Oregon’s game against Washington State this Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at Autzen Stadium, will be Cougar quarterback Alex Brink’s first chance to play in front of his hometown crowd since his senior high school season, five years ago when he lead the Sheldon Irish to an OSAA state championship.
Brink threw for 3,946 yards and 36 touchdowns that season, including 213 yards and two touchdowns in Sheldon’s 31-24 win over Lake Oswego in the state title game.
When recruiting season came, the Ducks were looking elsewhere for a quarterback, and would end up signing Johnny DuRocher, Brady Leaf and Dennis Dixon. Oregon coach Mike Bellotti said he had Brink in mind that recruiting season if any of those three quarterback recruits fell through, and he and offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig had conversations with Brink about that possibility.
But when a late offer came from Washington State and nothing opened up for him with the Ducks, Brink had to seek his football fortunes away from Eugene. Bellotti said that he saw potential in the young quarterback at the time and isn’t at all surprised with the success he has enjoyed as a Cougar.
“Alex Brink is a very established quarterback in this league in terms of what he’s done,” said Bellotti. “I thought he was of the caliber that he would develop, but he was physically not where those other guys were at that time.”
But everything has turned out well for the spurned high school star. Brink, the “Dean of Pac-10 quarterbacks” as he has been dubbed in Cougar press releases, has started 34 games in his college career dating back to his freshman year. He is at the top of Washington State’s all-time list in career pass attempts, completions, and passing yards and stands just three touchdowns shy of Jason Gesser’s career mark of 70.
But with the numbers that Oregon quarterback Dennis Dixon has put up this year, it would be wrong to say that Bellotti’s decision to go after Dixon rather than Brink wasn’t without merit. While Brink leads the Pac-10 in total yards per game this year at 316.2 yards per game, he will face his closest competition in that category Saturday with Dixon, who has averaged 309.2 yards per game. Both quarterbacks also rank among the best in the country in passing efficiency, where Dixon has the edge, and total yards.
Brink has a talented group of receivers this season, led by Brandon Gibson with 39 catches for 567 yards and six touchdowns, but defensive game planning for Oregon will center around dealing with the quarterback first.
“He’s a veteran, he has a good arm, he can run,” said junior rover Patrick Chung. “He has all the tools of a great quarterback… He’s a good athlete and he brings that team wherever they’ve got to go.”
“I think that we have our hands full,” said Bellotti. “I have great respect for Alex Brink and the Washington State coaching staff and their entire football team. We need to make sure we’re taking care of our own business not worrying about rankings or anything else beyond playing well enough to defeat Washington State.”
Along with good coverage by the secondary, Bellotti said that the key to containing Brink will be an effective pass rush as well as pocket containment.
“A game-long pass rush is imperative every game, but certainly when you face the number one offensive weapon in the conference in Alex Brink,” said Bellotti. “I think it’s a huge challenge to our defensive front and to our coverage because a lot of times sacks or pressures come about because of great coverage too.”
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