UW’s Defense Brings Back Visions Of ‘Purple Reign’

Washington football coach Jim Lambright knows there is some risk to playing a frothing, penetration-style defense. He did, after all, endure the 54-20 thrashing administered by Notre Dame a month ago.

But he loves the rewards.

UW revisited the “Purple Reign” era of dominance in shackling USC 21-10 Saturday, holding the Trojans to a USC record-low of minus-14 rushing yards. USC finished with 124 yards, but its second-half production was negative-6. The Huskies had seven sacks.

Lambright feels he knows why his defense has done an about-face since being humbled by Notre Dame.

“As I’ve always known about defense, if you’re willing to attack once you start being successful it starts being contagious,” he said. “The players actually start playing better because they believe in what you’re doing, and you become a lot better as a total defense because they blossom when given opportunities to make big plays.”

Outside linebacker/rush end Jerry Jensen was named Pacific-10 Conference defensive player of the week for his three-sack performance. Jensen plays on the opposite side of Jason Chorak, who has 12 sacks and 18.5 tackles for loss.

“Jason’s having a great year and when you start worrying about him, it opens up the other side for Jerry Jensen and (tackle) Chris Campbell,” Lambright said.

The big rebound

Most coaches talk about learning from losses. The Huskies apparently took good notes from the Notre Dame debacle and have wins over UCLA 41-21, Oregon 33-14 and USC 21-10.

“There’s been a real steady level of improvement,” Lambright said. “What we’ve created from the Notre Dame game has been a tremendous plus for us. I think we’ve taken a learning situation and gotten better.”

Ripening apple

Quarterback Brock Huard stressed he’s not looking past 1-7 Oregon State, which visits on Saturday, but who could blame him for sneaking a peek at the Apple Cup against Washington State on Nov. 23 in Pullman.

UW also plays host to San Jose State before taking on WSU. The Cougars have appointments with UCLA and Stanford.

“We’ve got enough to worry about, but it is kind of fun to look at the box scores in the paper and see how people are doing,” Huard said. “I’d definitely rather have them be 7-3 and us 8-2 so it would be a big showdown. That’d be a lot fun.”

First things first

Oregon State gave UW fits last year as quarterback Tim Alexander rushed for 182 yards and passed for 140 more.

OSU is mixing in power running plays out of the I-formation in addition to the option coach Jerry Pettibone installed six years ago.

“It’s an entirely different look than the past,” Lambright said.

Lambright wants to close the home season convincingly against OSU and San Jose State. , DataTimes