WSU Cougars Win the
2003 Holiday Bowl!

The Eyes of Texas are shocked! WSU 28 Texas 20
How quickly we forgot our 1st half angst in that amazing 3rd quarter!  After 2 quarters in which our beloved cougars fought hard but were looking up at a 10-7 deficit, Bill Doba rallied the troops (Or slapped some people around?) and the fire was evident in the 3rd quarter.  The offense moved the ball and the defense was overpowering in its' pursuit of both Texas quarterbacks - the QB's feet were doing that "oh God oh God they're going to hit me any second"  dance.  

The vaunted Texas running game was slowed to a crawl as the Cougars packed the box with up to 9 blitzing defenders and dared them to throw the ball.  

"They were coming from everywhere,'' Chance Mock  said.

When Texas did throw it was obvious that they couldn't count on their passing game.  Roy Williams was the only Texas receiver who ever seemed to catch a pass - 9 catches for 96 yards - but 76 yards of that came on two long plays right at the end of the game.  Both other Williams (USC and UW) were MUCH better.  The few times Texas threw the ball in bounds in the 3rd and early 4th quarter the receivers couldn't catch it, dropping balls that were thrown right at them.  The game was closer than it should have been as Texas finally connected on two huge pass plays to Roy Williams late in the 4th quarter that kept them in the game.  Right when we were beginning to celebrate!  That was irritating.  About then I started thinking of the missed field goal and two missed extra points and hoping they wouldn't prove our undoing.  We all did our part by crossing our fingers and yelling loudly at the Texas offense.

Our fears were unfounded, as the defense stepped up again as they have so many times this year and turned away several Texas threats.  It was fitting that the final play of the game was a sack of Chance Mock by D.D. Acholonu as time expired.  WSU emerged victorious, 28-20 and the celebrations began.

By the way, I thought that last year the Oklahoma fans were much more fun and friendly than these Texans were.  And that was BEFORE the game.  They were strangely silent after the final gun.

The stars of the special teams were Sammy Moore and Kyle Basler.  Kyle's stellar punts (He's a sophomore, by the way) pinned Texas to their own end zone consistently through out the game, and led directly to a safety when the Texas offense committed a holding penalty while they were in the end zone.  That put tremendous pressure on the Texas offense.  On the opposite side of the ball Sammy Moore was ensuring that the cougars had pretty good field position all day, with one huge return and no mistakes. 

GO COUGS!   I've got some great pictures of the game as well, take a look, you might see yourself!  We were sitting in the 200 level up behind the band.  If you have any good stories or pictures email them to me.  In particular I only was able to sneak away to the game from my home in Boise in the last week or so, so I didn't get tickets to any of the pre-game parties.  Let me know how they went!  I'll even have a fun story about a cougar fan who ended up in handcuffs before the game (not me).

Report card.

Quarterback - B+  Matt Kegel did what he had to do in this game.  He didn't have his best stuff, and the zip was not there on his passes of more than about 10 yards, but he got the ball to the right people when he needed to, especially on the two touchdown passes to Sammy Moore.  Thanks Matt, you are a much better player than a lot of us thought you were.  I really wish you were coming back next year for more.   He was intercepted twice, but I'll have to go home and watch the TIVO to remember if the second one was his fault.  The first one was a horrible throw, and showed all of us that his shoulder was still not 100%.   In this game he was 18 of 32 for 203 yards.

Offensive line - B+.   The offensive key to this game was the play of the offensive line and their ability to create lanes for the running backs.  This was the first time I can remember when we came into a bowl game and won with the running game instead of trying to pass our way to victory.  Yes, we passed the ball successfully, but it was the run that kept Texas off of the field for a good part of the 4th quarter leaving them little time to mount a come back.  They also were much more effective in pass blocking. Matt didn't take nearly as many hits as he was taking in earlier games this year, even though part of the Texas game plan had to be getting to Kegel and putting him out of the game.  Extensive use of the shot gun formation gave Matt precious extra seconds as well.  The only negative was an inability to help sustain a game ending drive late  in the 4th quarter, going 3 and out on successive drives, much to Texas's delight.  Kegel was not sacked once.  WOW.

Defensive line -  A+.  They stuffed the run so well that late in the game on about the two yard line Texas tried to pass their way into the end zone.  That's when you knew we were in their heads.  Having linebackers attacking from every possible angle certainly made their job easier, but they were dominant in this game.

Linebackers  and Safeties A+.  Will Derting, D.D. Acholonu and Eric Coleman were the stars here.   Will was stellar with one sack, 4 tackles, and two fumble recoveries.  The linebackers as a corp seemed to be in the backfield on every play harassing and beating on which ever quarterback was in the game.   The Texas passing game looked anemic mainly because the quarterbacks were running for their lives.  From the stands it felt like we were sacking them at least once in every set of downs.  When the game was on the line in the final seconds it was linebacker D.D. Acholonu who made the final game saving play.  Eric partially blocked a punt, 8 tackles and forced a fumble.  All told the Cougars collected 7 sacks.  It could have been 10 or 12 the way they were playing.

Special teams -  A+ or D.  It depends which part of the special teams you're talking about.  We all winced as Drew Dunning seemed to miss kick after kick, missing two PAT's and a field goal.  If we had lost the game he probably would have had to redecorate his dorm room again.   It's too bad his last game didn't reflect his career as a cougar.

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