Same old spectacular loss
PULLMAN – The ritual is down pat at Washington State University this season. The Cougars lose, but Jerome Harrison runs for a lot of yards. Yawn. Harrison put together one of his more impressive performances Saturday, running the ball 38 times for 240 yards and catching four first-half passes for 19 yards more.
It’s the third time this season Harrison has gone for more than 200 and the fourth in his career – the latter is a WSU record. The senior also etched his name into Pacific-10 Conference history with a 12th straight 100-yard game, tied at the top with California’s J.J. Arrington.
What does this all mean to Harrison?
“Not a thing,” he said. “I’m not going to a bowl, so it doesn’t mean nothing to me.”
The performance had some significance for Harrison, who played in front of his parents. To honor them he added to his jersey the name Persell, the surname of both of his parents. (Harrison is his mother’s maiden name.)
Meanwhile, the 240 yards vaulted Harrison back into the national lead ahead of Memphis’ DeAngelo Williams, although the Memphis senior has one more game left than Harrison.
Nonetheless, the senior from Kalamazoo, Mich., seems like a lock to break the WSU single-season rushing record of 1,637 yards by Rueben Mayes. Harrison needs 87 yards to tie the Cougars legend, and at his current clip of 172.2 yards a game, it is likely that mark will fall by halftime against Oregon.
“Jerome really played well, ran the ball hard,” offensive coordinator Mike Levenseller said.
But Harrison countered that he’d willingly give up all his gaudy statistics from the season if it meant a few additional wins.
“It’s disappointing,” he said. “I’d rather have 10 yards and six wins rather than all these yards and all these losses. So it’s very tough. I just feel I should be doing more.”
Langley just missed twice from midfield
Sophomore kicker Loren Langley probably won’t remember the 25-yard field goal taken off the board in favor of a penalty. But he will recall two other fourth-quarter field goals that just missed to the left.
The first, from 50 yards, clanged off the left upright. The second, from 52, sailed to the left of that same post.
“That 50-yarder, I really felt good about that kick,” he said. “I kicked it well. I crushed the kick. It was real frustrating for me to have it hit the post.”
Both kicks were into the wind, but each had plenty of distance to get there. The second kick could have been more manageable, but quarterback Alex Brink took a 12-yard sack on third down that pushed Langley into more difficult territory.
Langley entered the game 10 of 11 on field goals this season, and his career long is 48 yards.
“They apologized for backing me up,” Langley said. “But I feel it doesn’t matter. It’s the same kick. I feel I should have hit it whether it was 52 or a 40-yard field goal.”
Notes
WSU freshman wide receiver Brandon Gibson left the game in the first half with a right hip injury. Its severity is unknown, but the Puyallup, Wash., native had X-rays taken at halftime. … The Sun Devils had a third-quarter touchdown taken away on an instant-replay reversal, the first time a call was changed because of the new system in Martin Stadium. … WSU sold 31,054 tickets for the game. … WSU senior cornerback Alex Teems had a career-high 11 tackles. … With starter Sam Keller done for the year with an injury, the Sun Devils had to move wideout Chad Christensen to backup quarterback. But Christensen still played at receiver against the Cougars, catching an early 16-yard pass. … The Sun Devils’ charter plane back to Phoenix was waylaid before arriving in the Inland Northwest. As a result, ASU is considering spending an extra night in the area before returning home.