SEATTLE – University of Washington football coach Keith Gilbertson was asked where he should start in order to fix what’s wrong with his team.
Nevada, a middling WAC bunch that mustered just 28 points in its last two games against SMU and UNLV, had equaled that total in one gray, drizzling, dreary Saturday afternoon at Husky Stadium in beating the Huskies, 28-17.
For Washington, it was less a football game than it was a Little Shop of Horrors. The Huskies allowed three blocked field goals. They fumbled five times, losing three. Quarterback Cody Pickett threw three interceptions and was sacked eight times.
And on and on and on.
So Gilbertson’s eyes widened, understandably, when asked where to start.
“Holy cow,” the coach said. “The list is quite long.”
Washington is 3-3 this season, but the last six quarters have been a burn center. The Huskies surrendered 39 second-half points to UCLA in a 46-16 rout in the Rose Bowl. Nevada was supposed to be a part of the schedule in which to right things if needed, to perfect all aspects of the game in preparation for a crucial part of the schedule: a road game at white-hot Oregon State, a home game with Pacific-10 Conference favorite USC and another home game against arch-rival Oregon.
Instead, Nevada opened a new set of questions. A lot of them.
So many, in fact, that most could be placed under one category.
Mentality.
“I would think that the first thing you’ve got to fix is some attitude about, ‘When is enough enough?’” Gilbertson said. “OK, I can look at the second half of last week and write it off if we come in here and get it right, then we come in and have a performance like this. When is enough enough? We’ve got to look at everything.”
This was a loss that shook Washington as few others have in the last two decades. Not even the 65-7 loss at Miami in 2001 left this much doubt hanging as Saturday’s did.
Questions about commitment. About attention to detail. About heart.
After all, Washington gave few Wolf Pack players a serious look during recruiting. Most were deemed not good enough to play at Montlake.
If Washington had the superior players (and Saturday’s proceedings suggest that it may well have not), then something else is missing. Probably a lot of things, really, having much to do with attitude.
Pickett, a master of answering a question without answering it, simply shrugged his shoulders as he usually does and said, “We’ve just got to get back to work and have a good week of practice. We just have to play better and I have to pass better.”
But it’s more than that.
The Huskies have an offensive line down to its last eight healthy bodies. So desperate have things come that Gilbertson moved redshirt freshman defensive tackle Stanley Daniels to offensive guard last week.
Cornerbacks Derrick Johnson (ankle) and Roc Alexander (shoulder) are injury-prone and not very physical. Inside linebacker Joe Lobendahn is out for the season with a torn ACL.
The defensive line gets zero pass rush other than from Terry Johnson, who’s constantly double-teamed. The defensive ends are young and green. It says much about the program’s recruiting “success” that Ty Eriks starts at defensive end after having been moved there from fullback.
Even with the above shortcomings, Washington should have beaten the Wolf Pack handily. Presumably, the talent is better, as is the coaching, facilities and anything else you could name.
So what’s wrong?
“We’re not playing with passion; that’s our problem,” outside linebacker Greg Carothers said.
Why?
“Maybe we’ve got too many nice people on this team and this game isn’t for nice people,” he said. “If you’re a nice person, you shouldn’t play.”
It’s as good a reason as any. For starters.
John Sleeper is The Herald’s college writer.
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