By John Sleeper
Herald Writer
SEATTLE – You don’t sack Miami quarterback Ken Dorsey. You just don’t.
Unless your name is Larry Tripplett.
The University of Washington defensive tackle got to Dorsey twice in the Huskies’ 34-29 upset over the Hurricanes on Sept. 9, 2000. In all the Huskies sacked him four times. The prevailing feeling was that Dorsey was rattled by not only the UW pass rush, but also the wave of noise cascading down from the stands in Husky Stadium.
Oh, how things have changed.
“We don’t want Dorsey to get touched,” Miami center Brett Romberg said. “We don’t want his jersey to get dirty. We take it personally when he gets hit.”
Since the Miami’s loss to Washington, the Hurricanes’ offensive line has allowed just six sacks in 19 games. This season, it has allowed just two sacks, one during a 38-0 whitewash over Temple, during which reserve offensive linemen allowed one on backup quarterback Derrick Crudup.
“That’s like superhero statistics,” UW inside linebacker Ben Mahdavi said. “They’ve got all-world guys up front. They’re a brick wall. That’s Marvel Comics. But it’s all good. I’m excited about playing against the best.”
Mostly, he remembers tackle Bryant McKinnie, all 6-foot-9, 335 pounds of him. UW coach Rick Neuheisel, referring to McKinnie, uses the word “eclipse” when McKinnie is in blocking mode. Maybe the most frightening thing is that, in the Miami media guide, McKinnie is mentioned as a 400-meter runner on his high school track team.
“The guy’s a monster,” Madahvi said. “He smiled at me and I was looking at him, like, ‘How ya doin’, man?’ He was like a tree.”
Although Mahdavi rarely butts heads against tackles, he did have one occasion in which he mixed it up with McKinnie.
“He got a hand on me,” Mahdavi said. “It was a big hand. I think it covered my numbers.”
Let it be known that Mahdavi can talk up the opposition as well as anybody. But pressed further, you get the feeling that he truly is unafraid of Saturday’s game, in which the Huskies are better than three-touchdown underdogs.
“They’re talented guys,” he said. “But at the same time, they’re college athletes, just like we are. They’re 18- to 22-year-old guys. It’s not like they’re made of steel.”
Then he gets back into praise mode.
“But they’re pretty darn close,” he said.
Heavy underdawgs: Among the few who think the Huskies have a chance Saturday are the Huskies themselves. Although the spread has gone steadily upward from its 23 1/2 mark early in the week, Washington still thinks it can play with the No. 1 Hurricanes and play well.
“Miami is an explosive juggernaut of a team,” UW coach Rick Neuheisel said. “They exploded against Florida State and they exploded against Syracuse. We have to keep the game reasonable and not have them have a flurry of points, which they are certainly capable of. It reminds me very much of Nebraska when I was at Colorado.”
And how do the Huskies plan to do that?
One of the factors is to transfer the intensity the team has at home – bodies flying around, playing with confidence – to the road. The Huskies haven’t been a good road team, having been blown out at UCLA and Oregon State, as well as coming too close to losing to 0-10 Cal.
“We have not played with that sense of urgency on the road, and I don’t whether to attribute it to our youth or myself not doing a good job,” Neuheisel said. “We’re going to talk long and hard about coming out of the blocks and playing with some passion this weekend. We’ll have to, just to hang in there.”
Punt team hurting: Freshman punter Derek McLaughlin has had six punts blocked this season, two against Washington State on Saturday. That certainly figures to be an area the Hurricanes can exploit, given their team speed.
The problem isn’t with McLaughlin, Neuheisel said. He didn’t rule out personnel changes on the line, but said that might not be the answer.
“You can’t put Band-Aids on things and think that they’re stopped,” he said. “We’ve got to really work harder than what we’ve worked and the responsibility lies with me. I’ve got to make sure our punt team performs better.”
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