The optimist in me says, this was a nice game for the Huskies, and could be a sign of good things to come in the next two weeks and next season. The pessimist, however, asks, “Where has this been all year?” I couldn’t help but watch this game and think that the same effort would have led to at least two or three more wins. Perhaps that’s just what you get with a young team still trying to figure out how to win. Moving on. Here are a few final numbers.
The Huskies finished with 442 total yards to Cal’s 383. The Huskies gained 334 yards on the ground, led by the 224-yard effort of Louis Rankin. Freshman Brandon Johnson also had 121 yards on 23 carries, including 53 yards on the final drive on which he carried eight straight times as time ran out.
Carl Bonnell didn’t put up any big numbers filling in for Locker—seven for 19 for 108 with one TD—but the most important number in his stat line was zero, as in his number of turnovers. Remember, it was Bonnell who threw five picks against Cal last year in his first start in place of an injured Isaiah Stanback, an overtime loss to the Bears.
It looks like this might be it for him. Offensive coordinator Tim Lappano said after the game that Locker “Will be ready to go next week. It’ll be impossible to keep him out.”
If this was it for Bonnell, at least he went out with a positive memory.
“It’s huge. Being the backup as a senior, you don’t really know what your history is going to look like. You’d like to be able to look back and say, ‘I did some things.’ And I don’t think I really got to that point, so today is awesome. I’ll look back the rest of my life at the Cal game and say hey, ‘we beat a tough team at home under tough circumstances.’ So it’s something that I’ll keep with me the rest of my life. That’s something I was looking forward to and we did it.”
Rankin’s big day put him over 1,000 yards, making him the first Husky to do that in 10 years. Getting to 1,000 has been a big point of pride for the offensive line.
“As offensive linemen, we hardly get any recognition, so just knowing that your running back is running good, that means you’re doing your job,” said center Juan Garcia. “I give a lot of the credit to him. He has to run the ball, and he’s been running hard and good lately. I’m just excited right now that we’ve got a 1,000-yard rusher. Just the fact that I can say I’m an O-lineman that got a 1,000-yard rusher.
“Just knowing that he can be up there in the record books, people probably won’t remember me later on in the years, but I know that I blocked for that guy, and that’s all I need to know.”
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