SEATTLE After two games, two victories, a defense that’s given up 22 points, an offense that’s scored 66, one thing’s certain about the University of Washington football team.
When it comes to the Huskies, we know next to nothing.
They’re a mystery.
An enigma.
Are they better? They certainly look it. At virtually every position, they’re faster than any of coach Tyrone Willingham’s first two UW teams. They tackle better. They make big plays at a faster rate. They make fewer mistakes. They’re more experienced.
But how good are they?
Don’t expect helpful hints from the Huskies. Someone asked tailback Louis Rankin whether Washington should crack the Top 25. Rankin only smiled. He probably wanted to laugh. In Camp Willingham, such speculation is welcomed as merrily as pulled hammies.
“I don’t know and I don’t care about the rankings,” Rankin said. “We just go out there and play to win.”
The 42-12 season-opening abuse at Syracuse led to few concrete conclusions, just because the Orange are so off-the-charts flawed, both in terms of personnel and workable schemes.
Saturday’s 24-10 home victory against No. 22 Boise State had to be more gratifying, if only because the Broncos, though hardly the same team that captured America’s hearts with last season’s sizzling Fiesta Bowl win over Oklahoma, still possess many of the same weapons.
“We’re still growing and hopefully, there’s some potential with this football team, that there are some good things that we possibly can do,” Willingham said. “But if we believe that today is the be-all, end-all, we’ll have made a very serious mistake.”
Forget that Washington beat a top-25 team. At this point of the season, rankings mean even less than presidential-candidate polls. More telling will be Saturday’s game against Ohio State, annually one of the nation’s most potent collections of scholar-athletes.
Just who are the Huskies, anyway?
Are they the team that rolled up 24 points against the Broncos in the first half, or are they the team that went scoreless and converted just four first downs in the second?
Are they the team that turned two Bronco turnovers and a 21-yard punt into 21 points in the first half, or the one that could manage just 16 yards off a pair of interceptions in the second?
So far, they’ve been all of the above, which doesn’t tell us much at all, especially in terms of a game-long, consistent trend.
Or maybe it tells us of puzzling inconsistency, which didn’t hurt the Huskies against Syracuse or Boise State, but is bound to Saturday against the Buckeyes. Others on the nation’s toughest schedule, namely USC, UCLA, Cal and Hawaii, will be equally intolerant of Washington’s foibles.
Where’s a cupcake like Michigan when you need it?
But we digress. Washington’s defense showed admirable mettle against a Boise State offense that thrives on playing with the mind by employing a boatload of atypical sets. Accordingly, Huskies defensive coordinator Kent Baer said last week’s practices, more than any other in his three seasons here, involved more intensive game preparation, simply because of the Broncos’ many different looks.
“They throw a lot of formations and a lot of shifts, things like that,” UW defensive tackle Jordan Reffett said. “You try not to feel overloaded. You try not to get wrapped up in the number of things you have to watch out for. You’ve just got to get back to your technique and how you’re going to play. By doing that, you’ll be fine as long as you’re going 100 percent all the time.”
Yet, as many gimmick formations Boise State tries, the core of its offense is its running game, led by 6-foot-6, 315-pound Playboy All America tackle Ryan Clady and Heisman Trophy candidate runner Ian Johnson.
Johnson ran for 81 yards on 20 carries. His longest gain was 15 yards.
“I think we could have done better,” Reffett said. “That’s always the feeling after a game. We won and that’s the most important thing.”
If the Huskies can say that against the Buckeyes Saturday, we’ll know vastly more about them.
Sports columnist John Sleeper: sleeper@heraldnet.com
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