SEATTLE – Their pride was a little bruised, to say the least. Expected to be the strength of this year’s University of Washington team, the Huskies’ defensive front seven instead got pushed around by a huge, talented California offensive line. No pass rush meant an easy passing day for the Golden Bears, and that meant a humiliating 56-17 loss.
Washington decided that wasn’t going to happen again, and definitely not against an Idaho team that had shown it could pass, but was still Idaho. So the Huskies coaches turned to the team’s best player, defensive tackle Manase Hopoi, and told him to lead the way.
Did he ever.
Hopoi, a candidate for the Outland Trophy as the nation’s top lineman, was unleashed against the Vandals, sacking quarterback Steven Wichman four times. He led a defensive effort that finished with eight sacks and 12 tackles for loss.
It was quite a jump for a unit that coming into the game had only four sacks and six tackles for loss.
“We did some good things,” defensive coordinator Kent Baer said. “We tried to put guys in position where they would have success, and the guys ran with it.”
For Hopoi, he became the third player to record four sacks in a game for UW, and first since 1989 (two others have had five in a game but none since 1983. For the team, it was the most sacks since 2002 against Wyoming.
Oh, and along the way, Washington held Idaho to minus 4 yards rushing, the fewest by an opponent since 1997.
Washington coach Tyrone Willingham said he asked Hopoi to step up his leadership this week in practice.
“The entire group played well,” Willingham said. “But we asked him as one of our seniors to be one of our leaders. And I think he embraced that. I think he was excited about having a little more focus placed on him and he really stepped up.”
If anyone was capable of stepping up, it was the 290-pound senior from Sacramento, Calif. Last season, Hopoi led the Pacific-10 Conference with 22 tackles for loss and led the Huskies with nine sacks. He now needs 41/2 sacks to break Ron Holmes’ school career record.
He said he took his coaches’ plea seriously.
“I took it a lot to heart,” Hopoi said. “At practice, I was trying to be more physical, have more enthusiasm. I have been trying to get my team to follow, and I think I challenged them. I was trying to make plays in practice and everyone was trying to make plays. I was making plays in the game and everyone was trying to make plays. It’s contagious. And I think a lot of players look up to me. I was just trying to lead them in the right way.”
Other players did follow. Donny Mateaki had his first two sacks of the year and Caesar Rayford had one too. Wilson Afoa tied for the team lead with seven tackles, two for loss.
“He’s got so much talent and everybody knows it,” Baer said of Hopoi. “He stepped up in practice a little bit and became more of a vocal leader. When he turns it on, he’s as good as there is.”
Hopoi had sacks on back-to-back plays in the first quarter, and a Mateaki sack late in the second quarter on third-and-goal from the UW 3-yard line forced Idaho to kick a field goal. On the first drive of the third quarter, Mateaki had another sack and two plays later, Mike Mapuolesega blocked a punt, leading to a Husky touchdown that gave UW a 24-3 advantage. Holding a 27-3 lead, Hopoi had a sack and Afoa made a tackle for loss that got the ball back to UW and led to another touchdown.
“Everybody stepped up,” Mateaki said. ” (Hopoi) got us all together and asked us to step up and we followed him. Once one guy makes a play, everybody else wants to.”
“This is how we should play every time,” Hopoi said. “We just need to go after the ball and make plays happen. When we make plays happen, everyone gets going. We always feel if we can win the game up front, we should win the game. That’s what happened today.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
