Columbus Key Dot on Cougar Map

Washington State football fans have it all mapped out: defeat Ohio State in Columbus on Saturday, ride wave of national momentum to an undefeated regular season, earn shot to play for the national title in the Fiesta Bowl, carry Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Jason Gesser off the field after upset victory over Miami.

Or maybe that’s just getting carried away.

“Hey, slow it down,” Gesser said of the hysteria sweeping wind-swept Pullman.

You can’t blame the townspeople for passing out pamphlets.

For the first time in 41 years, Washington State was picked to win the conference title, and this week the school embarks on arguably the most important nonconference regular-season trip since the school began playing football in 1894.

Most years, Washington State might flinch at the prospect, but this isn’t most years. The Cougars are coming off a 10-2 rebuilding year and think they can stand buckeye-to-buckeye with Ohio State.

Washington State has four returning starters on the offensive line, three on the defensive line. Thirty-four players have starting experience. Last year’s Cougar defense posted 40 sacks and a school-record 26 interceptions.

“This team, this program, it’s the perfect time, the perfect situation,” Gesser said this week. “If we played them my freshman year, I don’t think we could have been able to match up with them physically. This year, I really think we can.”

Washington State (2-0) versus Ohio State (2-0) is No. 10 versus No. 6 in the AP poll, but more than that for the Cougars. For a program that rarely ventures out of its time zone, it offers the rare opportunity to make a national statement.

It seems incredible that Washington State hasn’t been in a regular-season road game of this importance, but history suggests just that. The 1997 win at Washington was historic in that it earned Washington State its first Rose Bowl trip in 67 years, but even that game did not have national title implications.

In 1988, Washington State beat Tennessee at Knoxville, and in 1977, it won at Nebraska, but nothing compares to this weekend at Ohio State.

It’s up to Gesser, the team’s senior leader, to keep the lid on emotions.

“That’s the main concern,” Gesser said. “We really can’t get caught up in the hype, oh it’s Ohio State, oh, it’s the Horseshoe, it’s 100,000 people.”

The key?

“Don’t get caught up in the Ohio State mystique,” Gesser said. “Don’t get caught up with oh, they’re big, they’re strong and they’re tough. We got to go out there with an attitude and knock them in the mouth.”

Gesser definitely has the attitude. Although not prototype quarterback size at 6 feet 1, Gesser plays with pants-on-fire abandon. The little kid few thought would make it big has 46 touchdown passes, tying him with Drew Bledsoe for third on the school’s all-time list.

Gesser has been able to adapt to any situation, most notably his migration from his hometown of Honolulu to Pullman.

“I said, ‘Wow, I’ve got to get some shoes, boots and jeans,’ ” Gesser said of his transition out of flip-flops and shorts. “I’ve got to start wearing coats and stuff. That was the biggest thing I had to get used to.”

As for Gesser’s Heisman Trophy campaign? It was launched somewhat tongue-in-cheek, the school paying $2,500 to put his likeness on a grain elevator in the tiny town of Dusty, Wash., a clear dig at Oregon’s New York City poster push last year for Joey Harrington.

“It’s perfect, it fits me and the university perfectly,” Gesser said. “I’d rather be on the side of that grain elevator than be on the side of a building in Manhattan.”

A victory over Ohio State, however, and Gesser’s campaign becomes no joke.

Hey, slow it down.

“I’m not up for the Heisman; Washington State is up for the Heisman,” Gesser said. “You can’t have a guy go to New York as a finalist with a 6-6 record or a 7-5 record. You’ve got to be 11-0, 12-0.”

And none of that happens unless you start 3-0.

Pac Bits

California at 2-0 already has doubled its win total from last year, and the team’s 104 points are more than half of last year’s 201 total in 11 games.

News bulletin: Stanford rebounds from opening defeat at Boston College with breather against San Jose State. Hardly. The spunky Spartans led Washington, 10-0, at the half last week and have taken three of the last four meetings against Stanford. Chris Lewis gets the start at quarterback for Stanford after serving a one-game suspension for a minor NCAA violation. According to the San Jose Mercury News, Lewis used an athletic department long-distance access code to make a personal phone call (this passes for scandalous in Palo Alto).

Oregon, which plays host to Idaho this week, doesn’t play a road game until Oct. 5 at Arizona. If the Ducks’ Onterrio Smith keeps averaging 124 yards rushing, look for his name to start popping up on Heisman short lists desperate for tailbacks.

You know about the gift Washington Coach Rick Neuheisel handed Michigan on Aug. 31, but the charity didn’t end there. Neuheisel recently donated $7,500 to help pay for uniforms at Alcorn State. Why? Karl Morgan, an Alcorn assistant coach, was Neuheisel’s teammate at UCLA.

The Pacific 10 is 14-3 in nonconference games. The defeats: Washington at Michigan, Arizona State at Nebraska and Stanford at Boston College.

John Robinson and Dennis Erickson have long been coaching contemporaries yet meet on the field for the first time Saturday when Nevada Las Vegas plays at Oregon State. Erickson, with a record of 138-52-1, is college football’s seventh winningest active coach. Robinson ranks 12th at 120-56-4.