Ready To Make A Difference Shehee Injury Hurt UW, But He Craves Last Chance

Rashaan Shehee was cutting left, darting right, blasting through holes that only he had seen.

Shehee, who was the Pacific-10 Conference’s leading rusher before missing Washington’s last three games with a sprained left knee, appeared almost fully recovered during practices last weekend, almost instantly re-energizing the Huskies’ offense.

“It was nice to see, wasn’t it,” said quarterback Brock Huard.

Huard found all out too well what life was like without Shehee. The Huskies’ season went south once Shehee went out, resulting in losses to Oregon, UCLA and Washington State. The losses dropped the UW out of the Rose Bowl race and into the Aloha Bowl, where the Huskies will face Michigan State on Christmas Day - a game in which Shehee expects to be able to play.

The question, of course, is this - was Shehee that important that his absence could result in the team falling apart?

The Huskies led the Pac-10 in rushing, averaging 200 yards a game through seven games, before Shehee was hurt in the first quarter of a Nov.1 game against USC. Shehee was leading the Pac-10 in rushing with 862 yards and a 6.2 yards per carry average at the time, and had also caught 15 passes for 146 yards.

But including the USC game - Shehee was injured on his third carry of that contest - the Huskies managed only 374 yards rushing in the final four games, an average of only 93.5 yards per game.

Certainly, the opposition was tougher the final four games, particularly UCLA and Washington State. But with Shehee, the Huskies had shredded the defenses of Arizona (254 yards rushing) and Arizona State (240) which each ranked among the top four run defenses in the Pac-10, along with UCLA and WSU.

“If you take Ryan Leaf and Michael Black out of Wazzu’s offense, tell me what would happen,” said Huard, alluding to the fact that he also missed part of the USC game and all of the Oregon game with an injury. “Obviously Rashaan was an integral part of our team with his ability and quickness and just his senior leadership. You saw we missed a lot of that spark the last three weeks.”

And without Shehee’s running, the Huskies were forced to throw more, averaging 32 passes the final four games after attempting an average of only 25 the first seven games. With the threat of the run largely absent and defenses guarding closely against the pass, Huard threw eight interceptions in the final three games he played.

“When you lose the leading rusher in the conference, it’s going to affect what you are doing offensively,” said UW offensive coordinator Scott Linehan. “(Shehee) was touching the ball 25-30 times a game and that’s a lot of snaps to take out of the game.”

Coach Jim Lambright said part of the problem was that the team’s blocking schemes were designed for Shehee’s unique ability to read a defense and then react. Replacements Maurice Shaw and Jason Harris required a more straight-ahead blocking style that was hard to implement with only three weeks left in the season.

“It’s so important to combine the offensive line with the running back and your play calling,” Lambright said. “There is a tremendous difference between (the styles) of Shehee, Shaw and Jason Harris.”

Shehee agreed.

“The running game was developed around my style of running and not Maurice’s or Jason’s,” Shehee said. “They had to change around their whole style of running.”

And Shehee could only watch. When he was hurt in the first quarter against USC, Shehee had thought the injury might not be too serious, even telling reporters after the game that he would be back the following week.

“That was more of a hope that it wouldn’t be that bad,” Shehee said. “In reality, it wasn’t that bad. It could have been a lot worse. It could have been an (anterior cruciate ligament) tear. I’m thankful it wasn’t that serious.”

But he was frustrated watching as the team’s Rose Bowl hopes died a quick death.

A win against Michigan State won’t solve everything, but it will allow Shehee - who is eighth on the school’s all-time rushing list with 2,150 yards - the chance to walk away happy.

“My knee feels fine,” he said. “I just want to be out there not thinking about my knee and be able to move without thinking.”