Hot Dawgs Cool Off Asu

Everybody expected Mike Tyson to be at less-than-top form after being in jail for a couple years.

It’s fair to assume the same for the Washington Huskies, who were so emotionally high-strung in their first game after two years of probation that their most consistent play Saturday was the forward fumble.

But on a day of improbable plays that went their way, the Huskies dusted off the playbook and scored on a halfback pass with 2:53 remaining to down Arizona State 23-20 in front of 73,129 at Husky Stadium.

“This is something that is just fantastically big,” said UW coach Jim Lambright of the season-opening win, now that his team is eligible for the Pacific-10 Conference title and a Rose Bowl bid. “It is so important because we’ve been aiming for it for so long; it’s something that’s bigger than I can describe.”

The play that won it might have been wackier than he could describe.

Fighting back from a 17-9 halftime deficit, the Huskies got the ball with 5:51 left in the game at their own 34. A scrambling first down by quarterback Damon Huard kept the drive alive and helped move UW to the ASU 30.

Offensive coordinator Bill Diedrick had watched all game as the Sun Devils safeties charged the line hard in support of UW rushes.

He sent word down to the sideline to assistant coach Scott Linehan, who told tailback Rashaan Shehee to run the halfback pass. Shehee ran out, stopped, turned back to Linehan and said, “What? You want the pass?”

“I was shocked they called it,” said Shehee, a quarterback as a freshman in high school. Shehee didn’t even have time to remove his gloves, and when he took a pitch from Huard, he saw receiver Fred Coleman flash open almost immediately.

“I didn’t even have a grip on it and I threw it so high, I didn’t know whether Freddie was going to fair-catch it or not,” Shehee said.

“It looked like a punt; I was waiting and waiting and waiting for that thing to come down,” Coleman said. “And when it did, one of their guys tackled me right into the end zone.”

Still, as the Huskies entered the tunnel leading to their locker room after the game, there was very little celebration. They seemed to realize that they had escaped with a win over a team that was a 12-1/2-point underdog and had been picked to finish at or near the bottom of the Pac-10.

A number of things went wrong:

On four occasions inside the ASU 20, the Huskies got only a touchdown and a field goal. Placekicker John Wales made only one of three field-goal attempts and also had a point-after blocked.

Punter Geoff Prince fielded a low snap while his knee was on the ground, giving the Sun Devils the ball on the Husky 6.

Leon Neal, taking over the tailback spot from Napoleon Kaufman, rushed for 105 yards on 22 carries, but lost a fumble in the first period that set up an ASU TD.

ASU receiver Keith Poole dominated UW freshman corner Reggie Davis, pulling in nine passes for 162 yards and two touchdowns.

“It was very eye-opening about how young we are,” Lambright said of the mistakes. “But also very eye-opening about how good we can be to be able to come back.”

Problems arose from the beginning as Wales missed a 25-yard field-goal try on the first UW possession.

ASU quarterback Jake Plummer (19 for 32, 264 yards, two TDs) answered by driving his team for a score, hitting Poole for a 12-yard TD.

The strangest play for the Huskies came on their second possession, when Huard scrambled and found tight end Cameron Cleeland open deep. After gaining nearly 50 yards, Cleeland lost control of the ball and batted it around another 20 yards before knocking it out of bounds.

Eventually, Wales capped the weird series with a 31-yard field goal.

Neal’s fumble then set up the second Plummer-to-Poole TD, a 32-yarder that put ASU up 14-3 early in the second quarter.

Washington responded, once again, with another fortuitous fumble. Huard hit a streaking Andre DeSaussure for a big gainer, but DeSaussure - perhaps inspired by Cleeland’s creative ball-handling - fumbled it forward to Dave Janoski. Janoski shook off tacklers and took it the final 35 yards for a score.

As Lambright put it, the Huskies regrouped at halftime and the outcome was “a good example of being able to put together a game plan in the third and fourth quarters and learn from the first-half mistakes.”

Washington 23, ASU 20

Arizona St. 7 10 0 3 - 20 Washington 3 6 6 8 - 23

ASU-Poole 12 pass from Plummer (Nycz kick)

Was-FG Wales 31 ASUPoole 32 pass from Plummer (Nycz kick)

Was-Janoski 35 fumble return after DeSaussure 44 pass from Huard (run failed) ASUFG Nycz 28

Was-Thomas 1 run (run failed) ASUFG Nycz 20

Was-Coleman 30 pass from Shehee (Janoski pass from Huard)

A-73,129.

ASU Wash First downs 17 21 Rushes-yards 39-66 46-199 Passing 264 269 Return Yards 4 0 Comp-Att-Int 19-32-0 15-28-0 Punts 7-36 4-38 Fumbles-Lost 2-1 3-1 Penalties-Yards 5-35 3-34 Time of Possession 30:58 29:02

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHINGArizona St., Hopkins 14-34, Martin 10-30, Wood 3-12, T.Battle 4-7. Washington, Neal 22-105, Shehee 5-50, Thomas 9-28, Huard 8-25, Fortney 1-5, Team 1-(minus 14).

PASSINGArizona St., Plummer 19-32-0-264. Washington, Huard 14-27-0-239, Shehee 1-1-0-30.

RECEIVINGArizona St., Poole 9-162, Mustafa 4-57, Bush 3-26, Hopkins 3-19. Washington, Neal 4-5, Coleman 3-49, Thomas 3-40, DeSaussure 2-70, Cleeland 1-47, Janoski 1-45.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo