UW needs ‘to learn how to win’

SEATTLE – The first important thing to remember is the way it felt last season.

The Huskies were 1-10, the worst record in school history and an absolute embarrassment for a program that prides itself so deeply in its tradition.

One-and-10 is a slap. It’s 10 weeks of insult. It’s 10 weeks of desperately trying to summon the energy to renew hope at the beginning of the week, only to be slapped again come game day.

That is the perspective you see from UW center Brad Vanneman, who played every single game and played every single week of a 1-10 season.

So you have to understand his hurt, along with the hurt of his teammates following Saturday’s season-opening, 20-17 defeat to Air Force.

“I’m tired of these stupid-ass losses,” he said.

Saturday’s was a different type of defeat. It felt different. It tasted different. In stark contrast to almost the entirety of last season, the Huskies appeared in control in the fourth quarter.

They had it. They lost it. And they were kicking themselves afterward.

Isaiah Stanback had just hooked up with Cody Ellis for a 27-yard TD pass to go up 17-6. The crowd – if 26,482 at Qwest Field can be called a crowd – was amped and raucous. The Falcons were pinned back at their 1-yard line thanks to a botched kickoff “return” by Greg Kirkwood, a senior receiver from Othello.

It was there for the taking, the first Husky victory since a 21-6 win over horrid San Jose State last Oct. 9.

All they needed to do was to hang on for 10 more minutes.

Victory seemed especially attainable Saturday, given the way the Huskies played. Last season’s nation-leading 42 turnovers, or nearly one every quarter of play, seemed a distant memory. Saturday’s Huskies didn’t lose a turnover. Zero.

Stanback, who completed just 34 percent of his throws last year, seemed a different guy in a performance in which he completed 19 for 27 passes for 242 yards and a TD.

Stanback played with discipline and intelligence – again, a shuttle launch away from the unprepared, panicked kid who ran when he shouldn’t have because he had neither confidence in his throwing arm nor sufficient mental grasp of the offense.

“It’s just working hard in the off-season and preparing myself to play,” Stanback said. “I used to put a lot of pressure on myself to make plays. When it’s my turn to make plays, I will use my legs, but I’m a quarterback, so I have to throw the ball first.”

In that same vein, the Husky running game seemed back after a long absence.

Third-year sophomore Louis Rankin, who totaled 35 yards on eight carries all last season, slashed and powered his way to 112 yards on 23 carries against the Falcons.

Unlike the Rankin who showed up at preseason camp two years ago as a freshman overflowing with false confidence and caring only about Louis Rankin, this one showed his maturity.

“We lost the game, so I guess that (his personal day) wasn’t enough,” he said Saturday.

The 2005 Huskies, the team coach Ty Willingham is busy transforming, are learning to crawl, a necessary step before they take on the more advanced skill of walking. They have much to learn before they’ll be ready to compete evenly with the USCs of the world.

Saturday’s defeat was a lesson on putting away an opponent they had on the ropes. It was a lesson on the way to close out a game, about going in for the kill.

Safety Dashon Goldson learned the importance of making the tackle before making the attempt to strip the ball from a foe. That’s what Goldson didn’t do when Kirkwood burned him and Josh Okoebor for an 84-yard TD catch that cut the Husky margin to 17-13 in the fourth quarter.

“I’ll never do that again,” Goldson said.

They have to learn to make crucial plays when absolutely needed, as the defense didn’t do on too many third-and-long and fourth-down situations. It has to fight through fatigue, which slowed the defense as a result of long Air Force drives of 16, 14, 13, 13 and nine plays.

“We have to learn how to win,” linebacker Joe Lobendahn said. “We had it in our hands. We felt it. Touched it. We just have to finish. We have to learn how to win.”

Against the Falcons, Washington showed how far it has come. It also showed how far it has to go.

It was a different kind of defeat, light years from the ones last season in which the Huskies were rarely competitive.

But it was a defeat nonetheless.

“This is one of the tougher losses I’ve ever experienced, even with the dismal season we had last year,” Vanneman said. “It’s because I know how much better we are as a team. We’re going to win a lot of football games this year. There’s no doubt about that.

“It’s just frustrating to play that hard and to feel like you’re doing something right and still not win.”