Can Stanford remedy struggling running game?

Published 11:23 pm Tuesday, September 23, 2008

SEATTLE — There is plenty about last season’s 4-9 campaign that Washington football players and coaches would love to forget, but one moment they would all love to recapture is the team’s rushing success against Stanford.

In a 27-9 victory last season, the Huskies rolled up 388 rushing yards, including 255 by Louis Rankin and 97 by Jake Locker. That game was a season-high for a team that averaged 203.1 rushing yards per game, the No. 2 total in the Pac-10 last season.

So far this year, the Huskies haven’t been nearly as successful running the ball, averaging 105 yards per game and 2.8 yards per carry. The Huskies hope Stanford’s visit to Seattle can help rejuvenate a struggling rushing game, but they also know that last year’s success guarantees nothing this time around.

“It’s not going to go away that we rushed for 388 yards against Stanford, but at the same point and time, in this business it’s what have you done for me lately, and we haven’t done it lately, and we have to do it,” offensive coordinator Tim Lappano said. “Can we do it? Yeah, but we have to go out and do it. Last year was great, we did a good job, but this is a new year and we’ve got to go out and put it together. Now’s a good time to do it.”

The Huskies will certainly get some of their rushing offense from Locker, but they also hope to get more production out of the tailback position after watching Locker lead the team in rushing each of the first three games.

“We need to run the ball better to win,” said freshman tailback David Freeman, who gained 42 yards on nine carries making his starting debut against Oklahoma.

Freeman is aware of Rankin’s success last season, but isn’t worried about matching those numbers this week.

“I see that as a great accomplishment on his behalf, and hopefully I get to do the same thing, but I’m just interested in winning the game,” he said. “So if I don’t get as many rushing yards as him, it doesn’t matter as long as we win.”

Lappano said the team had a productive three days of practice last week, seeing improvement from both the line and the running backs.

“We got a lot out of our run game,” he said. “We scrimmaged three days last week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and we ran the ball pretty good against our defense. I think we got better. We ran the ball pretty well, were physical up front and I think all of our runners did a nice job. We rotated a number of guys through there and I thought they all did a nice job.”

Of note

Back to school

Today marks the first day of class at the University of Washington, meaning busier days ahead for the Huskies.

The biggest adjustment, of course, comes for freshmen who up to this point have only had to worry about playing football.

“Well I’m lucky because I graduated in June, so I only have a couple of classes, but for the freshmen, the first couple of weeks are tough,” said cornerback Mesphin Forrester. “You’ve got to find your classes and it’s just totally different than high school. But coach Willingham sets it up where we get it. He sets up a plan, and if you follow it, you’ll be all right.”

Who will kick?

Special teams coach Brian White said the place kicking job is still up for grabs, and will be decided later this week. Both Ryan Perkins and Jared Ballman missed field goals last week, with Ballman missing two long attempts and Perkins missing a short one. Perkins could remain the place kicker with Ballman taking long attempts, or Ballman could win the job outright.

“We did a lot of extra work in the off week and we certainly have to remedy that, because we’re leaving too many points on the field,” White said.

Erik Folk, who has a hip injury, was on crutches at Tuesday’s practice and is not in the mix right now.

Quite Noble

Freshman defensive lineman Craig Noble, who had been home in California while clearing some academic hurdles, is now in Seattle and eligible. Noble, a 6-foot-3, 300-pound tackle, was expected to compete right away for playing time, but it is now unknown if he play this year or redshirt.

Contact Herald Writer John Boyle at jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more on University of Washington sports, check out the Huskies blog at heraldnet.com /huskiesblog