Disparate Teammates Provide An Extra Kick For The Cougars -- Work Ethic Links Banks, Lindell On And Off Field

PULLMAN - Jeff Banks bubbles with enthusiasm and has the scholarly good looks of a choirboy. Rian Lindell is more subdued and has the size and shape of a lumberjack.

Seen together, Banks, who is 6 feet, 179 pounds, and Lindell, who is 6-3, 231, don't look like they belong on the same team, let alone playing the same sport.

But they do, and they each have helped the Washington State football team take a top-10 ranking and a perfect record into a game at Arizona State on Saturday (7 p.m., Fox Sports NW).

Banks, a senior from Upland, Calif., is the leading punter in the Pac-10 Conference with an average of 44.2 yards per kick. In the Cougars' 35-34 victory over Arizona on Saturday, he averaged 45.1. Only two of eight kicks were returned (for a total of 12 yards), largely because of exceptional hang time.

Lindell, a redshirt sophomore from Vancouver, Wash., in his first season as the Cougars' kicker, consistently reaches end zones with his kickoffs and has made 37 of 38 extra-point kicks and five of 10 field-goal tries. His 57-yard field goal against Boise State equaled the longest kicked by a Cougar other than Jason Hanson.

Their success this season is no accident, in part because of a shared work ethic.

"I never worked this hard when I was in college," said WSU assistant coach Aaron Price, a former Cougar place-kicker. "These two kickers we have right now work their tails off."

Not only do Banks and Lindell work hard when they're kicking, but they have put to rest the myth that kickers don't do anything when they aren't kicking. Weight lifting, agility drills and running are a big part of their practice routine.

Banks, 22, comes across as a dedicated student of the (kicking) game since high school.

Lindell, 20, developed his football work ethic as a tight end and linebacker at Mountain View High School.

"Jeff works as hard as anybody else on the team and all he's done is kick," Lindell said. "I've always worked at lifting weights and doing wind sprints because I was a position player."

Being a position player is one of the things that led Price to invite Lindell as a walk-on in 1995.

"I saw a very raw kicker but a guy who was kicking his kickoffs through the uprights," Price said. "I also saw him playing tight end and being an all-conference linebacker and I was thinking, `The guy has a football mentality and performs under pressure and can kick the hell out of the ball.' "

The ways Banks and Lindell became Cougars is as different as their football backgrounds.

Banks' college career began at San Diego State, where he redshirted as a punter in 1993. By the spring of 1994, the coach, Al Luginbill, had been fired and replaced by Ted Tollner.

"(Tollner) told me he didn't think I had what it takes to be a major-college kicker and he brought in some others," Banks said. "I took what he said as a challenge."

Banks first took up the challenge at Citrus College in Glendora, Calif. He punted at the junior college for two seasons and earned a degree in time to transfer in January 1996. Illinois was his likely destination. But after agreeing to sign an Illini letter of intent he was told that he had not earned the minimum number of junior-college credits required by Big Ten schools, despite his degree.

"They kept saying there was a small problem but that it could be worked out," Banks said. "I was upset because I thought everything was in place."

Off went Banks to WSU, where there were no "small problems" and where there was a radio-TV school, his academic area of interest.

Lindell's route to Pullman was not nearly as complicated. He was invited to visit WSU and watch the Cougars' spring practice game in 1995. He liked what he saw, particularly after Washington signed Randy Jones of Spokane.

When Lindell arrived, Tony Truant, the place-kicker, had two years of eligibility remaining.

"It was like, `I have to wait two years,' " Lindell said. "But you kind of have to look at it like `I have two years to get ready,' instead of two or three weeks. I certainly wasn't ready when I first came in."

Banks has helped speed the process for Lindell.

During his sophomore year at Citrus, Banks became a student of Paul Stonehouse, a former Stanford punter who moonlights as proprietor of The Kicking Game, a Southern California summer camp for kickers. Stonehouse, now married to Banks' sister, Natalie, changed Banks' three-step punting style to a two-step approach.

"That was a little bit of a problem for him at first," Stonehouse said. "A lot of punters don't like going from three to two, but it's the best way.

"It makes the coaches happy because it cuts down on your get-off time. But also it makes you more of a compact punter, which lessens the pause in your drop. The least amount of time the ball is dropping from your hands the more accurate you're going to be."

As Banks found out in kicking out of end zones against USC last year and Illinois this year, two steps are quicker than three.

This past summer, Lindell attended a Kicking Game camp, where Banks was helping as a student coach. The teaching process didn't end with camp. In addition to critiquing himself, Banks continually helps Lindell.

"He knows what drills to use to make corrections," Lindell said.

"Say I'm hooking the ball. Maybe he'll say, `You're toe is coming up or your plant foot is too far away.' He'll say, `OK, here's a drill we're going to do. Let's work on some one steps to make sure the plant foot is away and you're going downfield.'

"Then we'll go back to the finished product."

Relentless in their dedication, Banks and Lindell seem destined to hold up their end of whatever bargain awaits the Cougars.

No matter how different they seem.

Note

-- In an attempt to boost attendance for the Cougars' final two home games - against Southwest Louisiana Nov. 8 and against Stanford Nov. 15 - the athletic department yesterday announced a "12th Man" ticket campaign. A $20 family ticket plan will allow either two adults and two children or one adult and three children entry into Martin Stadium. WSU is also selling 10-ticket blocks for $50.