Huskies Never Forget UW Seeks Payback For Alleged Rub-It-In Christmas Loss To Air Force

The Washington Huskies are pretty unhappy about a lot of things that went on at the Oahu Bowl last Christmas Day.

And not just the 45-25 spanking Air Force administered.

Not the least of which was the two-point conversion Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry ordered late in the third quarter after the Falcons took a 38-13 lead on a backbreaking, 79-yard touchdown pass from Blane Morgan to Matt Farmer. Washington stuffed fullback Scott Farmer on the try for two, but the point was made, at least in the Huskies’ minds.

“A lot of guys are angry about that game,” UW inside linebacker Lester Towns said. “I’m upset because they embarrassed us, going for two when they were already beating us.”

The Huskies are positively overheated for Saturday’s return matchup against the Falcons at Husky Stadium. And the Falcons, apparently, are doing whatever they can to cool them off.

DeBerry denies he was trying to run up the score on Washington that day. He claims that his conversion chart, which he uses to determine whether to kick a point-after or go for two points, indicated that 40-13 would be better than 39-13.

DeBerry said he didn’t believe the Falcons had control of the game, and that quarterback Brock Huard was fully capable of bringing Washington back.

“People who know me know that I wouldn’t run up the score on anyone,” DeBerry said.

Maybe he’s right, but Washington will take all the motivation it can get.

Really, though, the embarrassment of that day serves as plenty of motivation for some Huskies. The game wasn’t pretty. Air Force, known for its groundpounding, triple-option attack, rolled up 267 passing yards on just 12 completions. The Falcons had 499 yards and intercepted Huard three times.

Coach Jim Lambright was fired five days later, after Washington finished with a 6-6 record, the school’s first non-winning season since 1976. Many close to the UW say the Oahu Bowl was the last straw for the coaching staff, especially when Lambright mentioned in the postgame press conference that the scout team didn’t give the regulars a great duplication of what Air Force did.

For many, the game was an indicator of how far Washington had fallen since the 1991 national championship year. Losing to a Western Athletic Conference team in a minor bowl was too much for many boosters to take, and they let athletic director Barbara Hedges know about it.

But really, the Huskies are playing for redemption rather than revenge. Yes, Washington has lost five of its past six games, its worst stretch since the 1973 team under Jim Owens finished 2-9.

But the bottom line is, Washington wasn’t prepared, didn’t execute and, some outsiders say, quit.

“That wasn’t the Washington Huskies out there,” defensive end Jabari Issa said. “The game was a big letdown. We want to show them what we’re really about.”

The biggest letdown came in the third quarter, when the Falcons scored 16 unanswered points after taking a 22-13 halftime lead. But the relatively close score didn’t reflect the way Air Force manhandled a program that’s better funded and supposedly attracts better athletes.

The Falcons scored their first three touchdown on drives of 73, 83 and 74 yards. On the drive for the third touchdown, Air Force used a fake punt on fourth-and-8 - punter Jason Sanderson ran 10 yards for a first down - to keep the ball moving.

The Huskies dealt with the Falcons’ triple option fine, partly because that’s primarily what Washington emphasized in practice. But Washington was ill-prepared for the play-action passes and the trick plays.

“First they run on us up the middle on the dive,” strong safety Hakim Akbar said. “Then they ran on us outside. But the trick plays really killed us. You prepare for two weeks for the option, then they pass, pass, pass. We didn’t know what hit us.”

What’s worse was the return flight. Fog forced Washington’s plane to circle for an hour, then orders came to land in Portland.

Which is a 3-hour bus ride to Seattle.

Merry Christmas.

“That was like salt in the wound,” fullback Pat Conniff said. “We had too much time to think about the game.”

Whether it was enough time to establish motivation will be the question Saturday.