North Dakota one year, Notre Dame the next

COUGARS: Former Western Washington player Casey Hamlett starts against the Irish

HOWIE STALWICK; For The Olympian | • Published October 31, 2009

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SAN ANTONIO – A year ago, Casey Hamlett was plying his trade against the likes of Humboldt State, Western Oregon and the Colorado School of Mines.

On Saturday night, Hamlett started for Washington State on national television against Notre Dame, the most storied college football program in the land.

“The ‘ND’ I was playing last year was North Dakota,” Hamlett said with a smile.

Hamlett, a junior defensive end from Edmonds, transferred to Washington State in January after NCAA Division II Western Washington dropped football. The walk-on has made four starts.

“I’m proud of putting myself in this position,” Hamlett said. “They (big-time opponents) still put on shoulder pads and helmets. The field is still 100 yards long.”

• Something new: The Notre Dame-WSU contest was the first in a series of “home” games the Irish are staging around the country to further enhance their national image.

Next year’s game matches Notre Dame and Army at Yankee Stadium in New York City.

Washington State raked in a school-record $950,000 from Notre Dame. NBC will likely pay the Cougars at least $600,000 more (to be determined after the season) in television fees.

The selection of WSU for Saturday’s game developed from the long-standing friendship between WSU athletic director Jim Sterk and former Notre Dame AD Kevin White, who is now AD at Duke.

• Scary stuff: Talk about spooky – the Irish are 15-0 in games played on Halloween.

The Cougars’ Halloween record slipped to 4-8.

• Irish eyes: The vast majority of the 53,407 spectators cheered for the 25th-ranked Irish, but one corner of the stadium was awash in crimson.

Notre Dame sold all 25,000 tickets allotted to the school. The Cougars sold most of their 4,000 tickets.

The huge Notre Dame marching band – it took nine buses to transport the band from the team hotel to the stadium – played a brief rendition of the WSU fight song before their own prior to the game. The Cougars did not bring their band, but six members of the cheer squad made the trip.

• Alumni day: Saturday’s game provided a rare confrontation between head coaches who are graduates of the schools where they now coach. Paul Wulff was a standout center for the Cougars. Charlie Weis is a rarity for a college head coach in that he did not play college sports.

• Pac rats: Notre Dame improved to 83-43-6 all-time against Pacific-10 Conference teams.

• Familiar site: Notre Dame had never played in the Alamodome, but 35 Irish players performed in the Alamodome in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl, a national all-star game for high school seniors.

WSU’s only previous Alamodome appearance came in a 1994 Alamo Bowl victory over Baylor.