History awaiting quarterback Brink

PULLMAN — Washington State likes to call itself "Quarterback U" for good reason.

The roll call of Cougars quarterbacks the past 30 years includes Jack Thompson, Mark Rypien, Timm Rosenbach, Drew Bledsoe, Ryan Leaf and Jason Gesser.

This fall, a studious, fifth-year senior from Eugene, Ore., is on the threshold of breaking almost every major career passing record at the school.

Alex Brink already holds some school game records and is the only quarterback in WSU history to beat Washington in successive years. But he doesn't have a hammerlock on the hearts and minds of all Cougars fans.

The reasons: He is 12-16 as a starter and hasn't led the Cougars to a bowl game. Also, he doesn't have a nuclear right arm, something backup Gary Rogers used to throw a 50-yard touchdown pass to Cody Boyd in last season's opener at Auburn. A late-game Brink pass that could have upset USC last year was intercepted at the 4-yard line.

Brink also isn't as sociable as Josh Swogger, the married quarterback he beat out in 2005 whose wife would cook for linemen; or the hang-loose Gesser from Hawaii. Arriving late for lunch one day early in camp this month, Brink sat by himself rather than seek out teammates.

Said coach Bill Doba: "I don't know what Alex has to do — I guess win a bowl game or win the Pac-10 or something like that — to gain anybody's respect."

Doba is talking about the respect of fans. Brink already has earned the respect of teammates as a hard-working, lead-by-example guy who has become more vocal each year.

"On every play, he knows what all 11 guys are supposed to be doing, and that's a lot of the reason coaches have so much faith in him," said senior tight end Jed Collins. "He leads by example, and he can answer the questions and why and how we are doing something. A lot of guys respect that about him. He's not the most vocal guy, but he's stepping up in that category."

Another group that admires the most experienced quarterback in the Pac-10 is the league's coaches. They voted him second-team all-conference last year.

One would think that a senior quarterback on the threshold of setting meaningful school records (even if Bledsoe or Leaf probably would have put them out of sight if they had stayed for their senior years) would be plastered all over the cover of the WSU media guide. But Brink shares the space with his three fellow co-captains. That's fine with him. He says being elected a co-captain as a junior and senior means more to him than records.

Some Brink background:

• He lost just three games in high school and quarterbacked Sheldon to the Oregon big-school state championship as a senior.

• He originally committed to Boise State, then switched to WSU when Rosenbach, who had been recruiting him at Eastern Washington, joined the Cougars' staff.

• His brother, Ben, was a national-caliber swimmer who competed for Tennessee.

• He has a 3.6 grade-point average and will graduate from the Honors College with a degree in sports management. His senior thesis compared the lack of Division I black head football coaches to the scarcity of blacks in top management of Fortune 500 companies.

• When he arrived in Pullman in the summer of 2003, he had just turned 18 weeks earlier, weighed 180 pounds, and looked more like a cross-country runner than a Division I quarterback. He now has 215 pounds on his 6-foot-3 frame.

• He hasn't missed a start because of injury.

• He lives alone, and his best friends on the team are guard Bobby Byrd and backup linebacker Chris Baltzer, a high-school teammate.

Brink took over the starting QB job as a redshirt freshman in 2004, when Swogger was lost for the season with a broken foot.

Many fans assumed that Swogger, who had been elected captain as a sophomore, would return as No. 1 in 2005. However, Brink beat him out in fall camp. After the 2005 season, Swogger transferred to I-AA Montana for his senior season.

Unlike in 1990, when the WSU team fractured into quarterback camps supporting Brad Gossen, redshirt sophomore Aaron Garcia and true freshman Bledsoe, the 2004 Cougars stayed together.

"I think a lot of it was the relationship that Josh and I had from the beginning," Brink said. "We were good friends, and both of us were mature enough to leave the competition on the field."

Brink also noted that the Cougars were coming off three consecutive 10-win seasons, and players had confidence in the coaches' decisions.

Brink has had some sensational games. As a sophomore, he threw for a school-record 531 yards in a loss at Oregon State, and threw for 423 yards and five touchdowns in a loss at California. Last season, he set a WSU record for completion percentage (.870) by hitting 20 of 23 in a 34-23 win against Oregon, the hometown school that didn't recruit him.

It will take special performances this year to get the Cougars to a bowl. Last year, they were sitting at 6-3 and ranked No. 25 after a win at UCLA, then went 0-3 in November and stayed home.

"I remember last year sitting here at this time and thinking, 'We've got a good team, we have a bowl-quality team.' And I think we did," Brink said. "But we got a little complacent late in the season. ... I have the same feeling this year. I feel like we have a bowl-quality team."

Brink says he knows what is ahead.

"It's going to be the same thing as last year," he said. "We're going to get to a point in our season where we're going to have to step up and make that season what it is. Last year, it was the Arizona game. We got to 6-3 and that Arizona game was going to make our season, probably. [The Cougars lost 27-17].

"Sometime this year — it could be early in the season or late — we're going to get to a point where we are going to need to look at each other, look in the mirror and say, 'This is the time we need to step it up.' "

Cougars fans are waiting to see if they do it.

Craig Smith: 206-464-8279 or csmith@seattletimes.com