Harrison recognized for season
PULLMAN – Sitting in a small conference room crowded with reporters, Jerome Harrison was given the good news. The Washington State running back has made the list of 10 finalists for the Walter Camp Award, one of college football’s highest honors.
The senior furrowed his brow slightly.
“Who’s Walter Camp?” he asked.
Never mind that Camp, the former Yale player and coach, helped establish football as it is known today – and helped form a little entity known as the NCAA. All you and Harrison need to know is that making the list of 10 solidifies the Cougar’s position as one of the nation’s best players.
Not too shabby for a guy who had started just five major-college football games before this season. Harrison already has the WSU single-season rushing record, and at 1,693 yards has a realistic shot – if not a near-guarantee – of getting to his preseason goal of 1,800 yards.
That statement from August raised some eyebrows. But it’s during the season and on the field that Harrison has really gotten people’s attention.
Head coaches across the Pac-10 have gushed about the senior’s ability. That includes USC’s Pete Carroll, who made sure to tell WSU head coach Bill Doba after a 55-13 thrashing of the Cougars how impressed he was.
And yet all the yards and records have very little to do with what Harrison said he’ll take away from his last year with the Cougars.
“I can never forget how we lost these games,” he said. “I think this team will never be forgotten, all these close losses. You can watch the film and you still can’t figure out how we lose.”
Harrison has already agreed to play in the East-West Shrine game after the season and his gaudy rushing numbers virtually ensure him a good shot in the NFL next season. Before that, however, Harrison is getting some talk about another collegiate award – one even more prestigious than the Camp.
In ESPN.com’s Heisman poll, voted on internally by college football writers and analysts, Harrison has climbed to fifth place despite his team’s 3-7 record.
Harrison freely admits he has no shot at college football’s most coveted award, but the chance to be one of the finalists making a trip to New York City is an exciting one.
“I didn’t help my team have success so I know I won’t win it, but it would be cool to go out there,” said Harrison, who added he would have liked to been recognized earlier in the year. “I get a little frustrated, but you think about the guys on the Heisman list and they find ways to win. That’s what I didn’t do this year. It’s my fault why I’m really not on it.”
The running back from Kalamazoo, Mich., said the full weight of his accomplishments probably won’t sink in until a week or two after Saturday’s Apple Cup. And even though his two years in Pullman yielded no postseason play, Harrison said he’s leaving town for the better.
“It was just like leaving a place that you love,” he said of his last game in Martin Stadium against Oregon. “The guys here will still be playing football and I know a lot of guys on the team so I’ll live through those guys and I wish them a lot of success next year. And if they go to a bowl, you better believe I’m going to be right there with them. It’s just going to be at my own expense.”
Walden’s wife dies
Janice Walden, wife of former Washington State head coach Jim Walden, died Monday morning after a prolonged bout with cancer at the Benewah Community Hospital in St. Maries. She was 67.
Jim Walden was head coach of the Cougars from 1978-86 and has served as the color commentator for the school’s football radio broadcasts since 2001.
The two met as sophomores at the University of Wyoming and were married two years later in 1960.
In his book released last year, Jim Walden wrote, “Going to the University of Wyoming was the best thing I could have done because it gave me the most important person in my life, my wife Janice. I could not ever, ever have been given anyone I could love any more than Janice.”
Funeral plans are pending.
Notes
The contest to paint Seattle’s Space Needle in Huskies or Cougars colors is wrapping up at 9 a.m. today. After that, donations – which have been accepted to aid Hurricane Katrina victims – will no longer be part of the contest. Cougars fans have donated more than Huskies fans on most individual days of the contest, and if they prevail in the overall sum as well, the monument will be painted crimson and gray for Apple Cup weekend. … Results of precautionary X-rays on wide receiver Jason Hill’s index finger have not been made public. The junior said Sunday, however, he intended to play regardless of what damage was revealed.