By John Sleeper
Herald Writer
SEATTLE – The thing Larry Tripplett remembers most was the cramping.
It wasn’t the play he made on Ken Simonton, Oregon State’s megastar tailback. It wasn’t that the play may have been the most important one of the Washington Huskies’ Rose Bowl season last year.
“I was tired and I was cramping,” said Tripplett, the Huskies’ star defensive tackle. “My legs, my quads, everything. I was horrid, man. My fingers were cramping up. I was in pain, man. I was trying to down the Gatorade and all that stuff. It was not working.”
Tripplett was out of the game at that point. But with the Beavers driving, down 33-30 and edging deeper into UW territory with less than a minute left, former Husky defensive lineman Steve Emtman suggested to Tripplett that he might want to re-enter the game.
“He just threw me in there,” Tripplett said. “He was like, ‘You’re not going to be responsible for this team losing.’ So I went in there, cramping up while I was running in there.”
Oregon State had the ball, second-and-one, on the Husky 25-yard line. The Beavers had no timeouts remaining.
They sent Simonton through the gap between the center and right guard. Tripplett, cramping, exploded at the snap …
The Oct. 7 game was important, but few knew how important it would turn out to be. Washington, ranked No. 13, had just come off a defeat to Oregon and needed a victory to restore its confidence. Oregon State was 4-0 and ranked No. 23, the first time the Beavers had been ranked since their season opener in 1969.
On a night when offenses dominated – the teams combined for 978 yards and 51 first downs – Tripplett provided the play of the game.
Tripplett exploded through the middle of OSU’s offensive line and stopped Simonton for a 3-yard loss.
“I was in my stance and I was cramping up,” Tripplett said. “I was like, ‘When the ball’s snapped, I’m just going to explode. Just give it everything I have.’ Then I got him.”
With the clock winding down to 14 seconds, quarterback Jonathan Smith spiked the ball, setting up Ryan Cesca with a 46-yard field-goal attempt. It was 5 yards longer than Cesca’s longest successful kick as a Beaver.
With the crowd screaming, Cesca booted the ball. It was plenty long, but sailed right, and Washington had held on.
Neither team would lose the rest of the season. Washington (11-1) would go on to beat Purdue, 34-24, in the Rose Bowl and finish third in the BCS standings.
The surprising Beavers (11-1) would finish fourth in the BCS and thrash Notre Dame, 41-7, in the Fiesta Bowl.
“I don’t think either of the two teams knew how good we were going to be that year,” OSU coach Dennis Erickson said.
Certainly, many Husky fans had little clue. UW coach Rick Neuheisel was approached after the game by a fan who believed this OSU team was similar to the horrible OSU teams of the past.
“He said to me, ‘Well, at least you won,’ in almost a despondent way,” Neuheisel said. “I said, ‘Hey, you don’t realize how good that team was.’”
No one suspected then, but it’s likely that the loss kept Oregon State out of the BCS title game. The next week, the Beavers would blow out Stanford, 38-6. Then UCLA. Then Washington State. Then Cal. Then the season finale against Oregon, which knocked the fifth-ranked Ducks out of the Rose Bowl.
So revenge is on the Beavers’ minds for Saturday’s game against Washington, even though they seem out of any bowl picture now, at 2-4 in the Pac-10, 3-5 overall.
“Before the season, this is the one we circled on the calendar,” Erickson said.
More tickets: Beginning this morning, the Oregon State University ticket office will be selling 500 additional tickets to Saturday’s game between the Beavers and the Washington Huskies. Tickets for the 12:30 p.m. game at Reser Stadium in Corvallis, Ore., cost $45 and can be purchased over the phone by calling 1-800-462-3287. The tickets will be available for pickup at the stadium’s will call window before Saturday’s game.
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