BOULDER, Colo. — Cyler Miles slapped high-fives and chatted with friends and family outside the Huskies’ locker room here on Saturday afternoon, happy to lead Washington to a 38-23 win over Colorado in his home state.
Miles, who starred at Mullen High School in Centennial, Colorado — about an hour south of Boulder — completed 13-of-19 passes for 206 yards and two touchdowns.
“I’ve got a grip of people out here,” Miles said. “I’ve got the whole family out here. It’s great to have them.”
Miles wasn’t happy about his two turnovers — both fumbles, both in Colorado territory, one of them in the red zone — but otherwise looked as sharp as he has all season, connecting early on a pass play of 48 yards, and completing a pair of 28-yard throws, too. He finished Saturday’s game with a yards-per-attempt average of 10.8, more than four yards above his season average.
The third-year sophomore quarterback sat out last week’s game at Arizona State after suffering from concussion-like symptoms.
“I thought I did some good things. I definitely need to take care of the ball,” Miles said. “I thought I did a decent job. Definitely a lot to work on — ball security. I maybe could have hung in there a couple more times. I thought it was OK.”
The turnovers, UW head coach Chris Petersen said, were “very frustrating for us all. I know it’s frustrating for him. But I think he was efficient in the pass game and got a few things done. I’m happy for him to come here and get a win.”
Feeney holds on
Travis Feeney usually drops the ball.
That’s what his teammates will tell you about the junior linebacker, who apparently has a hard time holding onto interception opportunities when such occasions arise during practice.
But on the second play of a Colorado possession late in the third quarter, Feeney clutched a pass thrown right to him by Buffaloes quarterback Sefo Liufau, then easily sprinted 30 yards for a touchdown.
“I had a lot of drops in practice last week,” Feeney said. “It just felt good to finally get a touchdown.”
Afterward, teammates ribbed him about finally catching the ball.
“Travis has butterfingers,” linebacker-turned-tailback Shaq Thompson said. “When he caught that ball, I was juiced. He finally caught one, and I’m proud of him.”
Feeney’s score was UW’s school-record seventh defensive touchdown of the season.
O-line shuffle
Injuries again forced the Huskies to reconfigure their offensive line.
With junior guard Dexter Charles out for the second consecutive game with a foot injury, Siosifa Tufunga made his second consecutive start in his place.
And after redshirt freshman right tackle Coleman Shelton got “dinged a little bit,” Petersen said, the Huskies moved James Atoe from right guard to right tackle, and inserted fifth-year senior Mike Criste at right guard.
“We’ve got to be able to move guys around, whether a guy’s not performing our guys get dinged, it can’t be any surprise like ‘oh, now what?’ It’s just how it goes,” Petersen said. “It’s not something we hadn’t worked on.”
Kikaha moves up
Hau’oli Kikaha tied UW’s single-season sack record last week. On Saturday, he moved into first place by himself, sacking Liufau late in the fourth quarter to move his season total to a nation-leading 15.5.
Kikaha also owns the UW career sacks record with 32.5.
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