Washington junior quarterback Cody Pickett had a large slice of humble pie jammed down his throat Saturday night.
Many 'U-Dubb' fans excitedly made the trip to Tempe but were stunned by the sight of the maniacal Sun Devil defense whipping their record-setting signal caller like a lame mule. Not to sound morbid, but Pickett endured a well-deserved beating.
Before Saturday, no Husky quarterback had been sacked more than five times. Talk of records obviously meant nothing to ASU defensive end Terrell Suggs, who utilized a bizarre case of Tunnel Vision to record 4.5 sacks on his own, while his bloodthirsty comrades added 3.5 more.
Those eight sacks are now etched in Washington's record books as the most sacks allowed ever. Suddenly, Pickett seems no more legendary than Pac-10 record holders like Ryan Leaf.
Ironically, it's Leaf's conference record for single-season passing yardage that Pickett could possibly break. But never mind that gibberish. It doesn't change the fact that Pickett ate more grass off Frank Kush Field than an American tourist in an Amsterdam coffeehouse.
Pickett was due for a slap, as were the sportswriters who've highly touted him and given him more ink than 'U-Dubb' alumni like Bruce Lee, Warren Moon or maybe Patrick Duffy.
Despite the pain and humiliation inflicted on him by ASU's four-man rush, Pickett seemed relatively unshaken. Dealing with a mouthful of turf and smelling the Foulness of defeat are nothing new to him.
Back home in Idaho, young Cody was a star roper and national finalist in rodeo. He's dealt with angry beasts before and probably received a few nasty scars attempting to lasso them.
However, the rush of an actual bull and the frantic bull-rush of Suggs (a.k.a. T-Rex or T-Sizzle) are two completely different things and they sting in different ways.
Suggs, Jimmy Verdon and other prominent members of ASU's defense may not have horns, but — like many carnivorous mammals — they smell fear.
"By no means are we afraid to play [Suggs]," Pickett said after the loss. "We'd go play tomorrow if we could."
Pickett should be commended for his grit. When somebody knocks you out of your saddle, the appropriate thing to do is jump back in.
But football isn't like riding a horse.
And the T-Sizzle isn't easily lassoed.
Reach the reporter at michael.ferraresi@asu.edu.
