Huskies bow to Willingham’s optimism

SEATTLE – Turn-of-phrase Ty Willingham clocked in with eight “exciteds” on the first day of training camp at the University of Washington. He was excited about it starting, excited to see his new recruits on the field, even excited that one of his players is 390 pounds, though that may be a red flag to the American Heart Association or the Weight Watchers nags.

All those exciteds may or may not be a Husky football record. Since the NCAA has decreed that media guides can’t be more than 208 pages, some pertinent data gets left out.

As best we could discern, the source of Willingham’s excitement was this:

“Every game we play starts 0-0,” he said, “unless I’m mistaken.”

Not at all. The NCAA did tweak a number of its rules in the off-season – marching bands are not allowed to play anything longer than quarter notes – but the opening score of every game will indeed be 0-0.

Of course, this was the case the past two years, as well, and the Huskies are 3-19 over that stretch. The guess here is that Husky fans would share Willingham’s excitement if he could find a way to start his games a touchdown or two to the good, or better yet finish them that way.

Nonetheless, Willingham expanded on the anything-can-happen theory, at least as it relates to the Huskies being picked to finish last again in the Pacific-10 Conference.

“We’ve got just as good a chance as everybody else,” he insisted. “We don’t have to be the best; we just have to play the best. Just play the best for that three-hour period and we’ll be OK. Usually, that means making one less mistake than your opponent.”

Every team is entitled – no, obligated – to be optimistic on the opening day of camp, even America’s footwipes. Anything less and they should start revoking scholarships.

Naturally, you’d like to think that optimism is based on something solid. The Huskies point to the fact that they scored a touchdown per game more in 2005 than the year before and cut their turnovers in half, but the conclusion could be drawn from that evidence that UW in 2004 explored every vista of awful and had seen it all.

Fact is, the Dawgs still got drubbed more often than they had a legitimate chance, 0-0 starting line or not. There are still issues of talent, depth and even desire, since three potential starters – useful hands, anyway – couldn’t bother to get themselves to class often enough to avoid flunking out.

But, hey, baby steps. Rosebuds can be found even under rocks.

Take Stanley Daniels. The senior guard is the closest thing to a leader that there is on a young offensive line, which appears to be the team’s soft underbelly, and we’re not talking about the guy who goes 390. For the first time in five years, Daniels doesn’t feel as if he’s driving his tent stakes into tapioca.

His comfort source: He has the same position coach, Mike Denbrock, for the first time as a Husky.

Since that’s something nobody bothers to score at home, here’s the line of succession. Brent Myers ran the offensive line when Daniels joined the program. Dan Cozzetto came aboard in 2003, Charlie Dickey in 2004 and Denbrock when Willingham was hired.

“One time, we had a guy for two weeks,” Daniels snorted.

Oh, right. That was when Myers was rehired after Cozzetto departed, only to jump ship to Arizona State before so much as teaching a flat step.

“Every year, except this year, we’ve had a different coach,” Daniels complained. “Every time, we had to learn a different scheme, different technique, different lingo. That’s a big, big deal that people just don’t understand and that’s going to be a major difference you’re going to see in our line play.”

Every Husky can cling to some similar driftwood in this sea of doubt. Most of them have picked Willingham, which only stands to reason – he is the guy U-Dub is paying $1.43 million a year for his EMT skills.

Their devotion isn’t for his snappy patter.

“The buy-in is complete,” Daniels maintained. “This is his team. It makes me feel good because I know I’m buying, and I know the whole team is. I know we’re motivated as a whole to do what Coach Willingham wants us to do.”

Really? The buy-in’s complete after a year? A 2-9 year at that?

Why?

“Because he’s always honest,” Daniels said. “He does what he says he’s going to do and he always has. I’m going by every interaction I’ve had with him. Everything he said he’s going to do, he did. He said if you miss class, he’s going to run you – and he runs us. If he says tomorrow we’re going to finish practice at 2:20, it’s 2:20.

“He says if you take this step, then this will happen. He’s been consistent with what he said and he’s never lied to us.”

So, apparently, when Willingham says he’s excited, we have to take it on faith. Hey, the score is still 0-0. Unless we’re mistaken.