Sun Shines on Neuheisel in Seattle

If you woke up this morning wondering how Rick Neuheisel’s Washington Huskies grabbed the inside track to the Rose Bowl, led by a record-breaking quarterback Neuheisel did not want, well, take a number.

As UCLA rap sheets line the bottom of the Pacific 10 bird cage, and USC tries to hack it with Hackett, and Arizona State tailback J.R. Redmond prepares a case to take before “Judge Judy,” the football gods smile again on the boy wonder.

Or maybe, just maybe, it’s time to give Neuheisel credit.

Last weekend, Washington seized temporary control of the Pacific 10 Conference with a 35-30 victory over Stanford.

And while there are innumerable possibilities left in this rancid race for the Rose Bowl, one thing can be stated without impunity:

If Washington defeats Arizona, UCLA and Washington State--one tough game and two freebies--the Huskies are headed to Pasadena, led by UCLA’s perennial next-coach-in-waiting.

No one is this lucky, all the time, although pixie dust has a funny way of settling on Neuheisel’s golden locks.

After ticking off every coach in the Western states with his million-dollar contract, then violating minor NCAA recruiting rules before the paint was dry in his parking space, then opening his return-to-glory era with losses to Brigham Young and Air Force, the 37-year-old Neuheisel scored a colossal win over his former school, Colorado, on Sept. 25, the first of five Husky wins in a six-game stretch.

The resurgence has been led by junior Marques Tuiasosopo, an option quarterback thought to be a stopgap until Neuheisel recruited a guy who could throw spirals.

In the meantime, last Saturday, Tuiasosopo turned in perhaps the most heroic single-day performance on record, passing for 307 yards and rushing for 202 against Stanford. It was the first 300-200 game in major college football, more remarkable in that Tuiasosopo suffered a serious bruise to his behind on the game’s second play.

“I had Kordell Stewart at Colorado, who had some big-time days,” Neuheisel said of Tuiasosopo’s performance. “I had Troy Aikman at UCLA, who had big-time days. J.J. Stokes had some record-breaking days. But this was phenomenal.”

Tuiasosopo said he was unaware of what he had accomplished.

“I had no idea,” Tuiasosopo said by phone this week from Seattle. “I was just playing the game. I wasn’t told until after the game. I didn’t really care. I was just happy we won, that was the big thing for me.”

Tuiasosopo said he never considered coming out of the game.

“I just looked around, saw my teammates and said, ‘I can’t let this little bruise affect me,’ ” he said.

Little bruise? Tuiasosopo was on crutches Sunday and Monday and had all but moved his dorm belongings to the training room.

According to someone at the scene, some Washington players literally shrieked in the locker room when they caught a glimpse of the deep-purple welt that had encompassed Tuiasosopo’s backside.

Yet, Tuiasosopo has already pronounced himself fit for Saturday’s key game at Arizona.

“I’m playing,” he said flatly.

The fact that Tuiasosopo and Neuheisel could find common ground and form a successful union is not to be underestimated.

While coach at Colorado, Neuheisel recruited Tuiasosopo at Woodinville High in Washington, but wanted to convert him to safety.

“Only because all I had evaluated him on was high school film, and they didn’t let him throw in high school,” Neuheisel says now. “You would come to the conclusion he was not throwing because he can’t.”

Neuheisel had ties with Marques’ father, Manu, who played at UCLA in the 1970s, but it wasn’t enough.

Marques signed with Washington, determined to prove the naysayers wrong.

When one of those naysayers, Neuheisel, replaced Jim Lambright as Washington coach this year, you might have expected a clash.

But Tuiasosopo, set to inherit the job from Brock Huard, stood his ground.

“I wasn’t apprehensive,” he said of Neuheisel’s arrival. “I knew whenever those things happen [a coaching change] you have to go out and re-prove yourself. I was going to do that. I love competing. I don’t have a problem with that.”

Neuheisel said he actually started changing his opinion of Tuiasosopo in 1997 when he and his Colorado assistants watched the quarterback come off the bench to throw for 270 yards against Nebraska.

“He threw a pass, and I looked over at Bobby Hauck, who had recruited him, and said, ‘I thought you said he couldn’t pass!’ ”

When he got to Seattle, Neuheisel said he was ready, philosophically, to meet Tuiasosopo halfway.

“People have realized I’m not just hung up on throwing the ball every down,” Neuheisel said. “I am fully prepared to run it if we’re capable of running it. With Marques’ option prowess, we’ve developed a way to be creative on offense.”

This is not a success story just yet.

The Pac-10 race is a house of cards, and a Washington loss this weekend could tip the balance back to the Cardinal.

But, in Washington, it’s a start.

ON (OR IS IT OFF?) WISCONSIN

Wisconsin at Purdue this weekend is not only a matchup of Heisman Trophy candidates, Ron Dayne vs. Drew Brees.

It also could be a Rose Bowl elimination game for the Badgers.

How so?

Let’s assume Penn State finishes 11-0 and goes to the Sugar Bowl. In that case, Wisconsin, currently 7-2, would need to beat Purdue and Iowa to have the nine wins required to play in a bowl championship series bowl.

The Rose Bowl is contracted to take the champions of the Pac-10 and Big Ten, which is why Granddaddy is going to get stuck with a crummy Pac-10 team.

But if Penn State is lost to the Sugar Bowl as the No. 1 or No. 2 team in the BCS rankings, Wisconsin would not be the Big Ten champion.

So, should the Badgers fail to win nine games, the Rose Bowl will take a top 10 at-large school to pit against the Pac-10.

Anybody have a problem with Washington vs. Kansas State?

Wisconsin could still go the Rose Bowl at 8-3, but only as the Big Ten champion. That would require Penn State losing its last three games against Minnesota, Michigan and Michigan State.

This is the mess the BCS has created.

If Wisconsin loses Saturday, it would leave the Rose Bowl rooting for Penn State to drop one of its last three games to finish 11-1, which would knock the Nittany Lions out of the Sugar Bowl and into . . . the Rose.

BCS BANTER

This week’s BCS rankings revealed what we suspected all along: No. 3 Virginia Tech cannot get to the Sugar Bowl at 11-0 unless either No. 1 Florida State or No. 2 Penn State loses a game. Virginia Tech’s strength of schedule plummeted from 42nd to 58th this week, causing the Hokies to lose ground to No. 2 Penn State. Virginia Tech, which trailed Penn State by only half a point in the BCS computer last week, now trails by 1.7 points. It will only get worse for the Hokies, who have four conference games remaining in the weak Big East.

The more interesting question: Should either Florida State or Penn State lose, could Virginia Tech, at 11-0, hold off one-loss Florida or Tennessee for the second BCS spot?

Florida moved from sixth to fourth in this week’s BCS rankings, jumping over Tennessee and Kansas State, and may have enough schedule gas to surpass Virginia Tech. The Gators trail the Hokies by 3.35 points, but Florida can make up computer ground because it has remaining games against No. 1 Florida State, and a likely date in the Southeastern Conference title game against a top-10 opponent, probably Mississippi State or Alabama.

With remaining conference games against lowly Vanderbilt and South Carolina, Florida has all but secured an SEC title-game bid.

If Florida loses along the way, then a one-loss Tennessee poses a computer threat to Virginia Tech.

HURRY-UP OFFENSE

* Plans to add a fifth BCS bowl to the national title game rotation of Rose, Sugar, Orange and Fiesta have been scrapped for now. “There just wasn’t enough support to move forward with that fifth bowl,” BCS head Roy Kramer said.

The fifth-bowl idea got momentum last year after Kansas State’s overtime loss to Texas A&M; in the Big 12 title game knocked the Wildcats from a $12-million berth in the Fiesta Bowl to the $1.2-million Alamo Bowl.

Some thought mighty Kansas State deserved better--i.e., a fatter paycheck--even though it lost the Alamo Bowl to Purdue.

* Give third-year Boston College Coach Tom O’Brien major credit for rescuing a team from the brink of disaster. One week after blowing a 28-0 lead to Miami, Boston College recovered to take a 24-23 victory at Syracuse. Given the emotional mood swings of today’s players, it was a monumental achievement.

Thankfully, the Eagles are off this week.

Said O’Brien: “We’re tired, our batteries are drained, we need the week off desperately.”

At 6-2, Boston College probably will make its first bowl appearance since 1994, while the Eagles, under O’Brien, appear to have overcome the taint of the 1996 gambling scandal that unraveled on coach Dan Henning’s watch.

* Two years ago, North Carolina finished 11-1 and flirted with a national title. Last week, the Tar Heels fell to 1-7 after a loss to Furman, a Division I-AA school nicknamed the Paladins. What happened? Mack Brown was the coach then, Carl Torbush is the coach now.