UW stresses better coverage on passes

SEATTLE – Washington football coach Steve Sarkisian joked earlier this week that those who make college schedules should take into account styles of opponents.

“I wish scheduling were that easy,” he said, “that you could lump together the styles of play you are going to get in weeks at a time.”

Be careful what you wish for.

For the second time in as many games, UW will face a pass-happy offense that likes to spread the field and find holes in a defense. It could be said the Huskies’ pass defense has a second chance to make a first impression when UW plays host to Hawaii today.

“Thanks to Eastern (Washington), we can watch film and correct our mistakes,” senior defensive tackle Alameda Ta’amu said. “It’s a big challenge to us and our defense.”

The Huskies put an all-out attack on their leaky pass defense and are hoping that six days is enough time to plug the gaps.

An argument could be made that UW’s pass defense couldn’t be much worse than it was in the opener. The Huskies yielded 473 passing yards last week, the fourth-most given up by a UW defense.

Part of the renovation project had to do with motivation. Watching film of Saturday’s game lit a fire under the UW defenders heading into this week.

“They saw it,” defensive coordinator Nick Holt said. “It was really just a lack of energy and a lack of enthusiasm that was unfortunate. It made me sad. It should never happen. We were just kind of going through the motions … and playing too cautious instead of aggressive.”

Sarkisian said part of UW’s defensive improvement has to do with being more “sticky” in zone coverage.

“It’s going to be critical for us because (Hawaii) could become very similar (to EWU) if we allow the game to go that way,” he said. “Hopefully we can get (Hawaii) out of that mode (of) dinking and dunking down the field.”