SEATTLE — One of the most storied programs in all of sports comes to town today, but for Washington, the fact that Notre Dame is this evening’s opponent isn’t really a big deal.
This UW team is simply trying to win. The Huskies have enough problems at 0-6 to not worry about who they’re playing.
With all due respect to Touchdown Jesus, the Gipper, seven Heisman Trophy winners, Knute Rockne, Rudy, and the Four Horsemen “outlined against a blue, gray October sky,” for the Huskies, this game is more about themselves than the 11-time-national-championship-winning program across the field today.
“It’s going to be a great game at home on national television, but it’s just another game,” said sophomore linebacker Mason Foster. “We’ve really got to get a win and show what we can do because there are a lot of people doubting us throughout the conference. We’re 0-6, but I think we’re a lot better than that. We’ve got a lot of talent on this team, we’ve just got to pull together and keep playing hard.”
Aside from all the hoopla surrounding this week’s game against Notre Dame — the coach who everyone assumes is going to get fired, the Notre Dame fans that enjoy watching Tyrone Willingham struggle because it further justifies their team’s decision to fire him four years ago — there’s a struggling football team just trying to win a football game.
And that quest to end an eight-game losing streak, not the fact that Notre Dame is in town, is what makes this game important.
“It means a lot because it’s our next game,” said redshirt freshman quarterback Ronnie Fouch. “We’re 0-6 and this is the next game we play, so it means a lot to us.”
It’s not that players don’t understand or respect the Notre Dame tradition, they’ve just got too many problems to fix without worrying about history. Of the 17 statistical categories kept by the NCAA for offense, defense and special teams, the Huskies rank 91st or worse out of 119 schools in 16 of them. Their No. 57 ranking in passing offense is the Huskies’ best in any category. Washington is in the bottom five nationally in rushing defense, total defense, scoring defense and kickoff returns, and ranks dead last in pass efficiency defense, sacks and tackles for loss.
And if Husky fans are hoping the Irish, now 4-2 and thinking about bowl possibilities, might overlook Washington and its less-than-impressive 2008 resume, don’t count on it. The current Irish roster is full of players who know exactly what Washington is going through. Notre Dame started 0-5 last season, then played UCLA in a game everyone expected the Bruins to win, but the Irish pulled off an upset to get their first win of the year.
“Just their whole demeanor throughout the whole game, they felt like we were just going to fold to them, but we came out swinging,” Irish safety David Bruton said when asked if he thought the Bruins came into that game assuming they would win. “We’ve been in the shoes Washington’s in, and we know when you have nothing to lose you come out swinging and try to pull all the stunts and everything you can out of the book.”
So don’t expect the Irish to take Washington lightly today.
After an 0-6 start that has featured three losses by 34 points or more, the 2008 Huskies could rival teams such as the 1-9 1969 team and the 1-10 2004 team for worst in program history. That history, not Notre Dame’s, is more relevant today to the Huskies.
“We don’t have an option not to keep going, but it definitely is really hard,” said fullback Luke Kravitz, a fifth-year senior who redshirted during that 2004 season. “You can’t sugarcoat it. It’s terrible. Athletics are built around winning. That’s the only thing that is fun out of athletics, and we have not been able to do that once this season. There is quite a bit of frustration, especially for us seniors. After 1-10 our freshman year, we didn’t think it would come full circle. We still have time, but just to see that this is how our last season here is going to start, it’s very frustrating.”
But even though these Huskies are too busy trying to find answers to their own problems to reflect on Notre Dame’s history, they’re not ignorant of that tradition.
“Whenever you think of Notre Dame, you think of tradition,” said junior linebacker Donald Butler. “We know that, that isn’t something that has been forgotten.”
Not forgotten, just put on the back burner this weekend.
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more on UW sports, check out the Huskies blog at heraldnet.com /huskiesblog
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