Bud Withers / Times college football reporter
Little help for Brink in first start

MARK HARRISON / THE SEATTLE TIMES Oregon State defensive end Bill Swancutt drags down Washington State quarterback Alex Brink. Swancutt had two sacks, three tackles for loss and recovered a fumble.

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CORVALLIS, Ore. — On a day evocative of the bad old days of Washington State football, it takes the current-day vernacular to describe the state of the Cougars.

It is what it is.

It's one remaining quarterback who gives WSU a chance to win in 2004, Alex Brink, and he's a redshirt freshman who had played two college games in anger before yesterday. It's tailback depth so shallow that behind Jerome Harrison, the most frequent ballcarrier by design against Oregon State was true freshman slot receiver Michael Bumpus.

It's defensive backs who don't cover well enough, receivers who don't run consistent enough routes and a defense that against the Beavers couldn't get itself off the field when it mattered.

Voila: An untidy little 38-19 defeat to a middling Pac-10 team that provided a sobering barometer of where the Cougars sit in the final week of October.

Not pretty.

They're under .500 (3-4) for the first time since 2000, and this was their most convincing, out-of-it-by-halftime regular-season loss since the 51-3 mess they made against Washington to end 2000. This one just about strangles any remaining hope they had of extending a string of three straight bowl games.

"In the second quarter," said offensive coordinator Mike Levenseller, "I don't think we did a very good job of fighting."

They lost the game in that quarter, and in doing so, forfeited any chance Brink could lead them back to a win.
 
It was Brink's day, the first college start for the bright kid from down the road in Eugene who didn't get a scholarship offer from either Oregon or Oregon State.

"As a high-school senior, many didn't think he possessed the arm strength necessary," Oregon coach Mike Bellotti said this week. Regarding a scholarship offer, Bellotti said, "He was right on the bubble for us."

The way the game developed reflected the way Brink's day progressed. He hit eight of his first 10 throws, including a 24-yard sideline route to Bumpus. More mobile than injured Josh Swogger, the guy he replaced, Brink dodged and dashed out of the pocket, throwing on the run probably two-thirds of the time.

"A couple of times, I thought he could have stepped up stronger (from deep in the pocket)," said WSU quarterbacks coach Timm Rosenbach. "Once in a while, I'll tell him, 'You could hang in longer,' but I'm not seeing what he's seeing."

Unfortunately for WSU fans, what Brink saw most luminously was a 10-0 Oregon State lead after OSU's first two possessions. What the Cougars couldn't afford to have happen, happened: They fell into a three-touchdown abyss by halftime, and suddenly found themselves asking Brink to rescue a game with the Beavers knowing he had to throw.

So he was a forgettable 7 of 31 in the second half; 15 of 41 and 201 yards overall.

Seemingly, there was very little inclination on the part of either Brink or his coaches to protect him from injury. Indeed, on third-and-10 late in the half, he rolled right for 9 yards and took a major whack along the Oregon State sideline.

"I told him to try to avoid taking shots," said Rosenbach, "but I also told him to play. You don't want to over-coach him too much, because he's got an ability to make plays."

Said Brink, "They know I have pretty good judgment on when to try to make plays and when not to."

Brink underthrew a couple of possible deep shots, and he forced a few balls, resulting in two interceptions. But you do a lot of forcing when you're facing a 21-point deficit.

"It'd be nice to let him relax, instead of putting him in a situation where he's putting the ball up in the air," said WSU defensive end Adam Braidwood, who had a breakout, three-sack game. "I don't think we did our job to help him out."

They didn't. Cornerback Karl Paymah couldn't cover Mike Hass, safety Hamza Abdullah got beat over the top by Marcel Love for OSU's third touchdown, and the Cougars' defense simply didn't get it done despite having the Beavers in several long-yardage situations. Love's 44-yard score came on second-and-22.

Levenseller, meanwhile, saw a lot of ways his receivers could have helped Brink.

"A four-step 'out' is a four-step out," he said. "A nine-step 'stop' is a nine-step stop. We're young, and the youth shows up too often. Even our playmakers are inconsistent."

Outside by the WSU buses afterward, Russ Brink recalled how his son's first game as a high-school sophomore at Sheldon High ended up in a loss, and then his team won eight straight. Alex Brink was 35-3 as a starting quarterback.

"He's a winner," Russ Brink said. "He hates losing. He absolutely expected to win today."

That's a start. But before the Cougars win again, they're going to need not only a collective expectation, but a lot better execution.

Bud Withers: 206-464-8281 or bwithers@seattletimes.com