Cougars Have Lots of Talent but Little Luck

You will be hard pressed to find a better 2-7 team than Washington State, although the Cougars may find the distinction dubious. Best li’l 2-7 team in the land. Don’t look for it in their ticket-sales campaign next season.

All the same, you have to feel for a team that plays such exciting football, especially on offense, and then gets keel-hauled by the gods like it did Saturday. What could go wrong? What didn’t?

A snap sails over the punter’s head into the end zone, and USC scores. A 24-yard run by Reuben Mayes, who rushed for 177 yards all the same, is called back on a clipping penalty. The quarterback throws interceptions twice in the first quarter after long drives. A 36-yard pass is nullified when Washington State sends an ineligible receiver downfield.

“We’re just wallowing in Murphy’s Law,” said Cougar Coach Jim Walden, after his team lost to USC, 31-13, at the Coliseum. “Whatever can go wrong, has. Just been an amazing year.

“That snap--I’ve been here eight years and I’ve never seen anything like that. There are years and, well, this is one of them.”

Walden is good-natured about it all and tends not to rail. After nine games, of which they have at times led all but two, he is accustomed to this kind of recurring natural disaster. Do insurers recognize claims when your house is singled out by cyclones? Same deal.

“This stuff has been happening all year,” he said, of a team that lost five games by a total of 23 points. “Like, they get a pass deflected but the guy gets it back and runs for 40 yards. We get a pass deflected and it’s an interception.”

The Cougars, amazingly, were ranked No. 7 in the country (No. 1 in the Pac-10) in total offense and probably didn’t hurt their standing too much with their 296 yards Saturday (all but 37 rushing). Yet, they just can’t win.

“It’s been like this all season,” said Rueben Mayes, who is averaging more than 100 yards rushing a game. “It’s just that in critical situations, we make a mistake, we mess up. Every game, there’s about seven critical plays you can point to.”

Collectors of critical plays like to point to last week’s Arizona State game. The Sun Devils have 10 men on the field, all but a halfback, and the quarterback flips the ball to the Invisible Man. Washington State pounces on it on the Arizona State three-yard line. They finally catch a break! But, noooooo . The Cougars have 12 men on the field.

Saturday’s contender was the second-quarter punt snap into the end zone, an easy touchdown for USC. At that point Washington State was very much in the game, even though Cougar QB Mark Rypien has been intercepted twice, leading to 10 USC points. They’re behind by just 13-7 with Glenn Harper steadying himself for the punt.

But Tim Scoles’ snap sets a record for hang time, not to mention distance, and the ball is dis-advanced from the Washington State 44 to its minus-2. Marcus Cotton falls on the ball in the end zone, and USC leads, 21-7.

Harper later admitted, “That wasn’t in the playbook, that’s for sure. First time that’s happened all year. Just watched it sail over my head.”

Poor Tim Scoles’ explanation was the only possible correct one: “I don’t know what happened.” He had big puppy-dog eyes when he said it, even though he was a 245-pound puppy dog, so you didn’t press him on it. It could happen to any Cougar.

Like poor Jeff Lamson, who was singled out on Mayes’ TD run. It could be USC now by just 21-14, but, noooooo . There is Lamson, cracking back on Jerome Tyler. “He says he was just sustaining his block,” Walden said, “but of course, kids will say that. Still, it hurts.”

Even when they were going good, the Cougars went bad. Quarterback Ed Blount, taking over for Rypien, drove the team to a third-quarter touchdown, rushing 48 yards himself on option plays. And then he fumbled the snap on the point-after-touchdown try.

Now, don’t get the impression that Washington State thinks it should have won the game. Walden said, “The better team sucked it up in the fourth quarter; they just lined up and ran over us. They’re just a little more physical than we are.” In football, which is not a parlor game, it is considered important to be more physical than the next team. It’s even better than being lucky.

Also, Walden said, there was the USC running game. “Their backs did well,” he said, “all 17 of them.” Reminded that the Trojans basically fielded just the three--Aaron Emanuel (48 yards rushing), Fred Crutcher (93) and Ryan Knight (85)--Walden reconsidered. “Well, those three backs certainly had a good year today.”

As for Washington State, well, it hasn’t had many good days all year, certainly not a good year this year. Still, the Cougars are proud. “I feel, based on effort, that we’re No. 1,” Mayes said.

Maybe Washington State can use that in its ticket-sales campaign. And it can use a picture of a ball sailing over the punter’s head, and the punter just looking at with “What next?” written all over his sad little face.