As the Oldest of the Games that Make Up the Bowl Championship Series, the 99-Year-Old Rose Bowl and Tournament of Roses Parade Are Arguably the. . .

Maybe the thought slipped their minds as they strolled through Disneyland. Or between bites of prime rib at Lawry’s.

At some point during a week of festivities--a blur of pep rallies, news conferences and appearances--the players from Washington and Purdue might have forgotten they came to play football.

That lapse could not have lasted long. The stakes are too high this afternoon for two teams that have taken a long, hard road to reach the 87th Rose Bowl game.

It doesn’t take national championship ramifications--there really are none--to make this a big game. Purdue Coach Joe Tiller was only half-joking when he described what it means to a program and fans who have waited 34 years since their last trip to Pasadena.

“It has been a euphoric feeling in our community,” Tiller said. “I don’t want to be responsible for the mental health of so many people in our state.”

Washington has not waited nearly as long, having played three consecutive Rose Bowls in the early 1990s. But the Huskies and their fans return after a difficult stretch marked by NCAA violations, a two-year bowl ban and a controversial coaching change.

Quarterback Marques Tuiasosopo figures the Rose Bowl has put his team back on the national radar. His coach, Rick Neuheisel, does not want the opportunity squandered because of all the trappings: the parade, the marching bands, a guest spot on “The Tonight Show.”

“I told them that I wanted them to enjoy the festivities and soak up all this Southern California hospitality, but I want them to keep their eye on the big picture,” Neuheisel said. “Ten, 20, 30 years from now, they are going to remember the game more than they are going to remember the nights preceding the game.”

Today’s matchup of No. 4 Washington and No. 14 Purdue figures to be a shootout, an offensive duel between the multitalented Tuiasosopo and his counterpart, Purdue’s prolific Drew Brees.

“It’s going to be tough for both schools to stop the offenses,” Tuiasosopo said.

Washington (10-1) has won with a running attack led by an offensive line that averages 314 pounds, almost 50 pounds heavier than the Purdue defensive front four. The Huskies have three talented, if banged-up, running backs and a consistent receiving threat in 6-foot-7 tight end Jerramy Stevens.

Mostly, though, they have Tuiasosopo.

The senior quarterback has done a little of everything, running the option and scrambling, not to mention passing for 2,146 yards and 14 touchdowns.

More important, as the leader of a team known to start sluggishly, he has shown the poise or grit or whatever it takes to guide the Huskies to eight comeback victories, five of those in the fourth quarter.

That includes a touchdown on a quarterback keeper and several late scoring passes.

“He wills his team to win,” Purdue defensive coordinator Brock Spack said. “The guy is a fabulous competitor.”

The Boilermakers answer with a defense that starts five freshmen but has grown tougher with each game. They turned a corner in the second half of a 32-31 midseason victory over Michigan, learning to use speed to compensate for a lack of size and experience.

Quickness made Purdue the best defense in the Big Ten, but it might take smarts to defend against Tuiasosopo.

“We have to stay on our keys,” freshman safety Stuart Schweigert said. “We have to make sure that if we come up to stop the option, he doesn’t step back and throw.”

The passing game is even more worrisome for the Washington defense, which faces Brees and a multiple-receiver offense.

This wide-open scheme is a favorite of Tiller’s, an unlikely offense from a coach who, true to his Midwestern roots, spent years as a devotee of the ground game.

It was about a decade ago that Tiller happened upon a playbook left behind by longtime NFL and college coach Dennis Erickson. Taking over as head coach at Wyoming in 1991, he employed a variation of Erickson’s spread offense and turned the Cowboys into a scoring machine.

Four years ago, Tiller brought the spread to Purdue and handed it to Brees, a pocket passer who has the arm and vision to make it hum.

This season, the Boilermakers (8-3) won with good--if unspectacular--receivers and Tim Stratton, winner of the John Mackey Award as the nation’s best tight end. They won with a quarterback who led the nation in total offense by making sound decisions, getting rid of the ball quickly enough to be sacked only eight times.

“That means he knows where all the buttons are,” Neuheisel said. “He knows how to get off the hook, how to call for protection, he can see what you are doing.”

Washington got torched by a similar offense in a nail-biting 33-30 victory over No. 5 Oregon State. Today, the Huskies will throw a mix of defensive schemes at Purdue in an effort to pressure Brees into making mistakes.

Much of that responsibility falls upon nose tackle Larry Tripplett, a 6-1, 295-pound junior who led the team with 6 1/2 sacks. But the defensive line might need help disrupting the Boilermakers, who showed increasing ability to run the ball with Montrell Lowe.

“They have a lot of offense,” Washington safety Hakim Akbar said. “We have to have some answers by sending blitzes from different angles, keeping Drew Brees off balance.”

And, Tripplett says, “we can’t get frustrated because we know they will make plays.”

The thought of it can spoil a man’s otherwise carefree walk through Tomorrowland. The worries can put him off enjoying a good cut of beef.

And the distractions don’t end with all the pregame festivities. Just ask Neuheisel, a former quarterback who was the most valuable player for UCLA in the 1984 Rose Bowl game.

“Everything pales in comparison to running onto the field,” he said. “That is a magic carpet ride through the tunnel, onto the field amid 100,000 people.”

Tripplett can think of only one thing better.

“Winning the game.”

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Rose Bowl

No. 14 Purdue (8-3) vs. No. 4 Washington (10-1)

Kickoff: 2 p.m., Channel 7

Coverage begins at 1:30

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Taking the Field

(Washington and Purdue team rosters and statistics: tabular data omitted)