UW quarterback proud of how he handled benching in loss

By Adam Jude

The Seattle Times

This is what Jake Browning wanted, and this is what Chris Petersen expected from his senior quarterback.

Browning ran for one touchdown and threw for another as the Huskies rebounded from their 12-10 loss at California with a 27-23 victory over Stanford on Saturday night.

Browning was benched for two series in the second half in Berkeley, and acknowledged he was “pissed off” at that surprising decision.

“I was pretty frustrated … but had to move on,” Browning said after the Stanford game. “Didn’t let that affect our season. Sat down, hashed it out. It’s a little bump in the road, but Coach Pete is my guy and been through a lot with him. Like I said, I tried to handle it as maturely as possible so it didn’t become this huge drama or whatever.”

Petersen said he appreciated how Browning handled himself last week.

“I would expect nothing different from him,” Petersen said Monday. “I’ve been around that guy a long time. Everything that transpired did not surprise me and was probably pretty appropriate.”

Going forward, Browning said “there’s no issues” with coaches.

“I’ve been through a lot. I don’t think I’ve mentally folded in any situation — ever,” Browning said. “Like I said, you can question a lot of things about me — whatever this, that, skill level — but if you question my mental toughness and how I can handle a lot of adversity, I don’t even think there’s even a question about it. And that’s something I’m pretty proud of and something I know my family is really proud of.”

Browning has been booed and (now) benched during his four seasons as the Huskies’ starter. The toughest thing he’s gone through, he said, was the shoulder injury during his breakthrough 2016 season — an injury to his throwing shoulder that required surgery in January 2017.

“Being hurt for pretty much half my sophomore year,” he said. “There was definitely some adversity in that. It’s just really frustrating when you want to play at a certain level — I felt I played at a pretty high level that year — but you’re going through it physically, and no one knows.

“I’m not going to tell anybody I’m hurt, ever. That was pretty rough, just going through week to week for basically I don’t know how many weeks — three months of just, ‘This hurts, but we’re going to get through it.’”

The Huskies, idle this week, are 5-2 in Pac-12 play, a half-game behind first-place Washington State in the North. Washington will advance to the Pac-12 championship game if it wins its final two regular-season games (Oregon State and WSU).

“That was something I was thinking about when I got benched for those two drives — was crazy stuff happens in this league and if I mentally fold, which I’ll never do, then that really could have an effect on this team, which is why I tried to handle it really maturely and continue to just keep pushing the issue in practice and continue to get better,” Browning said.

“This league is crazy. The margin of talent — it’s not like the SEC, where’s there’s three teams significantly better than everybody else,” he said. “Everybody’s pretty close in talent (in the Pac-12). There’s a ton of different schemes. … It’s about which teams can handle the body blows and not give up on it.”

Adams plans to return for 5th year

Washington left tackle Trey Adams, out all season after having back surgery in September, plans to return to UW for a fifth season of eligibility in 2019, coach Chris Petersen confirmed Monday.

“I think that’s the plan right now,” Petersen said. “But, you know, things are always fluid.”

The Seattle Times reported in September that Adams was considering a return to the Huskies in 2019. A preseason Associated Press All-American, Adams injured his back four days before the Huskies’ season opener against Auburn.

He was already returning from surgery in October 2017 to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.

Adams has been practicing with the Huskies the past two weeks. It’s not known if Adams will be cleared to play this season. If cleared, he could play in up to four games and still preserve his redshirt status this year.