SEATTLE – The situations are similar enough that the Washington and Arizona football teams could be twins (maybe not identical twins, but certainly fraternal twins). Two once-proud programs on hard times, with new coaches who say basically the same things, trying to get back to respectability.
And they will both see how much progress they’ve made when the Huskies (1-0 Pac-10, 3-1 overall) play at Arizona (0-1, 2-2) at 7 p.m. Saturday at Arizona Stadium.
Both the Huskies and Wildcats believe they are getting close to where they’d like to be. Washington has won four of its past six games and is receiving votes in the national polls. Arizona is breaking in young talent on offense and hoping a solid defense keeps it in games.
But both Washington’s Tyrone Willingham and Arizona’s Mike Stoops say their programs are still works in progress.
“We’re getting there, but we aren’t there yet,” Willingham said. “We are making strides. We are getting to where I would like us to be and hopefully we will continue in that direction.”
“It’s a big game for the development of our program,” Stoops said. “We want to show improvement and stay ahead of schedule and try to win every game we can. … Washington handled us pretty easily last year, and there’s a lot to play for.”
Both Willingham and Stoops took over programs that had fallen on hard times. Washington was coming off of the worst season in the program’s history, a 1-10 record under Keith Gilbertson in 2004. Arizona had not had a winning record since 1998 when Stoops took over in 2004.
In both cases, attitudes were bad and interest was worse, and both coaches say the rebuilding has started with changing the “culture” of the program. That means instilling confidence and an understanding of how to win, something that can only come, of course, with winning. And that has been slow going.
In Willingham’s one-plus season, Washington is 5-10, but has won four of its past six and progress in the process that Willingham likes to talk about is being made. Under Stoops, Arizona is 8-18 but seemed to get a spark midway through last season with the insertion of true freshman Willie Tuitama at quarterback. Tuitama led the Wildcats to wins over UCLA and Oregon State.
“You have to get everyone on the same page,” Willingham said. “When you do that, you’re all speaking the same language, you’re all pushing in the same direction and it gives you your best chance to be successful. That’s a very difficult thing to change because you’re really changing the mindsets when you talk about changing the culture.”
“We’re in similar directions and philosophies and how we go about it,” Stoops said. “It takes repetitions day in and day out of doing things a certain way. Washington has made tremendous improvement in their two years and is probably a little bit ahead of schedule. …It’s a lot of hard work and it’s a long process but you’ve just got to stick with it every day. You see that when you come back from a 16-point deficit. (Washington is) very resilient. To me, that’s coaching.”
Both coaches agree that this game is a big one in the development of the programs. For Washington, a win would put it two wins away from being bowl-eligible with Stanford, Oregon State and Arizona State still yet to come to Husky Stadium. For Arizona, a win gives it three wins before it heads out on the road for three of the next four games.
Willingham said the pressure to turn around the program quickly is greater than it has been in the past, which puts even more urgency on the contest.
“It’s more critical today than it was 10 years ago,” he said. “We’re in more of an instant culture right now. You have to have the rewards, the feedback right now, that really validates everything you’re doing. Ten years ago it may have been more of an ability to persevere through the learning process to get where you want to go. Today you want it to happen right away.”
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