This Dawg isn’t afraid to get into a scrap
Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, September 4, 2001
By John Sleeper
Herald Writer
SEATTLE – It was Greg Carothers’ first start in a Washington Husky uniform that Nov. 4, 2000 night and he was as nervous as a recruit’s first day in boot camp.
Carothers was a 19-year-old freshman, four months out of Capital High School in Helena, Mont. All week, he and his teammates had relived the heartbreak of seeing their rock, Curtis Williams, go down with a spinal cord injury against Stanford the previous Saturday.
Not only did Carothers spend the week praying and wishing for his friend’s recovery, he was the one fielding the seemingly endless questions of how in the world he was going to go about the task of replacing him.
The team was supposed to have been preparing for Arizona to come into Husky Stadium. Lord knows, they tried, but their hearts were with Williams. And while they publicly expressed confidence that Williams would make a complete recovery, they knew the severity of the injury.
So that was what was facing the Huskies. Carothers, a freshman, was asked to replace a senior, a leader in the secondary. And for every single one of the UW defenders that night against the Wildcats, football – the savagery required to play it – placed a poor second to Williams’ condition.
“I came into that game and I knew the other people were scared,” Carothers said. “There was a lot of arm tackling going on. I knew that was the way it was going to be. I knew I had to come in there and make something happen. I had to be aggressive. If you’re going to replace a hitter, you’ve got to be a hitter.”
The hit came early in the second quarter on running back Larry Croom. With the Wildcats holding a 9-7 lead, Croom slid past the initial wave of defenders on his way to a 7-yard gain when Carothers flew in from his free safety position and hurled his body into Croom, 25 pounds heavier.
The Husky Stadium crowd of 70,441 hesitated in a group inhaling, then let out a roar. Carothers’ teammates mobbed him. Croom lay on the FieldTurf, then slowly got to his feet and trotted gingerly to the sidelines, not to return.
“That got us going,” safeties coach Bobby Hauck said. “Guys weren’t flying around. We really found ourselves in a little bit of trouble. He made a big hit, a big play and really got us going. We played a lot better after that.”
Carothers, 6-2, 205, has made his reputation as a fearsome hitter, as did Williams. Thrust into a starting position under the worst possible circumstances, Carothers was forced to learn on the fly. Sometimes, he made mistakes. But they were mistakes of aggression.
Carothers’ hole card came in the form of strong safety Hakim Akbar, who would later be drafted in the fifth round by the New England Patriots. Not only did Akbar willingly take on the role of teacher, he also recognized that Carothers and Williams had many of the same traits, especially when it came to hitting.
“I loved the bond I had with Ak,” Carothers said. “Pretty soon, we were just making calls out there with each other and not having to talk all the way through. We just knew how the other was going to play and we could play off each other a lot. That helped out a lot.”
Carothers’ performance in the Rose Bowl shows how much. By then, Carothers was a confident player, a dynamic safety who preserved the Huskies’ 34-24 victory with a monster hit on Purdue tailback Montrell Lowe.
With the Huskies leading 27-17 early in the fourth quarter, Lowe took a pitch from Drew Brees and gained three yards before Carothers slammed into him. The ball squirted loose and Carothers recovered it. Washington went on to score a touchdown seven plays later to seal the game.
But even that experience, Carothers said, means little today. Hauck is quick to point out that, as a sophomore, Carothers has just four games’ worth of playing time. And although it makes him the grizzled veteran among the Husky safeties, it also means Carothers has much to learn.
Certainly, Michigan will know all about that by Saturday.
“I really don’t feel like a veteran,” he said. “There have been some changes in the off-season and I’m picking up on those, just like everybody else is. The one advantage I have, I guess, is that I have playing experience. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to play with people like Curtis and Ak. It made it a lot easier. But I don’t feel like a veteran at all.”
