Can ‘Fill-Ins’ Fulfill Dream? UW To Start Redshirt Freshman Qb, Juco Transfer Tailback Against Fighting Irish

No wonder the Washington Huskies are 10-point underdogs heading into Notre Dame Stadium today.

Injuries have forced coach Jim Lambright to revamp his offensive backfield, starting a redshirt freshman at quarterback and a junior-college transfer at tailback.

Pity the poor Pups.

This is, after all, the house that Rockne built and that Rudy used for his movie set.

Redshirt freshman quarterbacks don’t step in here and win. And transfers don’t step right in and do to the home team what they did at Dixie JC.

As tailback Corey Dillon acknowledged the other day, “We’re just here to fill in.”

Quarterback Brock Huard suggested, “We know what our situation is, and Corey and I just have to do the best we can when we get the chance.”

And as they “fill in” today and “do the best they can,” they’ll be doing so in a place that harbors more college football legends and tradition and memories than anywhere else.

“I’ll tell the team that, ‘forever and ever, in the state of Washington, and with your friends and family … you will carry this game (with you) longer than you carry 90 percent of the games you ever play,’ ” Lambright said Friday as he stood in the north end zone of Notre Dame Stadium before his team went through a light workout.

“This is a forever thing. This is one you make a special video after the game. It’s like the Miami game for us. It’s an unusual opportunity.”

Win or lose, they’ll remember.

They hope it unfolds like the 1994 Whammy in Miami, when the Huskies ended the Hurricanes’ national-record 58-game home winning streak with a 38-20 thrashing.

But it could also turn into something that they’ll stash in the back of their minds alongside the 1995 Notre Dame game at Husky Stadium, when the Irish scored 15 points in the final 2 minutes to rob Washington 29-21.

And for Huard and Dillon - each making the second start of his career, in the place of Shane Fortney and Rashaan Shehee, respectively - the potential for becoming legends is even more pronounced.

The Huskies fairly frolicked around the stadium on Friday, with dozens of fans and family members watching in the bright sunshine.

In all their looseness and confidence, they didn’t look or act like typical 10-point underdogs.

But then, as Lambright points out, Huard and Dillon are not typical second-stringers thrust into the starting lineup.

They both look like NFL prototypes for their positions, and their performances in the first four games have enabled them to build the short-but-impressive resume that breeds the confidence they’ll need for the atmosphere they’ll experience today.

“This isn’t a real complex defense,” Huard said, referring to Notre Dame. “They get after it, but it isn’t real complex.”

Confident, not cocky.

“I feel real good about Brock Huard’s ability,” Lambright said. “I think he’ll walk out and be very poised and very much under control.”

And for Dillon?

“This is a dream come true … but I won’t have any butterflies,” he said. “It isn’t like we’re playing the Dallas Cowboys. So I’m going to just go in and do my job.”

As it has turned out, Shehee’s ankle, which kept him out of last week’s victory over Stanford (when Dillon rushed for 173 yards), has improved significantly and he is expected to play a lot at tailback and with Dillon in the backfield.

Conversely, Shane Fortney’s strained knee has not gotten better this week, and so he’ll play only in an emergency.

Fortney, though, is the only Washington player who is injured significantly, as the Huskies otherwise head into the game healthier than they have been for a game all season.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: ON TV UW meets Notre Dame at 11:30 a.m. today on NBC