Huskies’ Ta’amu looks forward to facing a running game

SEATTLE – The pass-happy, dink-and-dunk stylings of Eastern Washington and Hawaii might not have been best suited for University of Washington 337-pound defensive tackle Alameda Ta’amu.

Head coach Steve Sarkisian admitted as much after a narrow win over Eastern that saw the Eagles throw the ball 69 times.

“As a 340-pound nose tackle,” the coach said of his senior run stuffer, “that’s not your cup of tea.”

Maybe not. But it could be said that Saturday’s matchup with Nebraska is like an all-you-can-eat buffet.

“I can’t wait to play the run,” Ta’amu said this week. “I hope they run up the middle.” With a big smile, he added: “I’ll try to stop it.”

The last time the Huskies and Cornhuskers went to battle, Ta’amu did that and more. The 2010 Holiday Bowl may well have been the finest game of the defensive tackle’s career, and it’s a safe bet that the Cornhuskers noticed.

“Hopefully, they know about me,” Ta’amu said this week, more than eight months since he had a sack and a fumble recovery and helped set up a safety at the Holiday Bowl. “I feel they’re going to get after me this game, so I’m ready for it.”

In two meetings with the Cornhuskers last season, Ta’amu was ready only once. He was nearly nonexistent when Nebraska piled up 383 rushing yards in a blowout win over the Huskies last September, then controlled the line of scrimmage almost single-handedly in the Holiday Bowl win.

“When I was going into the game, I felt like they thought they were going to kill me in the middle like they did the first game,” he said of the latter performance. “I felt good. I wanted them to not expect what I had planned for them or how ready I was.”

This Nebraska team has an altered offense under new coordinator Tim Beck, but the Cornhuskers feature many of the same weapons as last season. The key once again will be how Ta’amu and the Huskies contain quarterback Taylor Martinez.

As a freshman last year, Martinez had 137 rushing yards and three touchdowns against UW. He’s already rushed for 301 yards in two games this season.

“The quarterback’s still fast – fast as hell,” Ta’amu said this week. “He’s crazy fast still. And their offensive linemen are still huge. So not much has changed. We’ve just got to get after them.”

The Huskies said the biggest difference between last year’s two meetings with Nebraska was that the UW defenders learned how to stay in their gaps. It’s been a well-worn mantra throughout the practice week and a focus again this week as UW prepares for another meeting with the Cornhuskers.

Ta’amu, who admits to falling out of his gaps in the September meeting with Nebraska, is focused on staying in his lanes this time – just like he did in the Holiday Bowl.

“I was doing my own job,” he said. “I wasn’t trying to make (teammates’) tackles.”

Now, after two weeks of watching quarterbacks fire off quick passes on three-step drops and rollouts, he’s ready to get down and dirty.

“I love playing the run,” he said, looking up toward a yardage scoreboard at Husky Stadium earlier this week. “It gets me mad if I look up at that board right there and see that the rushing yards are over 100.”