WSU Football | Ever-steady Cougar

PULLMAN — Minutes after Washington State finished practice Tuesday, offensive-line coach George Yarno noticed something unusual as he was walking off the field.

His unpretentious right tackle, Charles Harris, was standing by a large Gatorade jug with a cellphone attached to his ear.

"Hey," the coach bellowed, "no cellphones on the football field!"

Yarno, a stern and respected taskmaster who played in the NFL, was kidding.

Harris was talking to a reporter. The senior from Spokane has been a popular interview subject since the offensive line prevented talented USC from getting any sacks Saturday in the slim 28-22 Trojans victory.

The offensive line, which has been battling injuries and has been reshuffled on a week-to-week basis, has given up only two sacks in the past four games.

And in the wake of all the adjusting elsewhere on the line, Harris is the one man still standing at the same spot, providing stability and good blocking.

"He's a guy I look to in the huddle who is going to be calm and focused," said quarterback Alex Brink. "He's always keeping guys cool."

His teammates say it isn't so much what he says, but rather what he does that makes Harris special.

"He's a quiet leader," said senior left tackle Sean O'Connor, who shares an apartment with Harris. "He's not a real vocal guy, he just leads by example in everything he does. He does everything the right way, every day. You'll never see him miss a single thing."

Harris graduated from Mead High School in 2001 but delayed enrolling at WSU until January 2002. He redshirted on the Rose Bowl team that fall, then spent 2003 and 2004 backing up one of the best sets of tackles in WSU history — Sam Lightbody and all-Pac-10 selection Calvin Armstrong.

"It was tough knowing that those guys were going to be in front of me for two years," Harris said. "But at the same time, I got to get better behind them, learning from them. And I'm a better player today because of them."

The time spent as an understudy is paying off, sometimes before anybody reaches the field.

Earlier this week in a team meeting, Harris noticed something in a blocking plan that struck him as flawed. So, he spoke up.

"He pointed out something that made a lot of sense, and we changed our scheme a little bit because of it," Yarno said. "He's always learning and understanding the game of football."

Some weeks, Harris and fellow senior O'Connor order pizzas and invite the offensive line to their apartment to study film and go over assignments.

"He's a real good influence on all of us," said Kenny Alfred, redshirt freshman and starting center. "He's always the first to pick you up when you need to be."

Harris first visited Pullman in sixth grade, when he went to a WSU-USC football game. He remembers the trip as magical, even though the Cougars lost.

"I fell in love with this place," Harris said, as he looked toward Martin Stadium and the rest of campus. "As soon as I got offered, I knew this was the place for me."

He received offers from other schools, including Idaho and Boise State, but the three-sport star and student-body treasurer didn't really give any school but WSU much thought.

These days, he is a big blocker on the field and a big brother off it.

"He's worked hard to get to where he is," Yarno said. "And everyone on this field respects him because of it."

Notes

• Remaining Apple Cup tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday at wsucougars.com. Tickets for the Nov. 18 game in Pullman will be available online only this weekend, until they are gone. Tickets are $50 each, with an additional $10 processing charge for each order. There is a limit of 12 tickets per customer. There will be no refunds or exchanges on tickets purchased through the online sale.

If any tickets remain after the weekend, orders will be taken by phone at 1-800-GO-COUGS beginning at 8 a.m. Monday. A very limited number of premium seats in areas that require an additional donation ($30, $50 or $100 per seat) to the WSU Athletic Foundation will also be made available Monday by phone only.

• Tyson Pencer, a 6-foot-6, 277-pounder from Sands Secondary School in Delta, B.C., has committed to WSU, according to cougfan.com and cougzone.com. He is projected as a tight end or defensive end.