Monday notes

Published 6:10 pm Monday, September 24, 2007

Coming off a pair of losses, the Huskies don’t get a reprieve this weekend, as top-ranked USC comes to Seattle.

Players and Tyrone Willingham talked to the media today, and all obviously feel like they will have their hands full Saturday night.

Here’s what Willingham had to say to open his press conference today:

“Obviously we’re a little disappointed from the weekend. The goal was to win, we wanted to do that, and we came up short in a lot of areas. What we’ve got to do is put our nose right back to the grindstone, see if we can correct the areas that we had mistakes in, and got out and get a victory this weekend against what is obviously the best in the country. And from what little bit I’ve been able to see of them so far, they are a better team than they were a year ago in almost every aspect.”

Willingham wasn’t the only one throwing around praise Monday, as USC coach Pete Carroll joined the long list of coaches impresses by Jake Locker.

“I can’t help but just be totally attracted by what Jake’s done,” said Carroll. “He is really, really an outstanding football player for a first-time-around freshman.”

Asked about his performance in the passing game Saturday, Locker felt like things went pretty well in the fourth quarter, but that things didn’t go so well in the first three quarters.

“I felt like that last quarter really kind of propelled our passing game. I felt like it was good for us, gave us some confidence, something to work for. We moved the ball well in that last part of the game there, and I felt like we executed the passing game pretty well. As for the rest of the game, I don’t think we did very well at all,” he said.

Monday is also the day depth charts come out, and the only change this week is that Byron Davenport is now listed as a possible starter at cornerback along with Vonzell McDowell Jr. and Matt Mosley. McDowell started Washington’s first three games, but Mosley got the start against UCLA. Davenport, who missed almost all of Washington’s first three games with hamstring injuries, played most of the second half Saturday at the cornerback spot opposite Roy Lewis, so there’s a good chance he will start against USC if his health is not an issue.

Also here are the links to today’s stories in The Herald about Saturday’s game. Like I mentioned before, the late game kept us from getting much coverage in Sunday’s paper, so I followed up today with a story about the team’s defensive struggles, and a column about Locker.

For news on USC, you can turn to the same paper’s that cover UCLA. Here’s link to the L.A. Daily News’ UCS coverage, and here’s the L.A. Times’ coverage.