Seattle Times: Aggressive strategy backfires for Doba, Cougars

By Craig Smith

Seattle Times staff reporter

Washington State played to win rather than protect a lead in the fourth quarter Saturday night, and the result was the same — another deflating loss. "I wanted to be aggressive and stay after them," coach Bill Doba said yesterday, one day after the 42-38 defeat at California. 

The play that best exemplified the aggressive approach fizzled. On fourth-and-two on the Cal 38 with just over six minutes left and WSU leading 38-28, the Cougars tried a fake punt. Upback Scott Davis, a WSU linebacker who was a star running back in high school, moved over center and after waiting the required one second, took the snap. He got stuffed. "Those linebackers came flying in there as soon as he walked up under center," Doba said. "It was a very alert play on their part. ... They came flying in there like gangbusters. We thought there would be two guys and there were four." Two plays later, Cal quarterback Joe Ayoob threw to freshman LeReylle Cunningham and safety Husain Abdullah was caught out of position. The result was a 57-yard touchdown. The Cougars were three-and-out on their next possession and Cal drove 45 yards on five plays to win the game on a 9-yard pass from Ayoob to Lavelle Hawkins with 1:50 left. It was the fourth straight loss for the Cougars (3-4, 0-4), who are 0 for 8 in October the past two seasons. In three of the four losses this month, the Cougars have blown fourth-quarter leads. It will stun the nation if they have a fourth-quarter lead this Saturday because they play at No. 1 USC. The Cougars will be without receiver/punt returner Michael Bumpus, who suffered a high ankle sprain at Cal. Trandon Harvey is likely to replace him as punt returner.  

Starting cornerback Wally Dada (groin) is questionable. If Dada can't play, Abdullah may move to cornerback and DeWayne Patterson would start at free safety. In Berkeley, Doba stomped his foot on a chair in frustration before taking the final steps to talk to reporters after the game Saturday night. He was uncharacteristically snappish in the postgame interview, saying, "I don't have the answers" and, "You keep asking me the same thing every week — what we've got to do in the fourth quarter." Yesterday, he said, "I just felt so bad for our players. These seniors have worked so hard. To walk in that locker room, that's tough. Then to have to walk right out of there and face the media. A couple guys [reporters] were smiling. I didn't feel like smiling. [They ask], 'Well, what do you think about this?' with a big grin on their face." Doba said yesterday he is seeing similarities between this season and 2000, when the Cougars lost three overtime games then rebounded to win 10 games in 2001. "We have to teach our kids how to win," he said. Doba said he told the team yesterday to "stay the course" because there were "some positive things" from the Cal game. "We played better," he said. "We came back. We scored 28 straight points. We had just two penalties." Doba told the Cougars that playing USC was "a great opportunity." He told the media, "I don't think they [the Trojans] are going to be worrying too much about the Cougs."  The Cougars are 30-point underdogs.