting Brink in space also opened him up to taking hits from the Oregon State defense, something that WSU entered the game very concerned about given the team’s lack of depth at quarterback. In his two previous appearances this year, against Colorado and Idaho, Brink had also shown a propensity to fumble.
As a result, Rosenbach had tried to instill at least some sense of caution in his signal-caller.
“I told him to try to avoid taking shots, but I also told him to play,” Rosenbach said. “You’re talking about a person you don’t want to overcoach too much because he’s got ability to make plays, stuff you can’t coach.”
For his part, even though the score was lopsided, Brink said he was more confident than he had been in his earlier appearances. He finished with 201 yards passing, including a fourth-quarter touchdown pass to Greg Prator and two interceptions.
“I think I improved a lot from the Colorado game,” Brink said. “I felt more comfortable out there making decisions making reads.
“I felt like if I could live to fight another day, then our offense would have a chance down the road. It didn’t turn out that way, because they were putting up points all the time.”
Unfortunately for Brink, the Cougars don’t have much time left this season for him to gradually improve if they are to make a run at a winning record and a bowl invitation.
“I was confident because I felt like we were prepared and our team was ready for a breakout game. It didn’t work out that way,” he said. “I have to re-evaluate my goals, the team’s goals, and we need to get ahead to USC. We got to get off this losing streak and get a win and then start thinking about winning some more games and getting to a bowl game.”