A FOLK HERO taking shape and adding more outrageous tales to the legend on a weekly basis is something to behold.
That’s what’s occurred for Washington State football fans this fall as the Gardner Minshew Experience has lit up the Palouse and various college campuses from Laramie, Wyo. to Palo Alto, Calif. with aerial artistry, and most of all — pure moxie.
At times it seems like no other college football team in the country is having as much pure, unadulterated fun as the 10-1 Washington State Cougars.
A solid defense under first-year defensive coordinator Tracy Clayes, himself a semifinalist for the Frank Broyles Award for the nation’s top assistant, vast improvement by the team’s deep crop of wide receivers, two more talented running backs with great hands and elusiveness all are part and parcel for this dream season.
Bold and brash
But quarterbacks get the glory (and shoulder the blame), so the play of Minshew, a.k.a.. the Mississippi Mustache, is reason No. 1 Washington State has surprised an entire fan base — many of whom thought this team was headed for 3-9 or 4-8 (sheepishly raises hand).
The nation’s leading passer has ignited a land-office business in headbands, aviator sunglasses and fake soup strainers, even planting a false ‘stache on head coach Mike Leach in a post-game interview. His brand of football is bold and brash and has inspired countless Halloween costumes this fall, a grassroots, late-season Heisman Trophy campaign by the Washington State Athletic Department and Seattle Mariners’ public address announcer and Cougars’ fan Tom Huytler to pen a little country ode.
The video of which is available at tinyurl.com/PDN-Mustache.
A sample of the lyrics for print readers: “Well he came from Mississippi to the fields of the Palouse,
No one knew about him, til the Pirate [Leach] cut him loose …
Want to beat the Huskies? He’s the man who can.”
And that last verse resonates powerfully for this Washington State graduate.
Minshew, a fifth-year senior graduate transfer who lost his starting job last season at East Carolina and was prepared to be Alabama’s third-string quarterback in hopes of beginning his coaching career next year as a grad assistant for the Crimson Tide, has provided a sliver of hope that No. 7 Washington State can beat No. 16 Washington and reach the Pac-12 Championship Game.
You need hope, and a tumbler of brown liquor, to stomach a rival that is 72-32-6 all-time vs. WSU.
And 13-5 since 2000, against your Cougs.
My college years saw Washington State win 10 games in three straight seasons, even go to a Rose Bowl. But none of those years ended in Apple Cup triumph, just heartbreak.
The Cougars did salvage two victories in 2004 and 2005 — and two more in 2007 and 2008, the latter helping to seal UW’s 0-12 fate that season. But it’s been since a mammoth comeback in the 2012 edition that Washington State has accepted the cup (from a Husky governor, of course).
Leach is 0-5 against UW coach Chris Petersen and the games haven’t been competitive — the last four Apple Cup final scores are 41-14, 45-17, 45-10 and 31-13.
And in two of those game the Pac-12 North title was on the line for the Cougars, just like this season, which made the Washington State no-show all the more nauseating (not the brown liquor).
Leach’s take that the game isn’t any more or less important than any other game on the schedule is vexing for a fan base that wants little else than to see the ole’ alma matter clinch something major with a win over Washington.
The offense’s prior inability to move the ball on the Huskies, or stop UW players such as running back Myles Gaskin, are even more upsetting.
But this team seems different. The offense moves faster, Minshew finds the space in the defense quicker than statue-in human-form Luke Falk, the Cougs’ prolific passing QB from 2015-17. And he can run a little bit, too.
The defense is aggressive, fast and can force turnovers (WSU is 28th in turnover margin out of 129 teams).
I’m still fretful, but I took great solace in ESPN announcer Brock Huard (himself a former UW quarterback) recounting Minshew’s decision to depart East Carolina during the Cougs’ 69-28 win over Arizona last Saturday.
Huard said Minshew told him that he had gotten tight as the Pirates’ QB and was eventually benched. And that if he ever got the opportunity to start at QB again he’d be loose and let it fly.
Cougar fans believe the team gets tight against UW, so why not believe in a quarterback who like to let it rip and has led three game-winning drives in the fourth quarter this season? What is there to lose when you’ve lost big before and likely will again?
Minshew said it best after Washington State beat Oregon 34-20 on the day ESPN’s GameDay program came to Pullman.
“It was incredible, man. There was so much energy in town this week. We knew we were going to have to ball that up and use it.”
And: “And then after the game I just started to think, Man, I think I made the right choice coming here, man.”
You sure did. Thank you, man.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
