Cougars lay ruin to Bruins

PASADENA, Calif. – The hugs exchanged on the Rose Bowl sod lasted a little bit longer, the grins were a little bit wider than they are after the average win.

And as Washington State head football coach Bill Doba and athletic director Jim Sterk strode from one corner of the famed stadium to the other after beating UCLA 37-15, the conversation was a little bit more joyous.

The Cougars, just when they needed it most, are kicking into a gear not seen on their sideline since 2003’s 10-win season, and on Saturday their convincing road victory – that’s No. 3 of the Pac-10 season – gave them a sixth win overall and bowl eligibility.

“We’ve got a lot bigger aspirations than just being bowl eligible,” said quarterback Alex Brink, echoing a sentiment heard often from the Cougars locker room after a win against Oregon the week before. “Yeah, I’m excited. It feels great. To be in this position – we’ve set ourselves up so well for these next three games.”

At 4-2 in the Pac-10, the Cougars return home to play Arizona next week with a third-place conference finish theirs to lose this season.

And in seizing control of their own destiny Saturday night, the Cougars proved just how difficult they might be to beat down the stretch by winning despite an assortment of injuries and oddities that would sink many teams.

WSU played this game without its three best defensive tackles, with its best defensive player hobbled and barely able to finish the game, with its top cornerback similarly limited by injury.

Its punter fell ill before the game, and its kicker was injured during the game.

Its run game was stymied early, its scoring opportunities squandered because of missed field goals.

But despite all of that, the Cougs came out for the second half shrugging off those setbacks, dominating UCLA (4-4, 2-3) in almost every phase of the game.

The Cougars trailed 15-14 at halftime but scored 23 unanswered points thereafter, with backup Romeen Abdollmohammadi doing the placekicking and wide receiver Michael Bumpus doing the punting.

“They’re just playing hard and they’re tough,” Doba said. “A lot of guys are playing a lot of plays. Winners find a way to win.”

Aside from a remarkable but relatively short burst, the Cougars were largely unsuccessful on offense in the first half. Their two scores came on back-to-back drives, the first of 90 yards and the second of 98 yards, early in the second quarter. But a pair of missed field goals by WSU’s Loren Langley and some shoddy tackling on a late second-quarter touchdown pass from UCLA’s Patrick Cowan to Junior Taylor gave the Bruins the halftime lead before 53,058 fans.

The Cougars took the lead back late in the third quarter with a 67-yard drive culminating in a 17-yard scoring toss from Brink to Brandon Gibson, and never looked back. The Bruins didn’t pick up a second-half first down until more than three minutes into the fourth quarter, and as that final frame went by the Cougars tightened their grip on the game, running the ball better while Brink put the finishing touches on a masterful 405-yard passing performance as well.

The final minutes of the game were spent – in addition to scoring one last touchdown – celebrating on the sidelines with teammates, coaches and friends.

“That was the 10th-ranked defense in the country coming in,” offensive coordinator Mike Levenseller said of UCLA. “And early it felt like we were (going to be) in a dogfight all day long. Then we got going.”

And now as a result, the Cougars are almost certainly going to a bowl game.

“This is the first time since I’ve been here where we come out and expect to win every game,” Bumpus said. “Our confidence is high and it’s working so far.”