Big in the clutch, Brink ends WSU career on top

Published 11:55 pm Saturday, November 24, 2007

SEATTLE — Alex Brink is a little like the odd stepchild nobody talks about.

At a school renowned for churning out great quarterbacks, Brink’s name is all over the Washington State University record books.

He’s had more completions than anybody at the school — more than Jason Gesser; more than Jack Thompson; more than Drew Bledsoe; more than Timm Rosenbach; more than Ryan Leaf.

He’s had more touchdown passes than any of them. He’s completed passes at a higher rate. He’s thrown for more yards.

Yet, ask followers of the Cougars program and Alex Brink won’t come up as the school’s greatest. His critics say he was a product of a pass-happy system or that he threw too many interceptions at the worst possible time or that he didn’t win enough.

Brink didn’t measure up to his predecessors, many would say. Forget the numbers. What did the team ever win with Alex Brink at the helm?

He doesn’t fit in with the great ones, they say.

“It isn’t always Alex’s fault,” WSU coach Bill Doba said. “He’s had a couple bad ballgames, but it’s not always Alex. Many times, the routes have gone wrong. But if this isn’t a signature win, to heck with everybody. He’s a good guy and he deserves a lot of credit.”

Instead of looking at what Alex Brink wasn’t or what he didn’t do, let’s examine what he did before 72,888 in a hostile Husky Stadium.

Brink was beyond clutch in his last game in a Cougar uniform. He is the only WSU quarterback to have beaten Washington three times. He brought the Cougars back from a seven-point deficit against Huskies in the last 71/2 minutes.

His last collegiate pass was the game-winning touchdown throw in the 100th Apple Cup.

“That’s very cool,” Brink said after Saturday’s Apple Cup, a 42-35 WSU victory. “I don’t think I could have scripted it any better for me, personally, or for the way we battled. It was the perfect setting for it.”

Brink still wore his game uniform, minus the helmet, as he talked to reporters after the game. It was as though he never wanted to take it off. He’d started 40 games for the Cougars, more than any WSU quarterback before him. This game would be his last. Who could blame him if he wanted to stay in it for a while?

“It’s going to be tough,” he said. “I’ve still got a few weeks in Pullman. To know that I’m never going to play another Cougar football game or experience another Cougar Saturday on the field is going to be tough.

“I’ve loved every minute of it. It’s been an incredible experience.”

Brink could have hurled invectives at his critics. He didn’t. He could have recited his many school records. That wouldn’t have been him.

Brink let his day speak for him. What a way to go out.

The numbers are impressive enough: 27-for-40 passing for 399 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions.

But he was never more brilliant than he was in the fourth quarter.

The Cougars trailed 35-28 when Brink found Brandon Gibson on an innocent-looking pass down the middle that the jaw-droppingly fast Gibson turned into a 40-yard touchdown that tied it with 7:29 remaining.

All WSU needed was a break.

The Washington secondary provided one, as it had much of the game, with gaping holes in its coverage. The books will say it was an 84-yard drive that took seven plays, but the play was as simple as Brink finding a ridiculously open Gibson as Washington defensive backs Byron Davenport and Darin Harris appeared busy trying to hide.

The result: a 35-yard TD pass with 31 seconds left. It looked easy. The UW secondary made it easy.

But Brink and Gibson still had to connect.

“We had taken a shot right before that, so I don’t know why it would have been a surprise,” Brink said. “We were pretty fortunate that we had a pretty good play fake and got the protection that we needed to make that throw.”

And so Alex Brink, the one who supposedly isn’t good enough to follow the legends, leaves WSU having done statistically more than they did, including beating the Cougars’ arch-rival.

“He played great,” Gibson said. “He’s had a great five years here. I’m excited for him. I can’t wait to see what he does at the next level.”

Alex Brink.

The next level.

To many, it doesn’t fit.

Brink is used to not fitting in.

Sports columnist John Sleeper: sleeper@heraldnet.com. For Sleeper[`]s blog, click on cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet/danglingparticiples.