James’ long dash punctuates Huskies’ first victory
SEATTLE — Kenny James accepted the handoff, took a stutter step to the right and next veered hard to the left. He ran past one defender and outran another. Washington’s sophomore tailback didn’t stop until he had sprinted 52 yards to the west end zone at Husky Stadium and assured his football team that a season of total disaster simply wasn’t possible.
James’ long-distance run in the third quarter Saturday put San Jose State on its heels. James later added another touchdown burst and totaled a career-best 189 yards rushing on 26 carries, all of this adding up to a long overdue 21-6 victory — the Huskies’ first positive outcome in five tries.
“We wanted him to take the game over in the second half,” UW coach Keith Gilbertson said of his hard-running back. “He did a nice job of staying in drives, and that was the difference for us.”
The Huskies were nursing a 7-3 lead with the third quarter winding down, unable to shake the visitors, when James shot up the middle on a second-and-16 play, providing the second-longest run of his brief UW career. He had a 56-yarder against Oregon as a freshman, although that one failed to generate points.
James’ electrifying TD burst against San Jose State (2-3) capped off a 99-yard drive, only the second for the UW in the 17 seasons that such stats have been compiled at the school, and seemed to wear down the game, but undermanned, Bay Area club.
After the Spartans added another field goal, James got loose again for an 18-yard TD run with 10:30 remaining and the non-conference matchup was effectively over. On that score, he bounced off one defender and pulled another with him over the goal line.
The ever-serious California native later had trouble taking bows, instead deferring much of the credit for his big plays elsewhere.
“It feels good, but it’s not all about me,” James said. “It takes all 11 of us out there on that field to accomplish that. Most of that was from my line.
“They came out and opened up some big holes in the second half, and I just used my God-given talent and made some plays.”
It was the second 100-yard effort this season for James, who totaled 137 against UCLA in a 37-31 loss last month.
“James is a good back and he runs hard,” San Jose State safety Brian Nunez said. “We knew he was good coming into the game and what he was capable of doing.”
By merely crossing the goal line once in some manner, and with Texas getting shut out 12-0 by Oklahoma, the Huskies have scored in 270 consecutive games — the most by a Division I team. Texas’ streak ended at 282 games.
As has been the uncomfortable theme for much of the past five weeks, this UW outing was not without adversity. Starting freshman quarterback Carl Bonnell aggravated a groin injury some time after scoring the Huskies’ first touchdown, a 1-yard run to cap off the game’s opening series. He was replaced by Casey Paus just before halftime.
Bonnell’s availability is uncertain for next week’s home game against Oregon State.
Paus, the displaced season-opening starter, was an able replacement against the Spartans, playing error-free in his two-plus quarters of action. He threw nine passes, completing five for 55 yards. Mostly, the junior from the Chicago area was asked to hand the ball to James.
“I have no problem running the ball,” Paus said. “A win is all that matters. If we’ve got to run the ball and we’re getting 250 yards a game, I have no problem with that.”
The Huskies finished with 259 yards rushing in a game played out almost entirely on the ground, while San Jose State generated 111 yards on rushes, 109 coming on 22 carries from speedy junior tailback Tyson Thompson.
Through the air, the Huskies came up with just 75 yards, the Spartans a paltry 22 — the latter from a team that had amassed 359 yards passing the week before against Rice.
“To hold San Jose State to six points is a nice day of defense,” Gilbertson concluded.
The Huskies tried to be more generous, with Bonnell twice intercepted deep in his own territory in the second quarter. Nunez stole the first one and returned it 28 yards to the UW 15, setting up the Spartans’ first field goal, a 32-yard kick from Jeff Carr. Reserve linebacker Matthew Castelo got the other, grabbing a ball that squirted free after a big hit on UW tight end Joe Toledo. Castelo returned the interception 12 yards to the UW 19, but this time a Carr field-goal attempt misfired.