A New Fall, A New Leaf Sophomore Quarterback Believes Maturity Makes Him The Right Man To Direct WSU’s Offense

The plunge from anointed savior to scorned underachiever was followed by a personal evolution that gave Ryan Leaf the means to find his way back.

Where insolence had once led to complacency, new-found perspective has yielded motivation. Along the way, the Washington State football team appears to have found the quarterback and leader it recruited out of Great Falls, Mont., two years ago.

“I didn’t work hard last summer and everybody knows that,” said Leaf, a redshirt sophomore. “My teammates got on me about it, but they’ve seen the maturation process I’ve gone through this last year and the way I worked.”

That process began one year ago, after Leaf, hyped beyond reason, succumbed meekly in his battle to win a starting job that some had assumed was already his. The decision by head coach Mike Price to stay with Chad Davis, the less talented but more dedicated incumbent, was as easy as deciding whether to punt on fourth-and-30.

“It was probably the second game of the season when I started seeing things that Chad was doing that I would have done differently,” Leaf said. “I felt like we could have won some games there. I think I started working harder.”

Leaf’s intensity built with every loss, as did the feeling he might supplant Davis at any moment. But Price seemed reluctant to reward Leaf, a player who had proven to be unprepared.

In the end, circumstances intervened. Four consecutive losses wrecked a 3-2 start and ignited a quarterback debate. Fueling the fire was the volatile Davis, who challenged Price’s authority and, by most accounts, chaired a five-member board of dissension.

“I think what may have happened is Chad may have started that last year, and that’s how it got all stock-piled,” Leaf said.

“Now the kids that wanted to leave, they left (Davis and four others). Now we don’t have to deal with them in the locker room any more, their whining and whimpering about what’s going on. If there is any, let’s sit down and talk about it with the whole team, get things out in the open.

Leaf finally got his chance at redemption on Nov. 11, when Price pulled Davis after the first offensive series against Stanford. At age 19, Leaf would be the starter by default.

“I felt like coach made an excuse, that Chad’s attitude change was the reason I was playing, so maybe a lot of people thought, you know, he still hasn’t earned his way to play,” Leaf said. “I felt like it was not, he’s the better quarterback now, let’s play him. I felt like, Chad’s been showing a bad attitude, this is a punishment for him. You know, just play Ryan.”

The decision, as Leaf has come to realize, was more complex than Just Play Ryan. “I wasn’t ready up to that point, probably, and then he put me in when he thought I was,” Leaf added.

Given another chance, Leaf didn’t disappoint.

Against Stanford at home and in the season finale at Washington, the freshman completed 48 of 77 passes for 564 yards and four touchdowns, plus two TDs rushing. Still, the Cougars lost both games and finished 3-8.

“I think he breathed inspiration into the team, the program, the coaches, the fans, the alumni,” Price said. “The next step in his progress is to win.”

With that burden comes responsibility, as Leaf learned in the off-season. His reputation suffered when he was charged with DUI after leaving a party. Leaf’s blood-alcohol level was .02 percent, well below the state’s .08 percent limit, but he was a minor. The charge would be reduced, but the damage was done.

“I was just picking up my friends from a party so they wouldn’t drive home intoxicated,” Leaf explained. “It was just, sit down and having a drink with myself, which was putting myself in a bad situation. Having that one, just was wrong.

“I had to go through the humility. I really don’t care what other people think - it’s the younger kids who want to grow up and do the same thing.”

Leaf and humility have at times seemed like oil and water. Recent comments about beating fifth-ranked Colorado on Saturday have only added to the public perception. It’s a perception Leaf considers inaccurate - more a product of being defined by his on-field demeanor than his true identity.

It’s a tough sell, Leaf realizes. Sometimes his own mother isn’t even sure.

“She’s always sending me clippings about how modest other people are,” Leaf said. “Maybe she thinks I’m cocky. … I think she just thinks, you know, when people hear and the newspapers talk about how confident you are on the football field, they think that overlays to how you are when you’re off the field.

“But as soon as I step off the field, I could be the same as everybody else. Please treat me the same. I think people come up to me and expect me to act the same way, and they just judge me that way without getting to know me.”

That means when Leaf starts a book, he doesn’t complete 4 of 7 chapters for 197 pages and two footnotes. When he goes hunting, he doesn’t revert to the shotgun formation. And when confronted with a formidable line at the grocery store, he doesn’t call his own number and bull his way to the front.

“I’m just a person who goes out on Saturdays and throws the football around a little bit,” Leaf said.

Which is more than he could say a year ago. , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo