SEATTLE — In a game of mostly mishaps and miscues for the University of Washington football team, the play of wide receiver D’Andre Goodwin on Saturday was a silver lining of sorts.
Goodwin, a sophomore, had five catches for 136 yards, contributing almost half of the aerial yards Washington managed in a 34-13 loss to Oregon State at Husky Stadium.
“I go into every week thinking I can have a big game,” said Goodwin, who suffered a rib injury three weeks ago against Stanford and played just one snap against Arizona two weeks ago before last week’s bye. “I had fun making plays and having my first 100-yard game.
“But at the same time, I’m more worried about winning the game,” he said. “I don’t care if I have two catches for 5 yards. If we win the game, I’m happy. I’d rather have the W.”
Goodwin is one of the team’s smallest receivers — he stands just 5 feet 11 inches and weighs 175 pounds — but he is also the fastest. He is, in fact, the speediest player on the roster, having been electronically timed in the 40-yard dash in 4.32 seconds.
That kind of speed makes him a genuine deep threat, but he wants to be more than a one-dimensional wideout.
“I feel I can be a possession receiver, go for the big plays, and then catch something short and make people miss,” he said. “I’m trying to be a complete receiver where I can do all those things.”
Against the Beavers, Goodwin’s total could have been — and probably should have been — in excess of 200 yards. Instead, he had two terrific receptions taken away.
The first came on Washington’s third play from scrimmage in the game’s opening moments. On a deep route, Goodwin had a few steps on the secondary but then had to come back and wrestle an underthrown ball away from a defender for an apparent 51-yard gain. It was an outstanding play, but one that went for naught because the Huskies were flagged for offensive holding — apparently not a questionable call because two officials threw flags for the same infraction.
Later in the first quarter, Goodwin made an apparent catch on the sideline in front of the Washington bench. Though Goodwin had possession and appeared to have at least one foot inbounds before falling out of bounds, the officials nearest the play ruled he did not.
The Huskies challenged the play, which would have resulted in a gain of about 25 yards, but the replay official would not overturn the call.
“I thought I was inbounds,” Goodwin said. “I actually thought I had two feet in. I thought I had possession of the ball and I got my feet down.”
“I thought it was a catch,” said UW offensive coordinator Tim Lappano, who was standing only a few feet away at the time. “I thought his left foot was in. I was the one that told (UW head coach Tyrone Willingham) to challenge. And (the assistant coaches) upstairs said he was in.”
If Goodwin had those two catches, he would have become only the sixth UW receiver in history to finish with over 200 yards in one game. The others are Dave Williams (257, 1965), Andre Riley (223, 1989), Charles Frederick (216, 2003), Darryl Franklin (209, 1987) and Reggie Williams (203, 2001).
“I thought D’Andre had a heck of a night,” Willingham said. “Getting him back and getting him healthy was a plus in the lineup.”
The Huskies, Lappano said, went into the game expecting to go deep often against Oregon State. The Beavers like to play their safeties 9 or 10 yards from the line of scrimmage to support their run defense, he said, but that makes them vulnerable to long throws.
“If we could’ve protected our quarterback better, we could’ve scored a lot of points against them,” he sighed. “That was our whole game plan. We hit a lot of them, but a lot of times we didn’t have time to get (the pass off). … We weren’t able to make it pay enough like I wanted to. I thought we really could’ve taken advantage of that.”
Goodwin, Lappano added, “is going to get better all the time. He made some great plays. … I like him. He makes some good plays and he competes.”
Despite their youth, the Huskies have a promising stable of wide receivers. Goodwin is one of the veterans as a redshirt sophomore. Alvin Logan is a redshirt freshman, and Devin Aguilar (who had five catches for 73 yards against Oregon State), Jermaine Kearse and Jordan Polk are all true freshmen.
“Some of those young guys are doing some good things,” Lappano said.
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