Wisconsin proves WSU’s primary need is secondary

MADISON, Wis. – Not to suggest that Washington State was being taken lightly here Saturday, but the first ticket-scrounger sign spotted outside Camp Randall Stadium read “Need 2 Tix – Vegas Game.”

This game? Well, the consensus seemed to be that there would be no surprises.

And that can never be said about a trip to Las Vegas.

So the Cougars and the Wisconsin Badgers were obliged only to live up to expectations, and both mostly did. The lightly regarded Cougars put up a fair scrap until they were inexorably worn down by the seventh-ranked Buckys, who will do that to maybe nine or 10 other teams this season. The final count – 42-21 – was not as good as the Cougars hoped and not as bad as it might have been, which has been said often enough over the years after these sorties against Big Ten bullies like Michigan and Ohio State and now Wisconsin.

Say this about the Cougs – they wear this sort of resignation well.

There were some minor curiosities, of course.

The Cougars rushing for 171 yards, for starters. That’s the most they’ve managed against a BCS opponent outside the conference in 10 years, and if Wazzu hadn’t been two touchdowns in arrears at halftime the damage could have been worse. Suddenly, there seems to be good reason to feel hopeful about a young, patchwork offensive line, which also gave up but a single sack.

Elsewhere, the day belonged to a senior quarterback not answering to the name Alex Brink. The Cougars’ triggerman had a rather nondescript afternoon outside of one nifty scramble and a long ball on which receiver Brandon Gibson did the ornate finish work. In other words – and what else is new? – Brink didn’t win over any converts.

Instead, he was outplayed by Wisconsin’s Tyler Donovan, a fifth-year senior with but two career starts and 67 passes to his name. But Donovan had something going for him that Brink didn’t.

He was facing Wazzu’s secondary.

Ay-yi-yi. That old saw about a football team’s biggest improvement coming between the first and second games of the season had better be true, because it means the Cougars’ cover men can aspire to being, well, ordinary next week.

“I don’t want to say they lost composure,” said defensive assistant Leon Burtnett. “I just don’t think they played up to the level they’re capable of playing.”

But frankly, it’s hard to know yet what this group is capable of, starting as it does two cornerbacks who until Saturday had never played in a college game and a strong safety straight out of junior college who didn’t arrive until August.

Breaking them in against the No. 7 team in the country was as good as leaving the bratwursts on the barbecue too long.

“Some of this you hoped wouldn’t happen,” acknowledged Burtnett, “but realistically you knew coming in it probably wasn’t the best situation.”

And that was evident early and often. Alfonso Jackson, the juco safety, got a hasty education on Wisconsin’s first drive. Devin Giles, a cornerback who spent two years in junior college but never got in a game, found his 158-pound self being leveraged by the Badgers’ bigger receivers. And no one had a longer afternoon than true freshman Chima Nwachukwu, who also has the biggest upside of any of them.

They are not without talent. They are without much in the way of foundation, something the secondary’s lone veteran, free safety Husain Abdullah, discovered as the game wore on.

“The players work on something all week,” he said, “but then they weren’t ready for the quick in-game changes. That probably got to us a little bit.”

Nwachukwu took the beat on the swivel on which the game turned – the 38-yard Donovan-to-Luke Swan touchdown 30 seconds before halftime that put the Badgers up 28-14 – though Abdullah volunteered, too.

“That should never happen – that was my fault specifically, me and the corner,” he said. “When you’re the safety, you’re the last line of defense.”

But splitting those hairs is pretty pointless, as is stewing over the recruiting and development slips that put the Cougars in the position of having to start three callow newcomers on such a stage.

It’s done. Now it’s about getting better as quickly as possible.

Nwachukwu was forthright about the hard knocks he absorbed (“the speed of the game was a shock, and those guys are pretty big out there”), but seemed decidedly undamaged – which is good, because cornerbacks coach Dave Walkosky doesn’t have time to do psychological repairs week to week.

“Chima’s going to play a lot of games,” he said. “We’re going to demand it and force it and he’s going to get better. He’s going to be a great corner for us. We believe in him. He’s our guy.”

He will be a better guy if the Cougs can generate even a breeze of a pass rush. For all the talk that the front four are the strength of the defense, they had nothing the Wisconsin monsters couldn’t handle – which allowed Donovan to waste normally precious time to find receivers who had broken open three, four and five seconds earlier.

But, again, the Cougars knew the jackpot they were getting into with their fresh-faced secondary. Now they can start discovering just what they might get out of it.

And let’s face it. This season could use some surprises.