Locker was good, not perfect

Published 12:09 am Sunday, November 25, 2007

SEATTLE — More than 30 minutes after playing in his first Apple Cup, Jake Locker sat surrounded by reporters, still wearing his football pants and cleats, clearly disappointed with the end result.

Playing for the first time since leaving Oregon State’s Reser Stadium in an ambulance two weeks ago, Locker was in many ways — both good and bad — back to his old self.

Locker ran like he always has, using his speed, agility and strength to rush for 103 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries. He outran the defense for a 23-yard touchdown on one play, and faked out half the WSU defense — OK, it was only four defenders — on another to pick up 11 yards when he looked like he might get tackled for a loss.

Locker also struggled with his accuracy, something that has been problematic at times this season, completing just 12 of 35 attempts for 224 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.

To be fair, the low completion percentage wasn’t all Locker’s fault. His receivers dropped at least five passes, including a bobble by Michael Gottlieb that resulted in the first interception. The second interception was on a desperation heave on the last play of the game. Still, Locker wasn’t happy with the way he threw the ball.

“I missed a couple of throws I should have made,” he said.

Locker said the neck injury wasn’t on his mind Saturday night.

“When you played scared, thinking about past occurrences, that’s when you’re going to ease up a bit and find yourself injured on the field,” he said. “You’ve got to go all out all the time. That stuff happens. I don’t think you can play tentative or scared.”

Locker now has 12 rushing touchdowns, which ties the team record for the most by a quarterback. With his 910 rushing yards, he has the most rushing yards for a quarterback in modern Pac-10 history. He also broke the school record for rushing yards by a freshman.

“He was unbelievable,” said offensive coordinator Tim Lappano. “He made some tremendous runs, made some tremendous scrambles. He wasn’t as accurate as we wanted, we wanted him to hit some more of those shots, but nobody’s perfect. He played pretty good.”

Disappointing day: The Huskies honored their 22 departing seniors before Saturday’s game, and for those players the final outcome was particularly disappointing.

“It sucks, man,” said defensive tackle Jordan Reffett. “There’s really nothing else I can say.”

After the game, the Husky locker room was “like a morgue,” said junior linebacker E.J. Savannah. “It was like someone died. You never want to send your seniors out this way. We sent our seniors out the wrong way.”

Wide receiver Anthony Russo, another senior, said the locker room atmosphere was one of “disappointment, of course. We don’t want to lose to the Cougars and we did. We gave that one away. We had it in our hands and we gave it away. We definitely played hard, but we gave it away.”

“I feel bad for the seniors,” said UW defensive coordinator Kent Baer. “Geez, they’ve put so much into this program, going through a couple of head coaches (Keith Gilbertson and Willingham). So it’s frustrating. … How do you feel good when you lose the game?”

Man on the run: Washington’s Louis Rankin returned the opening kickoff 89 yards for a touchdown, making it the 16th-longest kickoff return in UW history and the longest ever by a Husky against Washington State.

It was also the first kickoff return for a TD in six seasons for Washington, and the first time the Huskies have taken the opening kickoff back for a touchdown since 1997.

That jaunt made up for a rather modest rushing day by Rankin, who last week rambled for 224 yards on 21 carries in a 37-23 win against California. On Saturday, Rankin managed 74 yards on 23 attempts (3.1 average) with no touchdowns.

Record in sight: Rankin has a chance to set a UW single-season all-purpose yardage record in next weekend’s game at Hawaii. With 184 all-purpose yards (rushing, receiving, all returns) against WSU, Rankin has 2,146 for the 2007 season.

Washington’s all-time mark is 2,356, set by Corey Dillon in 1996. Rankin needs 211 all-purpose yards against Hawaii to establish a new record.

One game to go: Despite the disappointment of Saturday’s loss, Willingham said he is looking forward to taking his team to Hawaii for next weekend’s game against the Warriors.

“I think there are a lot of good things to draw from this (road trip),” he said. “We’ve got an opportunity to recover some of the things that we’ve lost this year. And we’ve got an opportunity to play a football game in December.

“When you start playing in December, usually good things are happening and we want to start recognizing that.”

No bad blood: Though fans from the two teams sometimes get overly riled, Saturday’s game was generally a sporting affair. There was no slew of personal foul penalties and no ejections.

Maybe a lot of that comes from the coaches at both schools.

“The best friends I have in coaching are on the UW staff, other than the ones on our staff,” said Cougars head coach Bill Doba. “Randy Hart (Washington’s defensive line coach) and all those guys, they’re good people.”

After the game, he went on, “I was so happy that there wasn’t any trash talking. There was mutual respect. The kids came together and prayed (at midfield), and there weren’t fans trashing anybody. I’m proud of our fans. I thought they won with grace and dignity, and that’s what this program has always been about.”

Doba wants to stay: Somebody had to ask. Here was WSU coach Bill Doba, basking in his last-minute victory over Washington in the 100th Apple Cup. He was smiling. He was joking. He was happy.

But a rumbling, dissatisfied group of alumni and boosters had been demanding Doba’s job after several straight losing seasons and a 2007 record of 5-7. The rumors have been rampant for weeks that Apple Cup would be Doba’s last game as head coach. Athletic director Jim Sterk would commit to nothing.

So the question went to Doba: Will he be back next year for his sixth season?

“I’m not going to resign,” he said. “I sure hope I’m back next year, although it won’t be here; it’ll be over in Pullman.”