PASADENA, Calif. -- Among the 112 Washington State players who posed for team pictures Sunday in the Rose Bowl were 19 seniors who were recruited in the years following the Cougars' last Rose Bowl appearance in January 1998.

As the Cougars prepare for their New Year's Day meeting with Oklahoma, their successes the last two years were forged in hard times during their underclass apprenticeships.

Between 1998 and 2000, they won only 10 games and lost 24, managing only three Pac-10 Conference wins.

In the last two seasons, behind three-year captain Jason Gesser, the Cougars are 20-4 and are this year's conference co-champion. They are the only WSU team to win 10 games in consecutive years and to go to back-to-back bowl games.

"I think Coach Price went after the guys with the most character,'' fourth-year senior wide receiver Collin Henderson said. "Usually, it's not the fastest guys who always win, but the guys with the most heart and hardest workers. This class of seniors is definitely a bunch of blue-collar workers.''

Seven players are in their fifth year and redshirted the 1998 season, when WSU went 3-8 without a Pac-10 win.

"Those guys have really seen it all,'' coach Mike Price said. "With a victory in the Rose Bowl, they'll be the best football team in the history of the school.''

Mawuli Davis, the newest member of the class, sat out last season after transferring from New Mexico State. A walk-on at the beginning of the season, he won the starting middle linebacker job -- and a scholarship -- in the fourth game of the season.

"We all have the feeling we're bringing this university to a new height of talent and dominance,'' he said. "We're very proud of what we've accomplished.''

Most of the class of 2002 said they came to WSU after watching the 1997 team go to the Rose Bowl for the first time in 67 years.

The 1998 team won its first three games, then lost eight straight; the beginning of a depressing period. A conference record of three overtime losses in 2000 was disappointing, but set the tone for what was to come, Henderson said.

"Those two seasons were the dark before the dawn. We realized how much it hurts to lose,'' he said. "All the seniors made a pact to work our butts off...The benefits have been very clear. All the hard work has paid off for us.''

The senior class includes 13 starters. It is led by All-Pac-10 selections cornerback Marcus Trufant, offensive lineman Derrick Roche, and includes Mike Bush, who starred for the WSU basketball team before turning out for wide receiver two seasons ago.

Only three starters are in their fourth year. The others are in their fifth year and were mostly recruited as freshman during 1999.

Defensive end Fred Shavies, in his fifth year, agreed the 2000 season was a make-or-break year.

"The three overtime year could have broken us or made us stronger,'' he said. "It made us feel we could play anybody. We played hard. We persevered.''

This season, the Cougars (10-2) beat Southern California in overtime, but lost to Washington in a triple overtime thriller after Gesser left the game with a severely injured right leg.

"This year's class is one of the main reasons why we are able to fight through adversity,'' Gesser said. "All of us have gone through hard seasons ... we have a level head about things.''

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