Purple rains TDs from sky
SEATTLE – Just call them the “Air Huskies.”
With coaches taking Isaiah Stanback’s running plays out of the playbook for Saturday’s spring football game, the senior quarterback looked to the air to make plays and put on an impressive first-half show.
Stanback completed 6 of 9 passes – including 5 of 6 in the first half – for 190 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Purple team to a 24-3 victory over the Gold at Husky Stadium.
The result wasn’t a surprise, as the Purple team was made up of most of the anticipated starters, but coaches and players were pleased with the fact that the plays were made when they were there.
“When there’s an opportunity there, sometimes they’ve dropped those when they’ve been able to get open, regardless of how they got open,” UW head coach Tyrone Willingham said. “But our guys made the plays and that was a really nice thing. (Stanback) got the ball there, and they made the plays.”
Stanback completed three passes of at least 43 yards and was responsible for all three TDs.
He had scoring passes of 43 yards to Anthony Russo and 55 yards to Chancellor Young in the first quarter, and a 67-yard pass to Cody Ellis in the second quarter set up a 1-yard TD run by Kenny James.
“We were just looking to open things up and make some plays down the field,” said Stanback, who did not run the ball in the game. “We wanted to try to attack, and the receivers got open and made the catches.”
Running backs ran just 23 times, while there were 46 passes thrown. The idea was to give all three quarterbacks – Stanback, Carl Bonnell and Johnny DuRocher – an opportunity to show what they could do, but there may also have been an inclination to make up for last year’s spring game that ended with a 3-0 score.
“We never brought it up, but it was in the back of my mind, at least,” said Russo, who had two catches for 54 yards. “I’m sure everyone was thinking about it. Three-to-zero last year was pretty embarrassing. We had to come out and be explosive and show people what we could do and get the fans excited.”
Whether that worked or not remains to be seen, but it was clear that Stanback was comfortable throwing the ball, albeit against an inexperienced second-string secondary.
Early on, the senior quarterback picked on cornerback Shelton Sampson, a converted running back still learning his new position. Five plays into the game, Russo ran past Sampson and Stanback found him for a TD.
Purple then got the ball back and two plays into the drive, Stanback hit a streaking Young deep behind Sampson for another score.
With his team ahead 14-3 and the first half coming to an end, Stanback hooked up with Ellis, who was brought down at the 1 yard line, and James ran in for his touchdown on the next play.
“We were making the plays that were coming up short last year,” Russo said. “Last year, we’d be open but we’d be dropping the ball or missing the throw. Now we’re making the plays. That’s a big change.”
“It’s like night and day,” Stanback said of the difference between this year’s offense and last year’s. “We have another year in the system and everyone knows what to do.”