Dumbfounded Huskies Looking For Focus Three-Game Skid On Minds Of Players As They Prepare For Michigan State

The University of Washington Huskies are a week into practice for a Christmas Day Aloha Bowl date with Michigan State and think that they have begun to right the wrongs that resulted in a regular season-ending three-game losing streak.

But they have had such thoughts before when they said they were ready for games against UCLA and Washington State only to lose decisively.

“We’ll find out for sure on Dec. 25,” said senior linebacker Jason Chorak. “But people are banging and the excitement’s back and the body feels a lot better.”

The Huskies will practice today and Sunday at Husky Stadium, take three days off, then fly to Hawaii on Thursday.

And, Chorak said, it’ll be business before pleasure.

“We need to go out there and get a win,” Chorak said of a Washington team that was 7-1 before losing three in a row to end the regular season. “I like to go out and have a good time, but when we are down there, it’ll be strictly business.”

Even a win in the Aloha Bowl, though, won’t stop the questions of what went wrong in November.

Those questions only got harder to answer the last two weeks as postseason awards were announced and the Huskies - surprisingly, to some - cleaned up. Seven Huskies were named to the All-Pac-10 first team, more than any other school; offensive linemen Olin Kreutz and Benji Olson were named to the AP All-American first team and Chorak and wide receiver Jerome Pathon were named to other All-American teams.

Olson said he still feels the Huskies were as physically talented as any team they played this season, No. 2-ranked Nebraska included.

“It’s something I’m puzzled over, too,” Olson said. “I think we had better athletes than any team we played this year, but we just didn’t come out on the winning side. We just didn’t play like we should have.”

Chorak voiced similar thoughts.

“I don’t think there are teams better than you when you have seven (Pac-10) first-teamers and four All-Americans,” Chorak said. “I just think people weren’t ready to go out there and play mentally. I just think a lot of things happened this year that guys were going, ‘Man, that’s not us.”’ Players concede that injuries - primarily to running back Rashaan Shehee - had an effect. Still, they wonder.

“It’s frustrating to see how we owned the first team All-Pac-10 team and didn’t finish on top,” said tight end Cam Cleeland, who was one of the seven named to the Pac-10 team. “It shows you the talent we had. But it also shows you that if you don’t have guys working together, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter at all. If you are not all firing together and working hard, those L’s (losses) come up.”

“We had the talent,” Pathon said. “It’s just that what good is talent if it’s not utilized? We really didn’t get the job done.

“People are always looking for reasons why. But football’s a funny game. You can always get beat. Look at Nebraska. They pulled off some miracle games. We did struggle and we didn’t get the job done. But I still believe in my heart that this team is a good team and could have done a lot better under a little different circumstances.”

They get one more chance to prove it.

Lambright hopeful regarding Huard

UW coach Jim Lambright said he was “a little” surprised by quarterback Brock Huard’s decision to submit his name for review by the NFL Draft Advisory Committee, which gives advice to college underclassmen on where they might be selected in the draft.

But Lambright said he still thinks Huard will return for another season.

“I still feel confident that he’ll be here,” Lambright said, adding that he has talked to Huard several times about his future in the past two weeks.

Lambright has less of a feel for the future of Olson and Kreutz, juniors who have each also submitted their names.

Pathon, Leaf talk it up

Pathon found a surprise when he boarded a plane this week for the 6-hour trip to Orlando for the College Football Awards show, which was held Thursday night - WSU quarterback Ryan Leaf in the next seat.

“As soon as I checked in a lady said ‘Oh, by the way, Ryan is looking for you,”’ Pathon said. “I’m thinking ‘Ryan? Ryan who?’ Then they tell me Ryan Leaf. I come walking down the aisle and he’s holding a (video camera) and he says ‘Hey Jerome? What’s up?’ We just started talking and laughing.”

Pathon said he and Leaf talked constantly on the plane ride and hung out together often on the trip.

“He’s a good guy,” Pathon said.

Notes

Lambright said Shehee has looked good in practice and should be 100 percent for the game. However, he’s no longer as confident about defensive end Chris Campbell, who is recovering from a broken fibula. Lambright said Campbell is still questionable… . The Huskies will be without reserve offensive lineman Ben Kadletz, who suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee in the Apple Cup. Kadletz, a junior, has already had surgery and will likely also miss spring practice.