Pac-10’s struggles give the UW hope

Published 7:21 am Tuesday, September 16, 2008

SEATTLE — There’s an old saying that misery loves company.

A new saying — at least after the past weekend of college football — might be that the Mountain West Conference loves the company of Pac-10 football teams.

Both sayings seem apropos for the Pac-10 teams, including Washington, after Week 3.

While Washington spent its Saturday getting embarrassed by Oklahoma, much of the conference was having a similarly bad day, including four Pac-10 teams that lost to Mountain West opponents.

Oregon managed to come back and beat Purdue in double overtime, USC showed that there is at least one dominant team in the conference with a 35-3 win over fifth-ranked Ohio State, and Oregon State beat a Hawaii team that is a shadow of last year’s Fiesta Bowl squad, but for everyone else representing the supposed power conference out West, it was a rough day.

UCLA, a program two weeks removed from an emotional win over Tennessee, managed to look worse than Washington, losing 59-0 to BYU. Arizona State got caught looking ahead to this weekend’s showdown with Georgia, and lost to UNLV, while California looked flat on the road at Maryland. Stanford lost by 17 to TCU, Washington State took a beating at the hands of Baylor on Friday night, and 2-0 Arizona lost to 0-2 New Mexico.

Huskies cornerback Quinton Richardson started checking scores after his team’s 55-14 loss and thought to himself what so many other people have been saying, “Man, the Pac-10 didn’t do so good this week.”

Ted Miller, who covers the Pac-10 for ESPN, labeled the conference “USC and the Nine Dwarfs.” That may be a bit unfair to 17th-ranked Oregon, and, come to think of it, to dwarfs not wishing to be associated with the Pac-10, but it’s not too far off based on the Pac-10’s performance over the weekend.

And while a poor showing may be a bad thing for the conference as a whole, it could be a blessing for a struggling program like Washington.

For the Huskies, the upcoming Pac-10 schedule suddenly looks more manageable than it did a few days ago. After week 1, UCLA looked like a program on the rise. Two weeks later, the Bruins lost to BYU by 58 more points than did Washington. Are teams like Arizona and Stanford ready to climb the Pac-10 standings? It’s hard to say after their showings last week.

“It kind of spelled out, I think, what I knew, that clearly the best team in our league right now is USC, and that’s pretty clear to everyone, but the rest of the teams, we have a chance if we get our act together and start doing the things that we can do to compete and win against those teams,” Washington coach Tyrone Willingham said when asked about the conference’s struggles. “Now that’s easily said, and as we know on Saturday afternoons it’s much harder to do, but I think the weekend said that.”

Granted, the Huskies can’t overlook anybody on their schedule — programs that have lost 18 of 23 games shouldn’t overlook anyone — but seeing what happened over the weekend should at least remind them that their upcoming opponents are beatable.

“It just shows you that anything is possible,” sophomore linebacker Mason Foster said. “Games change that quick. It just lets you know that you’ve got to come with it every week, because you never know what’s going to happen.”

Where was Kavario? That was the question many fans wanted to know Saturday as freshman tight end Kavario Middleton went without a reception after catching four passes in each of the Huskies’ first two games. Middleton saw less playing time because senior tight end Michael Gottlieb was back from a hamstring injury, but Willingham said he hopes both players can factor into Washington’s future plans without hindering Middleton’s growth.

“I think obviously that Kavario showed himself very well early, but we recognize that there is still a lot of growing and learning that he has to do,” Willingham said. “But I think there will be enough snaps for us to give both of those guys what they need to help our football team, and that will be the goal, without retarding his progress.”

Injury report: Cornerback Quinton Richardson (knee contusion) and receiver Jordan Polk (ankle) were the only players who left Saturday’s game with injuries, and Polk was able to return. Willingham expects both to be fine for Washington’s next game.

It is still unknown if injured safeties Victor Aiyeway (groin) and Jason Wells (knee), or cornerback Byron Davenport (ankle) will be ready to play after the bye week.

Players of the week: Receiver D’Andre Goodwin, who had nine catches for 82 yards, was named Washington’s offensive player of the week, becoming the first Husky other than Jake Locker to win the award this season. Linebacker Mason Foster, who had nine tackles, including eight solo tackles, earned defensive honors. Paul Homer was honored for his play on special teams.

Service team players of the week were Chris Izbicki, Cort Dennison, and Kamiak High School graduate Justin Glenn.

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