UW nightmare nears end
Husky Stadium was not much more than half full last Saturday, which wasn’t a bad turnout considering the cruel reality of it all, that a grossly undermanned Washington football team, in effect, was using its junior varsity against California, the nation’s fifth-ranked entry.
People can complain all they want about a lack of talent or poor coaching, leading up to a 42-12 weekend bruising from the Bears and a dismal 1-9 record – matching the worst showing in the Huskies’ 115 seasons.
Yet there’s been more forced layoffs for this UW club than was leveled at Boeing during the 1970s, when things got so bad that the infamous billboard sign went up imploring the last airplane worker to leave town to please turn off the lights. The switch went off for the guys in the gold helmets a long time ago.
There have been mass casualties every week for the Huskies, who suffered the further indignity of losing their best player, junior linebacker and co-captain Joe Lobendahn, to a third-quarter broken wrist against Cal. Add to that the painful exits of junior tight end Joe Toledo and junior free safety Dashon Goldson, starters who didn’t return because of back and shoulder injuries, respectively.
Lobendahn becomes the 14th UW player this season to require immediate surgery or have a broken bone casted. He previously was the only one of the five co-captains who hadn’t been injured and missed game time, and now he becomes the fourth leader lost for good.
“I was the last one,” he said. “I didn’t plan on doing this. It happened. It’s freaky.”
The Huskies might have to videotape the pre-game coin flip at University of Washington Medical Center and send it over to Washington State and the Apple Cup this weekend, or push some captains out to midfield at Martin Stadium in wheelchairs.
With Lobendahn ruled out, senior Tim Galloway will step up and take his place in the lineup. Toledo and Goldson, if unable to go against the Cougars, would be replaced by freshmen Robert Lewis and Chris Hemphill, respectively.
All would be first-time starters this season, bringing the total of players holding game-opening assignments to an astounding 41. That’s nearly two per position.
If Goldson can’t play or open, only four UW players will finish the season having started every game – junior center Brad Vanneman, junior linebacker Evan Benjamin, junior defensive tackle Manase Hopoi and senior cornerback Sam Cunningham – with two others, sophomore linebacker Scott White and sophomore tailback Kenny James, missing one start each only because of the use of multiple wide-receiver sets or secondary packages in their places.
Every Saturday has turned into a mini-tryout camp for the Huskies. Seventeen freshmen have played in any one game. Six of them have started at various times.
Ousted UW coach Keith Gilbertson got emotional after the Cal game when considering the season-long upheaval of his personnel.
“They’ve just been through hell,” he said. “They’re great to coach. That game last week (against Arizona) got to us, but the guys came back and worked and practiced, and they just got after it. I should be giving them gifts – not in violation of the rules, of course.”
There have been six different first-unit wide receivers, with the current regulars, freshmen Craig Chambers and Bobby Whithorne, representing the third set of pass-catchers to run onto the field as starters.
Chambers was a scout-team player until midseason, when injuries forced his rapid ascension up the depth chart and he since has turned into a budding star. Against the Bears, he latched onto eight passes for 189 yards, including a 77-yard touchdown reception in the third quarter. The yardage total was the ninth best in school history, the scoring catch the 14th-longest in UW annals.
His team stature practically changed overnight, which is somewhat amusing to him, if not gratifying.
“What it basically comes down to is it’s not feeling that you’re a veteran guy; you have become a veteran guy,” Chambers said. “It’s different, it’s definitely different. People have start acting different to me. Reporters didn’t want to talk to me before. It’s weird.”
Senior wide receiver Charles Frederick was in uniform for the Cal contest, but it was only a symbolic gesture on his part, merely suiting up for his final home outing. The Huskies had this marquee player for only two full games, before he suffered a severe hamstring pull on a kick return early against Notre Dame. He appeared in only a handful of plays against San Jose State and Oregon State before sitting out the past four games.
“It’s upsetting, it’s depressing,” Chambers said. “People don’t come to the University of Washington to lose games. All you can do is play.”
And they have, all the way down to practically the last freshman.