Cougars look fine-tuned

SEATTLE – The 51,486 fans at Qwest Field often cheered louder for the Grambling State marching band than they did for the action on the field.

No matter, though. The Cougars entered Saturday’s game expecting to roll over a Division I-AA opponent, and that they did. Forget about the Alex Brink fumble on Washington State’s first offensive play – no big deal. And WSU’s lethargic play in the first half – no problem.

Jason Hill still caught his two touchdown passes, Jerome Harrison still ran for his 100 yards by halftime and DeMaundray Woolridge still ran for another 100-plus in relief. The Cougars still never trailed in this game (they haven’t all year) and they still coasted to a 48-7 victory, the same lead they held for a time at Nevada a week earlier.

So even if the Cougars haven’t faced an opponent that will rival Oregon State, coming up next on Oct. 1 after a bye week, they can’t help but feel that the mission of this non-conference season has been accomplished.

“Hey, you know, we’re where we wanted to be,” Brink said. “We’re 3-0 going into the Pac-10. However we got here, we’re here. And that’s really all that matters.”

Head coach Bill Doba said he’ll be banking on better play than what he saw in Seattle to do well in the Pac-10. But after playing Idaho, Nevada and Grambling, his team is already halfway to a bowl bid that eluded it in 2004.

“Not that I’m unhappy with the win or anything, but we’ve got to play better than that in the Pac-10 to survive,” said Doba, who left his starters in into the fourth quarter even with a decisive lead as he waited for signs of improvement. “We just wanted to get better, you know? And I just didn’t want to leave the field – they needed some work. We’ve got a tough conference schedule ahead, so we just needed to get some work on those guys.”

Grambling did impress the Cougars at times, even if the gap between the teams was obvious. But for a team facing an uphill struggle, Grambling made too many mistakes to stay close.

After Brink’s fumble, the Tigers (1-1) started inside the WSU red zone. But even after eking out one first down they weren’t able to put points on the board as Shawn Millson yanked a 26-yard field goal left of the uprights.

As a result, the Tigers didn’t put up any points until the last minute of the third quarter, struggling to move the ball as WSU outgained them 515-208.

“We had an opportunity to come in here and play an outstanding team,” Grambling head coach Melvin Spears said. “I told them all along that against a team like Washington State you can’t make a lot of mistakes. Certainly the one thing my team did was play hard; they fought the whole 60 minutes and I am real happy about that.”

Even if the Grambling team on the field wasn’t able to match WSU play for play, most of the fans in attendance – minus those seen snoozing by game’s end – were entertained by the school’s marching band, which drew the crowd’s adulation at halftime and again after the game for a “fifth quarter” performance.

About 20,000 people stayed afterwards to watch the Tigers’ famed band take the field, and after a while the WSU marching band joined them on the field for an impromptu mix of band members playing as one on the field.

A number of the Cougars also exited the locker room after the game and headed back for the sidelines and not the team bus to take in the show. And when WSU does settle back into Pullman, it’ll have the luxury of relaxing this week before getting ready to play Oregon State, perhaps the most pivotal game on this year’s schedule. (The Beavers lost 63-27 playing on the road against a tough Louisville squad Saturday morning.)

But Brink, for one, said the step up from Grambling to a BCS-conference foe won’t trouble the Cougars too much. And if he’s right, the Cougars might just come out of this season looking as cheery as the Tigers’ band for scheduling Grambling as win No. 3 of the year.

“As a team we know that the competition is going to get better,” Brink said. “We have a lot of experienced guys who have played at this level before so I don’t think it’s going to be too much of a shock. I think we’re going to be prepared for it, especially after the bye week.”