Lambright Up Front When Sizing Up Ucla Possible Bowl Bids May Be On Line When Huskies Face Bruins Today

While Washington football coach Jim Lambright expresses great respect for UCLA running back Karim Abdul-Jabbar, it sounds like he has even a higher regard for the Bruins’ offensive line.

Abdul-Jabbar will attempt to surpass the 200-yard mark in rushing for the fourth straight game today when the Bruins face the 22nd-ranked Huskies at the Rose Bowl.

“The first thing you have to worry about is the mountains up front,” Lambright said when asked about Abdul-Jabbar. “I’m really, really impressed with what (tackle Jonathan Ogden) has done for that football team.

“All Karim does is carry the ball about 300 times for 1,500 yards.”

Abdul-Jabbar is the nation’s fourth-leading rusher with a 157.7-yard-per-game average, and with two games left on UCLA’s schedule, he has already set a school record with 1,419 yards, breaking the previous standard of 1,405 set by Gaston Green nine years ago.

Abdul-Jabbar’s 269 carries are just two short of Freeman McNeil’s school record of 271 set in 1979.

And Abdul-Jabbar is the only player in school history to rush for more than 200 yards in three straight games, getting 261 at Stanford on Oct. 21, 217 against California on Oct. 28, and 207 at Arizona State last Saturday.

“He’s a very, very complete runner,” Lambright said. “He can take it up inside, he can bounce it outside.”

UCLA coach Terry Donahue has just about run out of words of praise for Abdul-Jabbar.

“I think the things that make Karim stand out are his competitiveness, his mental outlook,” Donahue said. “He’s been very durable. I think he has a good offensive line in front of him. They’ve kind of made it a personal thing.

“That’s been healthy for our team and it’s good for him. He’s got the heart of a lion.”

It’s quite possible a bowl bid will be on the line for both Washington (5-3-1 overall, 4-1-1 Pac-10) and UCLA (6-3, 3-3). The Huskies are still mathematically alive in the Bowl race, but No. 12 USC (7-1-1, 5-0-1) can clinch the Pac-10’s berth by beating Oregon State (1-8, 0-6) tonight.

A victory by the Bruins would enable Donahue to break a record originally set by former Washington coach Don James.

When James resigned before the 1993 season after 18 years as the Huskies coach, he had recorded 97 conference victories, a Pac-10 record that Donahue, in his 20th year at UCLA, has tied and can break today.

While the Huskies figure to be challenged by Abdul-Jabbar and UCLA’s formidable ground game, the Bruins will be confronted with a potent Washington passing attack, and they appear vulnerable.

Quarterback Damon Huard is having one of the best seasons in school history, having completed 142 of 223 passes for 1,880 yards and nine touchdowns with only four interceptions.

A senior, Huard ranks second on the all-time Washington career passing list with 5,157 yards - 339 behind Sonny Sixkiller. And Huard is eighth on the single-season passing list - 689 yards behind Cary Conklin, who passed for a school-record 2,569 yards in 1988.

UCLA, meanwhile, has allowed an average of 249.7 yards passing per game. Arizona State’s Jake Plummer threw for 312 yards last weekend to lead the Sun Devils to a 37-33 victory over the Bruins.

“We’ve just got to get better and more consistent play (in the secondary),” Donahue said. “We were provided a real challenge as a group (at ASU) and did not respond.

“Now, we’ve got a real fine quarterback coming in here and I’m hoping our secondary will respond and step up.”