They say they haven’t really thought about it much. They knew it was coming, but with so much still at stake, the final game of their career at Husky Stadium hasn’t been something that the Washington senior football players have spent much time thinking about.
“I’m trying to take it as another game, really,” linebacker Scott White said. “It will all set in when all the games are done. Probably after the game it will be a big deal, like, ‘I just played my last game at Husky Stadium.’”
Washington (2-5 Pacific-10, 4-6 overall) will honor 19 seniors prior to Saturday’s 12:30 p.m. matchup with struggling Stanford (0-6, 0-9).
This Senior Day is a bit different than the one last year, when Washington simply was playing out another lost season. This season, the Huskies still have something to play for as they enter their final home game. Two more wins and a little bit of help and Washington could reach the Hawaii Bowl.
So, while the UW seniors are aware of the significance of Saturday’s game, they also realize that there’s more to it than just a final chance to play in Seattle.
“I know it’s going to be a real emotional thing,” strong safety C.J. Wallace said. “It’s a great feeling but it’s a sad thing because it’s my last time playing in Husky Stadium.”
“Once the game is over it will all sink in,” cornerback Dashon Goldson said. “Right now I’m just focused on playing another football game and getting a win. I haven’t given it much thought, but I’m pretty sure it will hit me big time.”
How this senior class will be remembered is a bit of a question. Without winning the next three games – including a possible bowl game – they never will have finished a year with a record above .500. They were part of the worst two-year stretch in the program’s history in which Washington managed just three total wins.
But few classes have faced as much adversity. The nine fifth-year seniors had three head coaches in five years, and played through the Rick Neuheisel trial and the drop in respectability for the program that followed.
They’ve also been at the head of turning things around. This team has already won more games than it did the past two seasons combined, and to still be in position to quality for a bowl game is quite an accomplishment.
“Every senior we have has had some positive impact on this football team,” head coach Tyrone Willingham said. “Obviously some (were) greater than others. You think of Isaiah (Stanback), you think of Scott White, you think of Tahj Bomar, Dashon Goldson, C.J. Wallace. Those guys had more impact than others. But they all make a difference. Without them the dynamics of our team change and we would not be the same, and maybe we would not be able to get of to the start we got off to, and have the opportunity that we still have at the latter part of our season.”
White said the adversity bonded this group together.
“The guys that are left will keep battling away,” he said. “That’s what we were about when we came here. We made a pledge when we first got here that we were never going to quit. And the guys who are still here, who hung around through the adversity, are keeping their word on that.”
Now the seniors will take their final walk down the long tunnel leading to the Husky Stadium turf. They’ll pass by the signs of each bowl game the UW has played in that line the walls leading to the field. And they hope that they’ll be able to add a sign of their own to cement their legacy.
“After this season people will see, whether we get to a bowl or not, that we played a big part in trying to change this program around,” Wallace said. “Just to rise out of it, not to the top, but to show what we can do.”
“The legacy that we’re going to leave is (that) we got the ball rolling in the right direction,” White said. “In the past we were going in the wrong direction. That’s the best we can do right now: leave a positive impression on the program and leave the program better than we found it.”
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