By John Sleeper
Herald Writer
SEATTLE — Paul Arnold was wide open.
More open than Denny’s.
A 79-yard TD pass was unavoidable. Six big points for the Washington Huskies. No question about it. Arnold had left two Stanford defensive backs scrambling to catch up to him, but that was about as likely as George W., running for Prime Minister of Canada.
One problem.
The ball hit him in the facemask.
Quarterback Cody Pickett could have gone off. Could have chewed into Arnold like Bobby Knight chews into fettuccine alfredo.
Others certainly would have. And few would blame them. Big game. Biggest of the season. And the guy drops a gimme.
But after the Husky offense trotted to the sidelines, Pickett sidled over to Arnold and said:
"You can never talk to me again about giving you more balls."
He was smiling when he said it.
Broke Arnold up.
Arnold always pesters Pickett that way. "Gotta gimme the rock; gotta gimme the rock," Arnold says.
And he’ll say it again. Because it’s OK.
This is the way Pickett leads. He’s not a screamer. Never has been. Frankly, he’d feel stupid to even try.
The logic: You want the offender to make the next catch, the next run, the next block. You don’t want him thinking about the drop. The fumble. The missed assignment.
Screaming’s what coaches are for.
"That’s when you come off the sidelines and kind of kid with him, like it’s all right," Pickett said. "That can pretty much ruin your day if you drop a long ball like that. You can let it get you down and come back and drop another one. But you kind of laugh and shrug it off."
In Arnold’s case, it worked. On the next pass Pickett threw to him, Arnold launched over a Cardinal defender and came down with the ball for an acrobatic 47-yard gain. Four plays later, tailback Willie Hurst scored a TD from a yard out to give the Huskies a 28-13 lead.
"Things happen," Pickett said. "I don’t always throw good balls. Not everybody makes their blocks. Sometimes, you happen to drop one. You just have to shake it off."
It is that kind of steady, low-key leadership that marks Pickett, now becoming one of the most storied quarterbacks in Washington’s storied history at that position.
In a very real way, Pickett’s stock as a leader rose to dizzying heights through injury.
Pickett’s return from a third-degree-separation of his throwing shoulder cemented his place among his teammates as the ultimate leader by example. Just two weeks after suffering the injury, one that routinely takes 6-to-8 weeks to heal, Pickett threw for a school-record 455 yards against Arizona.
All during the week leading up to that performance, Pickett insisted that he would play, that the shoulder couldn’t be damaged any more than it already was, that it was merely a matter of how much pain he could take.
Then he’d shrug. Pain. Harumph. No big deal.
"The shoulder injury he has right now has almost benefited him with respect to his leadership skills," UW coach Rick Neuheisel said. "This team will walk down any alley with this guy because of the way he is, fighting to be in the games, even though he is in obvious discomfort. It’s a neat thing to watch unfold."
So amped are his teammates that the team has shown palpable improvement since he came back. The offense is crisper, especially the running game, which mustered minus-16 yards against UCLA.
So inspired has the offensive line been that it has protected Pickett with a feisty single-mindedness, brought on by a team meeting from which came the line’s mantra: "Nobody gets to Cody."
"We’re playing with a little nastiness now," tackle Khalif Barnes said.
It seems years ago when observers were wondering aloud about Pickett. How would he even hope to fill the shoes of the great Marques Tuiasosopo? Is it within a state line of being fair to think that Pickett could engineer the fourth-quarter comebacks that Tuiasosopo apparently patented?
Answer: Pickett is completing nearly 58 percent of his passes and is second in the Pac-10 to Washington State’s Jason Gesser in total offense.
And, of the seven victories Washington has this season, the Huskies have come back in the fourth quarter five times.
That inspires a certain measure of confidence.
"He’s really surprised us," UW fullback Ken Walker said. "He’s out there competing with a separated shoulder. He’s out there making plays. Making people miss. He’s out there just doing it all."
And doing it while taking treatment five and six hours a day on the shoulder. Pickett arises daily at 6:30 a.m., gets to the training room at 7 a.m. and alternates between icing it and using electrical stimulation.
That may be the biggest pain of all for Pickett. Sitting. Doing nothing. Watching SportsCenter.
"It’s getting old," Pickett said. "Real old. I spend more time in there than I ever have. Hopefully, I won’t have to do it again."
Of course. After all, one can stand only so much awe from one’s teammates.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
