Cougars successful in late run at Brink.

Byline: CURTIS ANDERSON The Register-Guard

When Sheldon quarterback Alex Brink made a verbal commitment to play football at Boise State earlier this month, he said he was `disappointed' that none of the Pac-10 schools had come calling.

Guess what?

One of them finally did, and after a visit to Washington State this past weekend in which the 6-foot-3, 190-pound Brink was offered a scholarship, he decided to change his commitment and play football for the new Cougar regime.

`It was a tough decision,' said Brink, who was named 4A offensive player of the year after leading Sheldon to its first state title in school history.

`I didn't base it on Washington State being a Pac-10 school, but that's part of it. The school will provide me with an incredible academic opportunity (in sports management), plus I really liked the facilities, the coaching staff and the guys I met from the team.'

Brink informed both schools of his decision Tuesday night.

`I know Boise State was disappointed, but they told me they respected my decision and wished me good luck. I thought that was real classy,' Brink said. `It was a hard call to make because I wasn't basing my decision on anything Boise State had done. WSU was just a better fit for me.'

There were two key factors in Washington State's belated pursuit of Brink.

First, a spot opened up on the Cougar roster when `grayshirt' quarterback Carl Bonnel, a part-time student at WSU, decided he no longer wanted to attend the school. A `grayshirt' is a player who delays full-time entry into a university until after the fall, thus keeping his five years of athletic eligibility intact.

The second piece of the puzzle involved WSU defensive coordinator Bill Doba, who was promoted to head coach when Mike Price left for Alabama. After hiring Timm Rosenbach as his quarterbacks coach, Doba asked the former Cougar and NFL standout if he knew of any quarterbacks WSU should recruit.

The answer was Brink.

Rosenbach had recruited Brink through his previous job as offensive coordinator at Eastern Washington.

`When Bonnel left, that opened up a spot,' Brink said. `Then coach Rosenbach showed them some tapes of me and they all agreed I was No. 1 on their list.'

Brink, who set an unofficial state high school record with 9,000 career passing yards, had originally committed to Boise State on Jan. 2.

Washington State, which had shown earlier interest in Brink, called Sheldon coach Marty Johnson a few days later to find out if the Irish quarterback might still be interested in the Cougars.

`I knew that WSU had always been among Alex's top choices,' Johnson said. `That got the ball rolling, and Alex took it from there. Things happen for a reason, and now he's at the place he always wanted to be at.'