It’s Going To Be Pass-Fail In Early Exams For Huskies

The experts have picked the Washington Huskies to finish fourth in the Pacific-10 Conference football race this season.

Jim Lambright sounds ready to take it.

“I think it’s a good pick with the youth we have, when you look at our secondary, when you look at our early schedule and when you look at the fact that we open against Arizona State,” he said.

Coming off three consecutive seven-victory seasons under Lambright in the post-Don James Era, the Huskies are worried about the inexperience of their secondary and the depth in their defensive and offensive lines.

“We have to stay healthy in both those areas to have a chance to become a really good football team,” Lambright said.

The Huskies will find out a lot about themselves - and their young secondary - in the first two weeks of the season. They open with a Pac-10 game at No. 20 Arizona State on Sept. 7 before playing their home opener against No. 19 BYU on Sept. 14.

BYU opened its season by upsetting Texas A&M 41-37 in the Pigskin Classic as Steve Sarkisian passed for 536 yards and six touchdowns.

Arizona State’s Jake Plummer is rated as the top quarterback in the league and is the top candidate for Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year. The Sun Devils are picked to finish second in the Pac-10 behind USC.

And Washington must play No. 6 Notre Dame (Oct. 12) and No. 17 USC (Nov. 2) on the road.

Is disaster lurking in the grass and the Astroturf for Washington? Could the Huskies have their first losing season since 1976, James’ second of 18 success-filled seasons for the Huskies?

Washington’s offense, led by tailback Rashaan Shehee behind a big and physical line, figures to score a lot of points. On the negative side, its defense looks vulnerable to an experienced passing attack and may give up too many points for its offense to overcome.

“Our defensive backs will have their hands full,” Lambright said.

In a scrimmage at Husky Stadium on Saturday, starting cornerbacks Mel Miller and Jermaine Smith played well, as did their backups, Toure Butler and Alex Hollowell.

Talk about youth, though. Miller and Smith are redshirt freshmen, while Butler is a pure freshman.

Washington’s starting quarterback will be inexperienced, too. Damon Huard, the Huskies’ all-time passing leader, is gone and his job apparently has been won by junior Shane Fortney, Huard’s backup last season.

Fortney won the job in spring practice over redshirt freshman Brock Huard, Damon’s younger brother, and has held it this fall although Huard is pushing him. In Saturday’s scrimmage, Huard completed 7 of 14 passes for 116 yards and a touchdown.

Fortney threw only 10 passes last year during the regular season and 11 more in last year’s Sun Bowl.

Fortney and Huard are battling hard for the starting job.

“I would rather not share it,” Fortney said.

“I’m just looking forward to getting a chance to play,” Huard said.

“I feel very good about both of them,” Lambright said. “They’re both quarterbacks we can win with.”

If Fortney starts, as expected, Huard probably will get to play a lot. The 6-foot-5, 220-pound Huard was the Gatorade national high school player of the year in 1994.

If Fortney falters, Lambright will be quick to replace him with Huard.

“If one of them isn’t playing well, I’d have no hesitation to go with the other one,” Lambright said. “We’re definitely going to play whoever is the backup player.”

The Huskies went 12-0 and won a national championship in 1991 and were 9-3 in 1992, James’ last season. James retired after the Washington program was handed a two-year bowl ban by the Pac-10 for NCAA violations. The penalty carried a severe loss of scholarships, the reason Washington has a depth problem now.

The Huskies don’t have the talent and depth they had on their Steve Emtman-led ‘91 team. Lambright, James’ former defensive coordinator, has managed to hold the program together. Lambright even got the Huskies back to a bowl game last season although they were embarrassed by Iowa 38-18 in the Sun Bowl.

The 1996 Huskies have one of the nation’s top running backs in Shehee, who came out of nowhere as a sophomore to rush for a school-record 15 touchdowns and help Washington earn a share of the Pac-10 title last season.

One of the players blocking for Shehee will be 6-4, 310-pound guard Benji Olson, who started as a freshman last season.

“We’re real solid up front,” Huard said. “They’re going to open some holes for Rashaan.”

On defense, Washington’s top players will be inside senior linebacker Ink Aleaga, a first-team all-Pac-10 pick by the coaches last season when he had 99 tackles, and strongside linebacker Jason Chorak, a junior, who is one of seven returning starters on the Huskies’ defense.

The Huskies lost Lawyer Milloy, their AllAmerica free safety of last season when he left school a year early to go into the NFL draft.

Right now, Lambright is concerned only about the Huskies’ opener at Arizona State.

“It’s huge,” he said.