Wildcats Are Hardly Growling, but They’re Sure Grumbling

Coaches Rick Neuheisel and Bill Snyder both want to win tonight’s Holiday Bowl game. But the similarities end there.

This is a game of opportunity for Neuheisel, in his first year with unranked Washington. A victory over seventh-ranked Kansas State gives the Huskies some national attention in what was supposed to be a rebuilding year.

Snyder, meanwhile, carries a chip on his shoulder into the game. He and Kansas State were left out of the bowl championship series for the second consecutive season, despite having been ranked in the top 10 since the first week of October.

Last season, the Wildcats were undefeated and a play away from the national championship Fiesta Bowl game before losing to Texas A&M; in double overtime in the Big 12 championship game. Their reward was a trip to the Alamo Bowl, where they lost to Purdue, 37-34.

This season, the Wildcats’ only loss was a 41-15 pounding by Nebraska in their 10th game. With that loss in mind, Snyder has said his team is happy to be in San Diego and that the disappointment surrounding last year’s bowl game is gone. But Snyder is far from content with the way things have gone the last two bowl seasons.

“There are some concerns, the way we were passed over the past two years by the BCS,” said Snyder, whose team finished sixth in the BCS standings but was overlooked by the Orange Bowl, which selected eighth-place Michigan. “But if that’s the nature of the BCS, to only worry that No. 1 and No. 2 play each other, then so be it.”

The BCS ranking system, which exists specifically to assure a meeting of Nos. 1 and 2 in a title game, considers several factors in its rankings. One of them, strength of schedule, has worked against Snyder’s team the last two seasons.

This season, the Wildcats’ three nonconference opponents were Temple, at 2-9 one of the worst teams in Division I-A; Texas El Paso out of the Western Athletic Conference, and Utah State of the Big West. Kansas State beat those teams by a combined 120-7 score, scoring 40 in each game. But those teams had only a combined 11-23 record, playing in lesser conferences.

Michigan’s strength of schedule has a rating of .08, second-best among the top 15 schools in the BCS rankings. Kansas State’s is 2.52, third-worst among those same schools. Apparently, strength of schedule has been the knock on Kansas State. But Snyder doesn’t see it that way.

“We do what we need to do to address the needs of this program and to make this program successful,” he said. “We want to win ballgames. But penalties are dealt to us through the BCS when we do win. . . . That’s not fair.”

Snyder added that he won’t change his scheduling to appease the BCS and that his program has done everything it can to get a shot at a BCS bowl.

And tonight, Kansas State is basically in a no-win situation. If the Wildcats lose to the Huskies, the strength-of-schedule critics have more ammunition. If they beat Washington, most will have expected it because they are 11-point favorites.

But Neuheisel and his Huskies have plenty to gain.

Brought in to restore the national prominence the Huskies enjoyed in the early 1990s, Neuheisel has made a solid start.

Playing one of the toughest schedules in the country, in the wake of a preseason recruiting scandal, Washington was picked to finish sixth in the Pacific 10. Instead, the Huskies went 7-4, tied for second in the Pac-10 at 6-2 and have a chance to take a huge step tonight.

“For all we’ve accomplished, we’re never satisfied,” Neuheisel said. “We have some unfinished business left because we could’ve been conference champs.”

The Huskies have perhaps the most dangerous weapon in this game in junior quarterback Marques Tuiasosopo. In a victory over Stanford on Oct. 20, Tuiasosopo became the first player in Division I-A to pass for 300 yards and run for 200 in one game.

But Washington still might be in over its head in this one.

The Wildcats led the nation in pass defense efficiency. They also finished first in the country in turnover margin, second in total defense, third in scoring offense, and fourth in scoring defense.

Junior running back Joe Hall, listed at 290 pounds, has gained 613 yards and scored six touchdowns in only 121 carries. On defense, senior All-American linebacker Mark Simoneau will look to contain Tuiasosopo. “They have no weaknesses,” Neuheisel said.