Homecoming game

PULLMAN – He’s been there before. Many times. The sounds have washed over him. Engulfed him. Lifted him. The colors were his colors. The green, the yellow, covering his walls.

Alex Brink is coming home again for the first time. Coming home to Eugene, Ore., as a Pac-10 quarterback. Coming home wearing crimson.

The sounds will once again wash over him, engulf him, try to bury him.

Brink is coming home again for the first time. He comes home as the enemy. He comes home as the greatest passer in Washington State University history. The prodigal son coming home in triumph to a school that didn’t want him and without a single illusion of where he stands with the 58,000 in Autzen Stadium.

“I think I’ll be booed pretty well,” Brink said, his calm born of being part of that crowd 30, 35, 40 times over the years.

“My family and friends will be there, rooting for me,” he said. “And I’m sure the people around town who know me and have seen me play, they’ll be excited to see me play. But I don’t think they’ll be rooting for me.”

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The first time Brink entered Autzen Stadium, in his hometown of Eugene, he was so young he can’t place the date. But he does remember the year the Oregon Ducks intercepted his loyalties.

It was 1994. The 10-year-old Brink watched fascinated as the Ducks marched to the Rose Bowl behind the passing of Danny O’Neil and the running of Ricky Whittle. One day, Brink’s dad brought home a present.

“It was a poster of Ricky Whittle,” Brink remembers. “My dad saw him around town, and he had him sign a poster for me. He signed it with an inspirational message. I don’t remember what it said now, but it was on my wall all the way through high school.”

Brink attended Eugene’s Sheldon High with Luke Bellotti, whose dad, Mike, just happened to be Oregon’s football coach. Like just about everyone in Eugene, Brink not only hoped to be a high school star – he was, helping Sheldon to a 2002 state title – but also a Duck some day, as Luke would become.

“Anybody who plays (football) in Oregon, it’s not just Eugene, (but) Portland or anywhere,” Brink said of wanting to play for the Ducks. “Everybody would say ‘I’d love to play for Oregon,’ or ‘I would love to get the attention from Oregon.’ Because that would validate them as a player.”

Brink received that validation as a skinny, 18-year-old senior, when Bellotti made contact with a phone call. But the interest went no deeper. The Ducks had passed on the hometown hero.

“I watched just about every game … because my son played with Alex Brink so I got a chance to go see those games,” Bellotti said this week. “And I was very impressed. Alex was a guy we talked to – I talked to him personally, our quarterback talked to him personally – we were considering whether to offer him a walk-on opportunity or I said he was on our list to be scholarshipped.

“We also signed three quarterbacks that year, Johnny DuRocher, Brady Leaf and (current starter) Dennis Dixon. One was the player of the year in California, one was the player of the year in Washington. And Alex was not as developed at that time physically as these other guys.”

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“The first time I saw him play was in the (2002) state championship game on TV,” Washington State quarterbacks coach Timm Rosenbach said. “He looked like he was out on recess playing. He would just drop back a long ways and throw it and make plays. I thought he was a guy who had a lot of upside as far as what his body could become.

“Physically, he looked a little sickly. But he was competitive, and that’s half the battle.”

Snubbed by Oregon – and every other Pac-10 school – Brink committed to Boise State. But Rosenbach, who was at Eastern Washington when he first saw Brink play, had moved down U.S. 195 to Pullman. The Cougars had a need for a quarterback. A call was made to Brink’s high school coach, a mother’s reluctance to have her son renege on a commitment was overcome and Brink was headed to WSU – and a chance to play in Autzen.

But, by a quirk of the Pac-10 schedule, not until his senior season.

Redshirting as a freshman, Brink made the trip and stood on the sidelines as the 21st-ranked Cougars routed No. 10 Oregon, 55-16. He was also on the sidelines the next season when the Ducks won in Pullman 41-38.

The last two years, however, he’s been the WSU quarterback, losing 34-31 as a sophomore and leading the Cougars to a 34-23 win over the 16th-ranked Ducks last season.

“They’ve always come at important times,” Brink said of those games. “My sophomore year we were in a pretty bad slide – it was (the seventh) game of our seven-game losing streak. I remember thinking that was a game I would love to get.

“Last year … that was a real complete game where the offense was efficient, we were balanced, we ran the ball well, we threw well, defensively we forced a lot of turnovers. It was at home, we got the crowd into it. It was one of those quality wins.”

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That might also be the case Saturday. The Cougars are 2-4. They are 18-point underdogs against the ninth-ranked Ducks. A season in which Brink hoped would end in a bowl game is in danger of slipping away.

But with 20 to 30 friends and family watching, with the Autzen crowd he was a part of so many times trying to rattle him, the day can’t help but be special.

“I’m the type of player and I’ve had the type of career where I’ve had to go out and play like I’m trying to prove something every game,” he said. “I’ve played with a chip on my shoulder. I’ve played with that pressure for a long time.

“So why would playing in Eugene be any different?”

It is, and Brink knows it.

“There will definitely be a time when I look around, that first time when we walk out of the tunnel to go warm up, it will be finally,” said Brink of his long trip back to Autzen Stadium.

He pauses a beat or two before continuing.

“You know, I’ve waited for this opportunity to play there for a long time. This day has come, and it will be a good feeling.”

Cougar notes

The biggest question still looming for Saturday is the availability of wide receiver Brandon Gibson. The junior didn’t practice again Wednesday but attended most of practice. … Other than backup running back Chris Ivory (concussion), the rest of the two-deep practiced, including defensive lineman Kevin Kooyman, who missed last week with a dislocated finger. … The best play of practice was turned in by Charles Dillon, whose diving, rolling catch of an Alex Brink pass was even more impressive considering he is coming off a shoulder injury. … It rained off and on at practice, which usually is a good thing in preparation for a game in Eugene, Ore. But Saturday’s forecast is for clear skies and a high of 69 degrees.