SEATTLE – In typical Tyrone Willingham fashion, the Washington football coach said he thought this was a good time for a bye week, but would have said it was a good time to play a game if that was the circumstance his team faced.
“You take what’s here,” Willingham said.
Willingham said the team would emphasize four things this week.
The first would be trying to get his players healthy. He said he expects that offensive tackles Joe Toledo (ankle) and Chad Macklin (foot) would return next week.
Second, the team would work to prepare for both Oregon, the Huskies’ next opponent, and other opponents on its schedule.
Third, the team would allow its younger players, particularly those playing on scout teams, to play more.
Finally, the coaching staff would get some recruiting in. Willingham said he would also try to watch his 15-year-old son Nathaniel, a sophomore linebacker at Skyline High School, play this weekend.
The blocking QB: One of the most memorable images of Saturday’s game was quarterback Isaiah Stanback racing downfield to block for Louis Rankin’s 49-yard run. It reinforced to Willingham just what kind of a player Stanback is.
“It was probably as fine an effort as you’ll see of any player,” Willingham said. “If you notice that play, you probably saw him run by maybe three-quarters of both teams. Not his team, but both teams. That speaks to what kind of competitor he is. Those are the kinds of guys you want on your team. Guys who are willing to compete and throw their body around and make that kind of hustle. To me, that’s a player.”
Punt return change: After Anthony Russo fumbled away a punt return against UCLA, Willingham inserted receiver Marlon Wood as the punt returner for the rest of the game. He said it could be a permanent move.
“Anthony was doing fairly well, then he had the one drop and he’s been hobbling just a little bit,” Willingham said. “So we thought it might be time to get Marlon Wood in there and the couple that he did, he stepped up and did those very well.”
Russo was averaging just 1.8 yards on six punt returns this season. Wood is averaging 8.3 yards on three returns. At Pasadena City College last season, Wood averaged 10.1 yards on 19 punt returns and 40.4 yards on five kickoff returns.
Knudson still the man: Willingham said he has no plans of trying out another kicker other than senior Evan Knudson. Knudson has missed a field goal in each of the last two games and is 6-for-9, with one of the misses coming from over 50 yards. He also has 10 touchbacks and has made all 12 of his extra points.
“He’s been fairly consistent so far,” Willingham said. “It’s not a concern yet.”
Stopping Drew: Willingham said his defense didn’t do anything special to contain UCLA star Maurice Drew on Saturday. They just did things better.
“We had to be a better tackling team against a guy that can really run the football,” Willingham said. “It couldn’t be just one guy to take him down. We saw a couple times we had some good hits on him but couldn’t bring him down. We had to keep riding him.”
No comment: Willingham said he has gotten a good look, and has formed an opinion, about the holding call that negated Rankin’s long touchdown run against the Bruins. But he would not share that opinion.
“I think it’s better if I don’t,” Willingham said with a smirk.
No problem with replay: Though he says there is always going to be room for error, Willingham said for the most part he’s been pleased with the use of instant replay.
“I think for the most part it’s worked,” Willingham said. “But you still involve the same human factor and that’s never going away until you get a machine that does it all. So you still make mistakes even with the replay system. But I think for the most part it’s working fairly well.”
Oregon schedule in air: The game at Oregon, originally scheduled for 12:30 p.m., may be moved to a later time. Network television passed on covering the game, with ABC picking to show the Oregon State at California game at 12:30 p.m. and Fox Sports broadcasting UCLA at Washington State at 3:30 p.m. It’s possible Oregon could move the game to a late start and broadcast the game locally. A decision on the start time is expected to be made today or tomorrow.
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