Catching up with Ed Blount

Three nights before the Cougars were to play ninth-ranked USC in 1986, quarterback Ed Blount had a dream.

"I dreamed that we beat them 42-0," he recalled.

As it turned out, the only thing Blount had wrong was the score. The Cougars won 34-14 in one of the biggest upsets of the season.

The victory in Pullman marked the first time since 1957 that WSU had beaten the Trojans.

The Oct. 11 win was the highlight and last victory of what turned out to be a 3-7-1 season for WSU. It was the last season in Pullman for both Blount, a senior, and coach Jim Walden, who was replaced by Dennis Erickson. (Walden went to Iowa State.)

Blount said Walden approached him before the USC game and said, "We're going to run when they think we're going to pass and pass when they think we're going to run."

The Cougars amassed 510 yards in total offense that afternoon. Kerry Porter rushed for 164 yards and Blount connected on 13 of 20 passes for 201 yards and two touchdowns on his way to earning Pac-10 player-of-the-week honors.

The Cougars' defense came up with five turnovers, two of them interceptions of Rodney Peete passes.

The victory got plenty of publicity because Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated was in Pullman working on an article about the USC football team and athletic department.

It was the perfect triumph for Blount, who grew up in Southern California and never liked the Trojans.

"I think I've rooted for the underdog all my life," he said.

The season turned south for the Cougars after they beat USC.

"It was a tough season," he said. "A lot of transition was going on. Walden was on his way out. ... We were a young team."

Blount, 39, who played one season in Italy and was a strike-replacement player for the 49ers and Seahawks, will be at tomorrow's game in Los Angeles against USC when the sixth-ranked Cougars try to pull a much milder upset than the one he pulled.

Blount is a businessman in Southern California. One of his companies, Infiniti Sportswear, does screening and embroidery on shirts and hats. His other business, Infiniti Sports, organizes and operates adult flag-football leagues in Southern California. The league has its own Web site, where participants can look up their stats.

"I've been doing that (the league) for 10 years," he said. "I try to give these weekend warriors the experience I had growing up."

Blount is married and the father of a 2-year-old daughter, Sydney.

"She's going to be the first female quarterback and play for the Cougars," he said.

Just like current Cougars quarterback Matt Kegel, Blount had to wait until his senior year to start.

"My experience in Pullman was good," he said. "I wish I could have played more. But I guess I played behind a pretty good guy."

That "pretty good guy" was Mark Rypien, whose final Cougars season was 1985 and who was MVP of the 1992 Super Bowl as a Washington Redskin.

Blount had a strong backup in 1986 in freshman Timm Rosenbach, who guided the 1988 Cougars team to the upset over No. 1 UCLA and victory in the Aloha Bowl before turning pro a year early. Rosenbach now is the WSU quarterback coach.

Blount sees some former WSU teammates in Southern California. He went out of his way to mention that receiver DeDe Moore, who lettered in 1982 and 1983, has been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease. He said some former players in Pullman sent Moore a WSU helmet.

The Cougars are 12-point underdogs tomorrow, but that doesn't stop lifetime USC-hater Blount from being optimistic about WSU's chances.

"When you have a defense like this year, you're always in the game," he said.

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