Cougar LB Mattingly hits big

Andy Mattingly has turned into "Mr. October" for the Washington State Cougars.

WSU has played two games this month, and opportunity has knocked for the sophomore outside linebacker from Mead. He has responded in his two starts by tearing the door off its hinges.

Mattingly has made six sacks for minus-48 yards — four against Arizona State and two at Oregon. His two-game tackle total is 26.

It seems a fitting performance from a law-enforcement major who picked that field "because I want to be on a SWAT team."

Some of the interest in law enforcement might come from having an older brother, Chris, in the Secret Service. Chris is one of Mattingly's two brothers and six sisters. Three children still are at home.

Mattingly got some help on the sacks against ASU from inside linebacker Greg Trent. Trent blew into gaps first and either wiped out the blocking or left Mattingly one-on-one with a running back, who proved no match for the charging 6-foot-4, 235-pounder.

The Cougars lost both games — a 23-20 home loss to Arizona State and a 53-7 blowout at Oregon. On Saturday in Pullman, they will try to get back on course and halt their four-game losing streak when UCLA visits.

Mattingly got his first start because junior-college transfer Kendrick Dunn, who is faster, had been injured at Arizona. Both Mattingly and Dunn started at Oregon as the Cougars went to a 3-4 alignment to take advantage of the talent at linebacker.

Mattingly is tied for second in the Pac-10 in tackles-for-loss with 10 and tied for first in forced fumbles with two.

Mattingly never redshirted last season after arriving in Pullman as one of the nuggets of the 2006 recruiting class. He was one of four Seattle Times "blue chip" in-state recruits, along with Jake Locker of Ferndale (Washington quarterback), Taylor Mays of O'Dea (two-year starting safety at USC) and Stephen Schilling of Bellevue (starting Michigan offensive lineman).

At Mead, which is outside Spokane, Mattingly was all-state as a safety, and as a center fielder hit .620 his senior season.

In football, Woodinville beat Mead 15-14 in the 4A quarterfinals in his senior season of 2005. Mattingly returned a fumble 35 yards for a touchdown in the loss.

"I'd do anything to play that game again," he said.

Mattingly said he still has an interest in baseball, but said football coaches will have the final say on whether he ever becomes a two-sport athlete at WSU.

He also lettered in basketball three years at Mead but wasn't exactly a finesse player, saying: "I had a lot of fun running around using up my five fouls."

That figures.

Notes

• The WSU men's basketball team will hold a free public scrimmage from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday at Beasley Coliseum before the 3:30 p.m. football game.

• Cougars quarterback Alex Brink got in some golf to relax during last week's bye week. Brink, who had a bad game in his hometown of Eugene against the Ducks, said it took "a couple days" to get over the performance that included two interceptions and a fumble on the first three possessions.

"I'm not going to let one game determine my season or my career," he said. "I got over it."

• The Cougars' punting and punt coverage is improving. Redshirt freshman Reid Forrest has punted 12 times for an average of 40.7 yards the past two games. Seven of those punts were returned, and the total return yards were only 27 yards.

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