UW needs more than big numbers
SEATTLE – C.J. Wallace had 17 tackles and Isaiah Stanback passed for 353 yards against Notre Dame – brilliant performances in a losing cause.
“Yeah, that’s the most yards I’ve passed for, but there’s no touchdowns in there,” said Stanback, the Huskies’ junior quarterback. “It didn’t add up to anything.”
“It was a bad loss because we know we could have won the game,” Wallace, the team’s starting strong safety, said of Saturday’s 36-17 defeat.
Washington is off to a 1-3 start after going 1-10, including 0-8 in the Pac-10, last season under coach Keith Gilbertson, who resigned.
The tradition-rich Huskies think they’re vastly improved under new coach Tyrone Willingham, but so far that’s not reflected in the win-loss column.
“It’s painful,” senior center Brad Vanneman said. “It hurts me to think about it and talk about it because I know this team is better than it was last year.”
The Washington program tied for a national championship under coach Don James in 1991 and went 11-1 and won a Rose Bowl under coach Rick Neuheisel in 2000.
But the Huskies haven’t won a Pac-10 game since 2003, with a streak of nine consecutive conference losses.
The 2005 Huskies have seven Pac-10 games left on their schedule, starting with a Saturday night game at No. 20 UCLA. They’ll go up against a team with a running back, Maurice Drew, who ran for 322 yards and five touchdowns in Seattle last season.
Inside linebacker Joe Lobendahn, Washington’s leading tackler, has developed his own special defensive mechanism.
“I just tell myself that there’s always another week to get better and another week to win,” he said. “I’m out there trying to win the game like everybody else, but the thing is I love to play the game.”
After UCLA, the Huskies play at Oregon on Oct. 15, defending national champion and top-ranked Southern California Oct. 22 in Seattle, at No. 14 Arizona State on Oct. 29, Oregon State at home Nov. 5, at Arizona on Nov. 12 and Washington State in the Apple Cup on Nov. 19.
The only teams that Washington has beaten the past two seasons are San Jose State last season and Idaho this season.
Against ranked teams this season, Washington has lost to No. 12 California and No. 13 Notre Dame.
Wallace and the Huskies’ defense surrendered 560 total yards – 327 passing and 233 rushing – to Notre Dame after giving up 557 yards – 286 rushing and 271 passing – in a 56-17 loss to California.
Wallace, a junior from Sacramento, Calif., thinks UW has enough defensive talent to win, but the players need to play smarter.
“A lot of the big plays came from us not being where we were supposed to be before the snap,” he said of the Notre Dame game. “It’s real loud and everybody is running around saying, ‘What’s the call?’ Everybody doesn’t get it sometimes. So we’ve got to get on the same page.”
Stanback is averaging 279.8 yards of total offense this season. All but 78 of his 1,119 total yards have been by passing. He has three touchdown passes and three interceptions.
The Huskies weren’t able to run the ball much in their losses to Cal and Notre Dame, with starting tailback Louis Rankin being limited to 27 yards on eight carries against the Fighting Irish and 38 yards on 13 carries against the Golden Bears.
The 305-pound Vanneman, from Issaquah, Wash., said the Huskies can’t win if they don’t run the ball well enough to go along with Stanback’s proficient passing.