This time, Notre Dame just another game

SEATTLE – One of the most storied programs in all of sports comes into town today, but for Washington, that fact that Notre Dame is this evening’s opponent isn’t really a big deal.

This UW team is simply trying to win. The Huskies have enough problems at 0-6 to worry about who they’re playing.

With all due respect to Touchdown Jesus, the Gipper, seven Heisman Trophy winners, Knute Rockne, Rudy, and the Four Horsemen “outlined against a blue, gray October sky,” for the Huskies, this game is more about themselves than the 11-time-national-championship-winning program across the field today.

“It’s going to be a great game at home on national television, but it’s just another game,” sophomore linebacker Mason Foster said. “We’re 0-6, but I think we’re a lot better than that. We’ve got a lot of talent on this team, we’ve just got to pull together and keep playing hard.”

Aside from all the hoopla surrounding this week’s game against Notre Dame – the coach everyone assumes is going to get fired, the Notre Dame fans who enjoy watching Tyrone Willingham struggle because it further justifies their team’s decision to fire him four years ago – there’s a struggling football team just trying to win a football game.

That quest to end an eight-game losing streak, not the fact that Notre Dame is in town, is what makes this game important.

“It means a lot because it’s our next game,” said redshirt freshman quarterback Ronnie Fouch. “We’re 0-6 and this it’s the next game we play, so it means a lot to us.”

It’s not that players don’t understand or respect it the Notre Dame tradition, they’ve just got too many problems to fix without worrying about history. Of the 17 statistical categories kept by the NCAA for offense, defense and special teams, the Huskies rank 91st or worse out of 119 schools in 16 of them. Their No. 57 ranking in passing offense is the Huskies’ best in any category. Washington is in the bottom five nationally in rushing defense, total defense, scoring defense and kickoff returns, and ranks dead last in pass efficiency defense, sacks and tackles for loss.

After a 0-6 start that has featured three losses by 34 points or more, the 2008 Huskies could rival teams such as the 1-9 1969 team and the 1-10 2004 team for worst in program history. That history, not Notre Dame’s, is more relevant today to the Huskies.

“We don’t have an option not to keep going, but it definitely is really hard,” said fullback Luke Kravitz, a fifth-year senior who redshirted during that 2004 season.

“There is quite a bit of frustration, especially for us seniors. After 1-10 our freshman year, we didn’t think it would come full circle.”