SEATTLE – For one afternoon at least, the University of Washington football team remembered what it was like to dominate.
Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald
The Huskies won the battle at the line of scrimmage and got big hits and forced turnovers on defense. The Dawgs had big plays from their skill position-players and took advantage of Idaho mistakes to end an eight-game losing streak, giving Tyrone Willingham his first win at his new school as Washington defeated the Vandals 34-6 in front of 61,183 fans at Husky Stadium Saturday.
It was the Huskies’ (1-2) largest margin of victory since beating Oregon 42-10 on Nov. 1, 2003.
”We haven’t felt this way in a long time,” senior fullback James Sims Jr. said. ”We talked to the young guys and said ‘You see how this feels?’ We know we can do this. This is how it should be every time. I think it’s a motivating stepping stone in the right direction.”
No one seemed to care that it was the 17th time in a row Washington defeated Idaho (0-3), or the fact that the Vandals were probably the weakest team on the Huskies’ schedule. All that mattered was Washington got a huge weight off of its shoulders.
”It feels so good to get this off our chest and be able to celebrate a little bit,” center Brad Vanneman said. ”This was a crucial turning point that we had to do, and we did it.”
”We’ve got to keep it going,” linebacker Scott White added. ”We had a lot of good things going for us out there. Hopefully this will springboard us into the heart of our season now.”
While the Washington offense put up a lot of points, it was the defense, particularly the front seven, that won the game. The Huskies had 12 tackles for loss and eight sacks, four from senior defensive tackle Manase Hopoi. Washington held Idaho to minus-4 yards rushing, its best effort since holding San Diego State to minus-7 on Sept. 13, 1997.
”We wanted to try to put some pressure on the quarterback early, and I thought we did that,” defensive coordinator Kent Baer said.
”They did a nice job,” Idaho coach Nick Holt said. ”They are well coached on defense. They got after us and they did exactly what you should do.”
The pressure up front helped Washington’s struggling secondary handle what had been a pretty dangerous passing attack. The Vandals finished with 190 yards passing but no play over 32 yards.
At the beginning, though, it seemed like it was just going to be another week of frustration for Washington. After an interception by Huskies’ cornerback Josh Okoebor on Idaho’s second play, a 31-yard run by UW quarterback Isaiah Stanback put the Huskies in position to score. Washington had first-and-goal from the 2-yard line. On second down, Stanback fumbled on an option play. He threw an incomplete pass on third down, and UW kicker Evan Knudson missed a 28-yard field goal attempt on fourth down.
Stanback threw an interception on Washington’s next possession and the teams ended the first quarter scoreless.
”Both teams started slowly,” Willingham said. ”There were a series of mistakes like someone was looking for someone else to do things. Then we were able to get our feet on the ground and get our running attack going.”
Indeed, on Washington’s next possession, the Huskies ran 10 times for 52 yards, including a 1-yard run over right tackle on fourth down by Sims for a touchdown that gave UW an early second-quarter lead. The defense stopped Idaho quarterback Steven Wichman on third-and-one and fourth-and-one, getting the ball back. Two plays later, Louis Rankin, who finished with a career-high 115 yards, ran through on a hole on the left side, cut back right and took off down the right sideline on a 48-yard touchdown run, increasing UW’s lead to 14-0.
”The line opened up a lot of holes,” Rankin said. ”It seemed like there were holes there all day.”
The defense really took over in the third quarter. Washington was ahead 17-3 when Mike Mapuolesega blocked an Idaho punt on Idaho’s first possession of the second half. Stanback escaped the Vandals’ rush and completed a pass to Sonny Shackelford for a 38-yard gain. Two plays later, Stanback faked a handoff and ran around right end for a 5-yard touchdown, giving UW a 24-3 lead.
”One thing that we noticed on film is that they didn’t play misdirection very well,” offensive coordinator Tim Lappano said. ”That’s one thing we did this week with Isaiah was get him out on nakeds and boots because we thought we’d get that and we did get that for some big plays.”
On the next Idaho possession, Wichman delivered a pass just before getting drilled by White. UW linebacker Joe Lobendahn made a diving catch for his first career interception, leading to a Knudson field goal. A three-and-out got Washington the ball back and Stanback threw a pass over the middle to tight end Johnie Kirton for a 6-yard touchdown and a 34-3 lead with 3:14 left in the third quarter.
”We got on top of them at halftime and we were like, ‘We’re not letting our guard down,”’ said Stanback, who completed 9 of 16 passes for 145 yards and ran five times for 35 yards. ”We wanted to keep our foot on the peddle and not let up.”
But will the team be able to carry the momentum of Saturday’s victory into next week’s game against Notre Dame – as well as the Pacific-10 Conference season? Huskies players and coaches weren’t worrying about that yet. They were just happy to savor the team’s first victory in nearly a year.
”I didn’t sense relief because I don’t think there’s been much focus by the coaching staff on what has happened in the past,” Willingham said. ”Hopefully our guys will take this in stride and use this as a stepping stone to play a lot better.”
”We’ve got a lot of confidence now,” Hopoi said. ”We all saw that we needed to step up after last week and work harder. Today we showed what working hard can do for us. We didn’t take this team lightly. We came out ready, and we need to come out like this every time because we always want to feel like this.”
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