The Cougars were flagged for a personal foul on the extra point try, which was assessed on the kickoff. That set Washington up with good field position when Pathon returned the kick to Washington’s 46-yard line. It took UW only four plays to score when Huard connected with Fred Coleman from 38-yards out to close to within 10 at 24-14.
Washington’s deficit soon was reduced to three when, just three minutes later, Parrish read Leaf perfectly, intercepted his pass in the middle of the field and returned it 32 yards for a touchdown.
Suddenly, what had been a 17-point lead was trimmed to just a margin of a field goal. The capacity crowd, which had been muted for most of the game, was back into it.
Momentum was squarely in the Huskies favor; however, throughout the 1997 season, each time the Cougars were threatened, they answered. Whether it was against UCLA, USC, Illinois, Oregon, Arizona, Arizona State, or Stanford, the team found a way to respond when challenged.
“Every time they did something, we answered,” Mike Levenseller said. “Ryan had that ability to put the team on his shoulders. It didn’t matter what the circumstances were.
The Cougars’ offense response to this adverse situation proved to be no different.
Starting their next possession at their own 20, Leaf connected with Kevin McKenzie for 18 yards on a third-and-nine. Two plays later, the Leaf-Jackson combination came through on another big play. Leaf’s pass flew just over Husky cornerback Mel Miller and into the hands of Jackson, who raced down the right sideline for a 50-yard touchdown that extended WSU’s lead to 31-21.
But Washington’s offense had found its rhythm, and Huard hit Mike Reed for a 17-yard score to pull within three for a second time at 31-28 with 15 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
As the fourth quarter began, the Cougars were clinging to a tenuous three-point lead; either they were 15 minutes away from a historic victory or 15 minutes away from a devastating disappointment.
The Cougar offense made sure it would be the former. On the ensuing drive’s first play, Leaf connected with Jackson for 14 yards, and that was immediately followed by a 37-yard run by Black, who finished the day with 170 yards on 37 carries. The eight-play, 66-yard drive was capped when, on a third-and-goal from the one, Leaf tried to sneak it in, and avoided disaster when he recovered his own fumble to score.
“It was exactly what we had done all year long,” Leaf said. “Every time we were down in the hole we would push back through and got to the point where either it was win and go to the Rose Bowl or lose and don’t.”
This time Washington was unable to answer. A holding call negated a Huard to Pathon 22-yard connection that would have converted a third-and-12, and UW was forced to punt.
WSU’s lead grew to 13 points on a Lindell field goal ending a 12-play, 62-yard drive. Just as importantly, it ate up 5:42 of the clock.
In addition, the score increased WSU’s point total to 41; therefore fulfilling Jackson’s Sunday prediction of the Cougars putting up 40 points on the Huskies.
Just over four minutes remained, and it was about this time the UCLA-USC game ended. The Bruins did their part to help the Cougars’ cause with a 31-24 win over the Trojans.
“We knew that UCLA had won and Jim Zeches (outside linebackers/recruiting coordinator) and I were in the press box,” Levenseller recalled. “They had the scores on a white board and nobody would talk about it. Jim and I were the only ones that knew. We looked at each other and didn’t say anything to each other.”
There were no announcements of the game score occurring in the stadium and both Levenseller and Zeches would not divulge what they knew, until asked to do so.
“Mike finally comes on,” Levenseller continued, “and asked, ‘Does anybody know?’ I said, ‘Mike we win, we go to the Rose Bowl,’ and he said ‘OK.’ That was it.”
Also during this time, something unique was happening in the stadium . . . Husky fans were cheering for the Cougars.
