Senior LB lone star on shoddy UW defense

SEATTLE – Senior linebacker Mason Foster has been doing it all for the University of Washington football team this season.

Some might say too much.

“Realistically, you never like to have one guy with 18 tackles – although I think the world of Mason,” Huskies coach Steve Sarkisian said after Foster’s 18-tackle performance put him at a Pac-10-best 100 for the season. “It’s unfortunate we are not playing better around Mason because he is a fantastic football player and deserving of any accolades he gets at the end of the year.”

Statistically, Foster has the numbers to be considered for All-America honors. He has 30 more tackles than any other defender in the conference and ranks third in the nation with an average of 12.5 per game. But the Huskies’ overall defensive struggles – they rank 100th out of 120 Bowl Subdivision teams in yards allowed per game – are likely to keep him off most postseason lists.

What’s even worse for UW (3-5, 2-3 Pac-10) is the fact that Foster is having to make most of the tackles without much help. Only two other Huskies – safety Nate Williams (70) and linebacker Cort Dennison (60) – have more than 51 tackles this season.

“He’s playing his butt off, and he’s making his plays,” defensive coordinator Nick Holt said Tuesday. “Yeah, we’d like to see some other guys make some plays, but he’s doing a great job.”

Foster isn’t even that excited about his triple-digit total, even though he has a remote chance of becoming only the fifth UW player in history to amass 200 tackles in a season.

“Really, it means nothing to me,” he said. “It feels great that I’ve made a lot of plays, but it really doesn’t mean anything. I’d rather have 50 tackles and win every game or have no tackles.

“It’s something that’s cool to look at, but at the same time, I’d trade all those tackles in for wins any day.”

What’s clear is that Foster’s ability to bring down ball carriers has prevented the UW defense from being one of the country’s worst units in recent memory.

“Mason is our savior, man,” defensive tackle Alameda Ta’amu said. “If I mess up on my key, he can clean it up for me. Having someone with that much experience means a lot to our defense.”

Foster has had double-digit tackles in every game this season.