WSU had history in its grasp — then 'Couged' it

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — When you've got a chance to meet the Dalai Lama, you do it. When the opportunity is there to catch Liza Minnelli on Broadway, you go. When somebody invites you to climb Kilimanjaro, you climb it.

And when you've got a 19-0 lead in the most hallowed citadel of college football, you go ahead and squeeze the trigger and finish the deal. You don't allow one of the most pedestrian offenses around to score 26 straight points and pull the rug from under you, but that's exactly what Washington State did here yesterday.

The Cougars lost in overtime, 29-26, precisely the score they last lost by in overtime, to Washington last November.

Somebody suggested their first half here might have been the best half of football they've ever played. If so, the second was probably their worst. At the very least, it was WSU's most excruciating.

"I think some of us might have been a little surprised we were beating them so handily, so quickly," said Calvin Armstrong, WSU offensive tackle.

These chances go around only so often. There are half a dozen Pac-10 teams that have never beaten Notre Dame. WSU has been playing football 109 years, and this was its first meeting with the Irish. How many times are you going to have a 19-0 lead in the imposing shadow of Touchdown Jesus?

The Cougars might go three decades before seeing them again, let alone dominating them in a first half. It's something that seemed to escape some of them afterward as badly as a three-touchdown lead.

"It's just another game," said Will Derting, the WSU linebacker.

Right, and the Grand is just another canyon.

"A win would have been great, but it's early in the season," said cornerback Jason David.

Here's the simple explanation: They Couged it. They were marvelous for a half and miserable for most of the second.

Make no mistake, Notre Dame was ripe to be plucked. The Irish have an excellent defense — though the placement of four defenders on individual-award "watch" lists is a bit much. The Notre Dame offense appeared much like last year, every bit as compelling as a tofu sandwich.

WSU's problems actually began early, if subtly. Presented with some staggering opportunities by the defense, the Cougars settled for mincing little steps toward a victory. They had second-and-two at the Notre Dame 3-yard line and got a field goal. On their next possession, they had first-and-goal at the 5 and kicked another field goal.

"When we had a chance to put a hammer on it, we came away with field goals," said Mike Levenseller, the WSU offensive coordinator.

Even at that, it shouldn't have mattered. WSU had a 19-3 halftime lead against a team that would have trouble scoring if the field tilted downhill. All Washington State had to do, seemingly, was keep away from the fatal mistake, because Notre Dame looked incapable of driving the ball.

To that point, Derting was playing like a young Dick Butkus. He blasted Irish quarterback Carlyle Holiday on a blitz and Isaac Brown scooped it up to score a touchdown. If Derting was a beast, so was safety Virgil Williams, recovering a stripped ball, making two sacks.

But the Cougars spent the second half battling all sorts of adversaries, chiefly themselves. After a benign four penalties in the first half, they had an unthinkable 10 in the second, including four personal fouls in the first 17 minutes after intermission.

"The tide started rolling," said Levenseller. "You perceive every call is going against you."

Linebacker Don Jackson said, "I feel the referees weren't on our side," and indeed, a costly late hit against him seemed questionable. "They didn't give us nothin.' "

And the WSU defense, so nasty in the first half, began to wear down. Short gains by the Irish backs suddenly began breaking. The Cougars were a spent fighter leading after 11 rounds but needing to go 15.

"I think we were pretty tired," said WSU defensive coordinator Robb Akey. "That's why we didn't tackle well at the end of the game."

Only WSU can explain that. It was 73 degrees at game time, a high of 77 predicted, with 55 percent humidity. But WSU had a few players suffering from cramps, one of them corner Karl Paymah. He sat out for a big stretch of the second half, and on one long run by Notre Dame's Ryan Grant, Paymah's replacement, freshman Don Turner, took a bad angle toward the ball carrier.

Pretty soon, you had full-fledged, crimson-and-gray disaster. D.D. Acholonu, with a chance to recover a fumble at the WSU 10 that would have kept the Cougars' lead at 10 points with 11 minutes left, ill-advisedly tried to scoop it up and run instead of covering it. Notre Dame kept it and scored.

Then, in their darkest hour, the Cougars marched 80 yards for a touchdown to tie it, stopping a crowd of 80,795 in mid-celebration. It was a proud moment for WSU in an otherwise horrific half when the Cougars seemed to have no one who could step up and do something to slow the momentum.

Last night, you could imagine the WSU fan, rolling uneasily in sleep, screaming in the darkness — "Somebody make a play!"

Alas, those were all made by the guys in blue and gold. That's how it usually is at Notre Dame, where yesterday, the rarest of opportunities came to die.

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