Washington quarterback Cody Pickett is a cowboy at heart. He grew up on the competitive rodeo circuit in Idaho and is the son of Dee Pickett, champion of the 1984 Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. Cody made the national finals in team roping his final three years of high school, finishing fourth his senior year.

He turned into a decent QB, too. He has thrown for 6,873 career yards at UW and could take a huge step toward Heisman contention with a good showing Saturday at Ohio State. Pickett participated this week in the "2-Minute Drill" with Enquirer reporter Neil Schmidt.

Q. How can you relate throwing a football to roping cattle?

A. There's really no comparison in team roping to passing a ball. The main thing to compare is competitiveness. It takes a lot of work, takes a lot of time in practice - just like football.

Q. Who had a better season: you in 2002 - throwing for a Pac-10 record of 4,458 yards - or your dad in 1984?

A. Probably my dad, because he was world champion. He did what he set out to do. We felt like we had an underachieving season last year (7-6) and didn't meet our goals.

Q. Will you have to win the Heisman to match him?

A. That's something totally different. My main goal is to win as many games as possible. If we do that, then maybe some of the other recognition will follow.

Q. Was rodeo the hot sport for kids in your hometown?

A. Nah. I was the only person in my high school that did it. It's not like everyone was out practicing roping after school. The other kids didn't even really know about it.

Q. Finish this sentence: Your teammate, Reggie Williams, is....

A. A great receiver. A guy that makes my job easy. He gets the ball, takes the hits and goes.

Q. The NCAA single-season passing record is 5,188 yards. Do you know who owns it, and can you make a run at it?

A. No, I don't know. (The answer is BYU's Ty Detmer, in 1990.) And no, we won't go for that record. We're not going to throw the ball as much as possible like last year. We'll be running it more. We're going to have a good year.

Q. How upsetting was the controversy about coach Rick Neuheisel's firing?

A. That's something that's way behind us now. It was a bad situation, because we all came here to play for coach Neuheisel. But he's gone now. If anyone had to take over, we're glad it was Coach (Keith) Gilbertson.

Q. What impact has coach Gilbertson had?

A. He's basically doing the same things. We're just working hard, not changing much. There's a comfort level there, since he was already on the staff (as offensive coordinator).

Q. You knew last year you'd have Ohio State as your first game on the 2003 schedule. What were your emotions watching them win the Fiesta Bowl?

A. We were just excited. You come to Washington to play big games. It's great to play the national champions in the first game.

Q. What is your team's mindset going into an opening game you're expected to lose?

A. If everyone thinks we can't win, that's great. We're going to go in there and play hard. It'll be a great challenge to us, but we think we'll give them a good game.

E-mail nschmidt@enquirer.com