Tough schedule? Huskies relish challenge

Published 11:38 pm Wednesday, August 29, 2007

SEATTLE Marcel Reese smiled when he first saw the schedule.

That’s what he said, anyway.

And with a straight face, the budding star wide receiver for the Washington Huskies said he believes the team will shock more than a few people, playing what most publications see as the nation’s toughest schedule. He even mentioned the possibility of knocking off all 13 opponents. “National championship” escaped Reese’s lips.

“I mean it,” Reese said. “I mean it in all sincerity and with all my heart.”

Give Reese credit for positive thinking, although in this part of the season, all 118 NCAA Division I team have similar sentiments.

But look at this: After Friday’s game, three times zones away in Syracuse, the Huskies have No. 24 Boise State and No. 11 Ohio State at home; go to No. 14 UCLA; and host top-ranked USC. On the horizon: No. 12 Cal at always-friendly Berkeley and a season-ending vacation at No. 23 Hawaii, which happens to have Colt Brennan, considered by some to be the best quarterback in the nation.

Unranked foes are Oregon, Arizona and Washington State all played at Husky Stadium and Stanford and Oregon State, both road games.

Forget the conventional thinking about non-conference schedule-making, the one that says a school should schedule one top-flight program, one that’s middle of the road and one comparative punching bag.

This, though, is a schedule that gets coaches fired. It’s one that lands players on the injury list. Reese can say the Huskies can win a national title with this piece of work if players do what the coaching staff tells them to do, but they also have to get through it and stay upright.

Six teams ranked in the top 25? Four in the top 15? USC? Nine bowl teams from last season, including three teams that landed in BCS bowls?

Has coach Tyrone Willingham lost his mind?

“Athletes like playing big-time football games,” said Willingham, now in his third season as the boss. “We’ve got big-time football games on the schedule. We love this kind of challenge.”

Yes, Tyrone, but “challenge” is one thing. “Severe concussion” is another.

The punch line, of course, is that the Huskies tried to soften the schedule. Originally, Oklahoma was to have come to Husky Stadium to fulfill a home-hand-home series. An Oklahoma-Ohio State-UCLA-USC lineup, however, was deemed excessive by UW officials. So who do they put in the Sooners’ place? Boise State, which beat OU last season in the Fiesta Bowl.

None of this, of course, fazes the players. None, anyway, will admit it.

“It’s exciting to play the best,” Reese said. “You can’t be the best unless you play the best. That’s what we’re going to do this year.”

The temptation is to give Reese a saliva test, but then you’d have to do the same to virtually every player. Credit Willingham and the coaching staff. They’ve got the kids believing.

“We’ve just got to go out and play hard,” free safety Jason Wells said. “Anybody who underrates us, we just have to go out there and show them otherwise.”

“Everyone is using it as motivation and an opportunity to shine,” defensive end Greyson Gunheim said. “It sets a big stage for us. Everyone is happy about it. No one is thinking about it as a negative.”

OK, but here’s the thing. Yes, Jake Locker is one of the most heavily recruited quarterbacks ever at Washington, but he’s still a redshirt freshman and will make redshirt freshman mistakes. What’s more, starting cornerback Vonzell McDowell is 5-foot-9 and a true freshman. What’s more, this team couldn’t beat Stanford at Husky Stadium last year. What’s more …

“We’re excited about it,” Locker insists. “It will tell us about our team, what we can do and what our potential is.”

The prevailing feeling among observers of the Huskies is that they could be much improved over last season, but the schedule might well prevent them from approaching last year’s 5-7 mark. There’s an upgrade of talent, but victory-hungry alumni and boosters won’t care if it doesn’t result in an upgrade in the win-loss ledger.

“That’s always possible,” Willingham said. “We have one of the toughest schedules in the country. I think our guys are really excited about that. It’s a challenge. It’s an opportunity.”

Let’s see how excited they are after Sept. 29.

That’s the USC game, on the heels of Boise State, Ohio State and UCLA.

Sports columnist John Sleeper: sleeper@heraldnet.com