Peter Roberts had little trouble pulling himself out of bed before 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning. That's not always an easy task for a college freshman who will gladly make a few slaps on the snooze bar to steal 15 minutes of extra sleep.

But Roberts snapped awake almost before the alarm went off. He wasted little time getting out of his dorm to start his day.

Breakfast?

"I didn't have time," he said.

He needed to be someplace by 9 a.m.

Was it class? A lab? Some other exercise in higher learning that beckoned him?

Not quite. It was to find out whether or not his life, at least for this semester, would drastically change possibly for the better — or at least become more entertaining.

Roberts was one of four finalists selected from a group of 29 Washington State University students who auditioned in an open tryout for the role of scout team quarterback for the Cougars on Monday in Pullman, Wash.

Unlike American Idol, this version of "Cougs QB Idol" offered no made-up theatrics or cheesy voting-off ceremonies, just a notification on a bulletin board outside the Coug football offices to be posted at 9 a.m.

"I got there about 9:05 a.m., there were some other people and a few coaches and I looked and saw my name," Roberts said. "I was like, 'No way, you're kidding me!"'

But the coaches told me, "You're the guy."

And since then, it's been a whirlwind of phone calls, text messages and congratulatory handshakes.

"My phone has been blowing up," Roberts said.

Let's be clear: The 6-foot-1, 195-pound Roberts didn't win the starting quarterback job for the Cougars. He'll be the scout team quarterback, meaning he will lead a group of redshirts and walk-ons against the No. 1 defense every day, giving the look of that weekend's opponent.

There is little glamour in the job. It's a long way from becoming the next Jason Gesser.

Yet it was a necessary position to fill since senior Gary Rogers was lost for the season and junior Kevin Lopina has been out as well, leaving just three healthy quarterbacks on the roster.

"This is truly just something to get us through this season," coach Paul Wulff said. "We'll sit down with (Roberts) after the season and see where we're at and where he is at and see if we want to move on from there."

Still, a kid can dream can't he? That's the way Roberts is looking at it.

"I had to do it," he said. "It's basically a chance to be part of a college football team. I didn't go to college to play football, but I wanted to. This was the perfect chance to do that. It would have been the worst decision I've ever made not to do this."

Coming out of Woodinville High, Roberts had some offers to play at smaller schools in the Division III and NAIA ranks. He was a three-year letterman and two-year starter at quarterback on Falcons squads that made the 4A playoffs in 2006 and 2007.

His junior season, Roberts earned honorable mention All-KingCo after throwing for 1,371 yards and seven touchdowns. As a senior, he threw for 1,571 yards and eight touchdowns, while picking up second-team All-KingCo.

But he eschewed those small school offers to focus on getting a degree in architecture.

"My parents always said academics first," Roberts said. "And those schools didn't offer academically what I was looking at."

But he got a chance for both on Monday, along with 28 other hopefuls, who participated in the tryout in front of about 100 onlookers.

"We never had that many spectators for any of our practices," Wulff joked.

All of the participants had to go through four simple drills: complete a five-step dropback for a pass, run though a series of obstacles and throw on the run, roll out to the left and right and throw a pass each way and finally take a three-step drop and throw the ball to a net down field about 40 yards.

"We had them do the drops first to see if they've ever played the position, which looked like several had not," Wulff said with a chuckle.

It was far from an in-depth workout.

"You only had one chance at each thing to impress the coaches," Roberts said.

But Wulff and his staff selected four finalists, checked on their past experience and then ran those four through some more drills.

Roberts hadn't thrown a serious pass since Woodinville was knocked out of the first round of the playoffs by Lewis and Clark in November of last year.

So in preparing for the tryout he got some fellow fraternity members from Sigma Alpha Epsilon to help him.

"They ran a few routes for me," Roberts said. "Then one day we played a flag football game, too."

On Tuesday, Roberts traded flags for shoulder pads and a helmet and participated in his first practice.

"It was definitely hard," he said. "Everybody knows what they are doing, so I've got to learn everything twice as fast and not mess up."

While selecting a player from the student population is somewhat of a novelty, Roberts is an official Coug in all ways. Realistically, he could suit up for a game and even participate.

"As long as he's been cleared by the NCAA, then there is nothing holding that back," Wulff said.

First "Rudy," and now Roberts?

"Oh man, you never know, I've seen stranger things," Wulff said.

Realistically, the coach is just looking for a scout quarterback.

"He's a very smart kid," Wulff said. "All we're asking him to do is help our scout team and help our defense. He's got some athletic ability, he's got enough arm and he's played quarterback. I think he can help us."

One thing's certain, there's no doubt who has become the new favorite player of the WSU student body, the guy who was one of them just a week ago.