No. 2 Huskies Develop New Personality

It was seven days after the worst defeat of the Jim Lambright era at the University of Washington, a 54-20 thrashing at Notre Dame.

Before a game with UCLA at Husky Stadium, UW players strolled out for early workouts acting subdued and quiet.

“We (the UW coaching staff) were worried,” Lambright said. “We were thinking we might have lost them. We had been tough on them all week.”

But the silence simply was a new form of preparation for the Huskies, who took a 28-0 halftime lead en route to a 41-21 beating of UCLA.

Since then, UW has gone 8-1 and enter the 12:30 p.m. game against Nebraska today ranked No. 2 in the country. The Cornhuskers are No. 7.

And since that Notre Dame defeat, Lambright said, these Huskies have been a totally different bunch.

“The players were a lot louder then, there was a lot more pregame hype, they felt the emotion should be showed verbally,” Lambright said.

But after the Notre Dame game, Lambright said, the team underwent a drastic personality transformation, from brash and loud to quiet and focused.

“I’ve never seen a team that changed like that,” said Lambright, who has been on the UW staff since 1969. “Ever.”

And it could be the key to victory today in a game that could prepare the Huskies for a run at the national championship. Despite massive media hype this week, Lambright said his players approached practice like it was any other week.

“This is a team that focuses appropriately on what it can do together,” Lambright said. “It has much more of an inner-togetherness now (than before the Notre Dame game).”

And though Lambright said he was beginning his own transformation from weekday relaxed to game-day intense, he appeared as calm and easygoing as a summer tourist during a press conference Friday.

The Huskies are only 7-9-1 against ranked teams in Lambright’s four-plus years as head coach at UW, including the Notre Dame debacle and a Holiday Bowl loss to Colorado last season.

But Lambright said this team, which includes 16 returning starters, learned valuable lessons in those two losses that should help today - how to prepare against Notre Dame, and how best to utilize the secondary against Colorado.

Assuming the Huskies, then, have figured out how to play big games - and the 42-20 victory at Brigham Young two weeks ago looks like solid proof - here’s what else could decide the game today.

The battle of the bulge: All week, coaches and players on both sides have said this is a contest that will be won at the line of scrimmage.

“It’s important that you control the line of scrimmage,” Lambright said. “Running or passing. If the numbers are right, you establish the run. If you have to establish the run in order to control the pass rush, it’s essential that you do that.”

UW center Olin Kreutz, for one, is excited at the challenge of going against Nebraska’s attacking 4-3 defense, led by senior defensive tackle Jason Peter and senior defensive end Grant Wistrom.

“This is what you train for,” he said. “Most games nobody even notices you. But this game, it’s all on you. And if you don’t want that pressure, then don’t come out. This is why you are here.”

Kreutz promises that the Huskies won’t fall prey to what he thinks usually befalls Nebraska opponents.

“They make teams want to quit,” Kreutz said. “You can actually just see people who want to give up and quit because they are so dominant.”

It’s a classic battle of UW’s defense, ranked No. 1 in the nation against the run (allowing minus-5 yards total in two games) against Nebraska’s top-ranked rushing attack (a 418-yard average in two games).

The battle in the air: The only glaring statistical advantage is Washington’s passing game vs. Nebraska’s young secondary.