Seniors set sights on earning bowl game

Published 10:09 pm Wednesday, November 14, 2007

PULLMAN – In his more than 45 years of coaching football, Washington State coach Bill Doba has seen more than his share of senior days.

He’s seen the high school rituals, the college experiences. He’s watched some players choke up, others get too fired up to stay in a game.

He’s seen it all.

And it still hits him. The finality of the seniors’ last game at home. The crowd, the speeches, the tears. The end.

WSU has 19 seniors who will walk through the tunnel into Martin Stadium for the last time Saturday. Included in that number are eight who have spent five years in Pullman.

And Doba will miss them all.

“They were our first class, really,” said Doba, in his fifth year as WSU head coach. “I know they haven’t won as many as they would have liked to have won, but they’ve never quit.”

And the class has stayed true to that description this season, which started 2-5 and seemed destined to result in a season-ending Apple Cup instead of a bowl game. Of the group, only linebacker Chris Baltzer, who played as a true freshman in 2003, has ever suited up for a bowl game.

Baltzer was a member of the Holiday Bowl-winning group that year, while seven other seniors watched as redshirts.

For everyone else, the closest they came to a bowl was last year, when WSU started 6-3, became conditionally bowl eligible, then lost three consecutive games and conditionally turned out to mean no chance.

Which makes Saturday’s game — and the Apple Cup next week in Seattle — so important to this group. Win out and a bowl game is not only possible, it’s probable.

“If you ask all the seniors, (what’s) the one thing they wished they had accomplished, I think all of them would say bowl game,” four-year starting offensive lineman Bobby Byrd said. “Especially all of us fifth-year guys. We got a taste of it and we kind of got spoiled that first year. ”

Though, in this case, this group has yet to deliver.

“When I first got up here, they had just gotten back from the Holiday Bowl,” said defensive end Ropati Pitoitua. “They told stories, said they did this and that. So that was my main goal, since my freshman year to now, to help the team get to a bowl game.”

This is the seniors’ last chance. Some of the class has posted numbers unequaled in Cougar history — receiver Michael Bumpus is the all-time reception and punt-return yardage leader; quarterback Alex Brink holds four passing records — and some have only played sparingly. But all want to experience that 13th game this season.

“We have a lot to play for,” Brink said. “It will mean a lot, not just for me but for our team, our bowl aspirations … we definitely need this one. It will go a long way for me to finish off my career here.

“Going into the season it was definitely inevitable, you knew it was going to happen at some point,” Brink said. “All the emotions are going to be running pretty high. It’s going to be an exciting day. … I’m going to enjoy every minute of it and just try to cherish it.”

“When you think about it, you almost get a little choked up,” said the 6-foot-7, 307-pound Byrd. “It’s been a blast. It’s flown by. I think I’ve taken advantage of the opportunities given to me. I’m going to miss it, but at the same time I think I’m ready to move on.”

Ropati, who has remained healthy all year for the first time in a WSU uniform, is thankful he’s got a chance to contribute this late in the season. And, he’s thankful for “the Pullman environment. The whole community has been really good to me. I’m going to miss that a lot.”