Isaiah Stanback didn’t exactly run the play the way his bewildered coaches wrote it in the playbook.
The University of Washington quarterback last week rolled to his left and looked downfield. Not immediately liking what he saw, he refused to throw the ball, instead drifting to the left sideline with defenders chasing him, looking for a secondary or tertiary receiver.
Sonny Shackelford knew what to do.
“When a play breaks down, everybody knows what to do,” said Shackelford, a redshirt freshman receiver. “I saw Isaiah scrambling, so I came back for the ball.”
That’s what’s schooled – what’s pounded into the heads of receivers and quarterbacks. Receivers are to run directly to the quarterback so he can dump the ball off and save the play.
Only, Stanback didn’t do that. He had a better idea.
Long dreadlocks flying out from under his gold helmet, Stanback waved at Shackelford to spin a 180-degree turn and high-tail it toward the end zone: to go deeper, despite what the book says.
The result: A 52-yard pass completion to Shackelford, causing Oregon State coach Mike Riley to throw his cap to the turf. Two plays later, Stanback found tight end Joe Toledo for a 24-yard scoring pass, again improvising as the play went on, and the Huskies took a 14-9 lead.
“He saw the pocket break down, looked at me and sent me deep,” Shackelford said. “He saw something back there behind me and sent me deep.
Great play.” Stunning, both in the athleticism needed to pull it off and the imagination and intelligence it took to think it out on the fly.
Of course, Stanback, as sophomore quarterbacks are wont to do, also was the root of three delay-of-game calls and threw a bad interception deep in Beaver territory.
At this stage of his development, Stanback is a master at how-did-he-do-that and also why-did-he-do-that. Not unlike Miles Davis, the great jazz trumpeter, arranger and composer, Stanback has the mind to effortlessly improvise, to go places few envision. And, as did Davis, he’s fully capable of going places few who wear purple want him to go.
“He does some great, athletic things, making plays like he does with his feet,” UW coach Keith Gilbertson said. “When he has his feet under him, he’s liable to go anywhere. Some of those are going to be outstanding plays. Some of them, you’re going to say, ‘You shouldn’t have done that.’”
Big plays, but also big mistakes. Pretty much what’s expected from a young quarterback.
The trick, Gilbertson said, is to cut Stanback’s mistakes without inhibiting his flair for the dramatic.
Solution: Let Stanback age.
“You don’t want to take away some of that exuberance and spontaneity he has about the game, so you have to learn to live with some of that,” Gilbertson said. “As he matures and gets older, I think he’ll be more and more on page.”
As Stanback prepares to make his first career start, which happens to be Saturday against top-ranked USC at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Trojans coach Pete Carroll says Stanback already has his team’s attention.
“He took over the (OSU) game,” Carroll said. “He was really a dynamic factor with the run and pass and scrambles. They have a real weapon there. I see a team that looks very explosive with that guy at the helm.”
All Stanback ever wanted was to be at the helm.
As a redshirt freshman last season, Stanback took one for the team and agreed to play wide receiver, simply because the Huskies were thin at the position. This season, he’s been adamant about playing quarterback, his position at Garfield High School, despite rumblings from the outside that say he’s a natural receiver and would get on the field sooner and on a more regular basis as receiver.
Stanback, however, is nothing if not stubborn.
“I just want to play quarterback, that’s what I am,” he said. “Like I’ve said before, just give me a chance. If I mess up, at least you gave me a chance to do well and I messed up.”
He messed up plenty in the season opener against Fresno State. Coming into the game in relief of Casey Paus, Stanback was just 1-for-5 passing for 10 yards, with an interception and a fumble that directly led to a Bulldog touchdown. He looked nervous, tentative and confused.
Out he went.
Stanback didn’t play the next four games because of what the coaching staff said was a sprained ankle. Stanback disputed that, although he later said anyone who considers himself a competitor would do the same thing.
On his return against the Beavers last week, Stanback showed much more. He threw for two touchdowns and 219 yards in three quarters. He also gained 51 yards rushing, including an impossible 23-yard run on third-and-21.
“I think I was able to get into a groove,” he said. “Against Fresno State, I made a couple of mistakes and I got pulled. I wasn’t able to really make up for it. In this game, I made mistakes, but I was able to stay in there and play. I was able to get into a flow. I just had to get into the game.”
It hurt Stanback to sit those four straight games. Although his time against Fresno State was admittedly disastrous, neither Paus nor redshirt freshman Carl Bonnell made huge leaps to claim the position. Yet, they were getting chances. Stanback was left on the sidelines to think. And reflect. And replay.
“I have a picture of myself and what I can do,” Stanback said. “I’m always chasing that. That’s the thing that’s going to keep me going. When I hear negative comments or I’m screwing up, that’s why I get so bitter sometimes; because I know I can do this, so let me do it.
“I know where I can be. In time, with coaching, I think I’ll be there eventually.”
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