Better Know an Opponent: Washington

Last year’s result: 0-12. Washington secured the elusive perfect season in a hard-fought Toilet Bowl against previously winless Washington State. Washington’s head coach, Ty Willingham, stepped down after losing to an atrocious Notre Dame squad by the count 33-7. The Huskies rallied around their coach by flying down to LA and holding USC to a meager score of 56-0. Willingham probably got a bad rap, though. They lost a game they should have sent to overtime against #15 BYU, but a ridiculous personal foul call led to a blocked PAT. More importantly, QB Jake Locker was injured in the 4th game of the season. Locker is essentially the entire UW offense, so when he went down, UW was rudderless.

This year’s result: 1-1 (!!!!!!!!!11!!!!!!) Washington finally broke its 15-game losing streak, in a decent win at home against Idaho. The progress was evident against LSU, when they barely lost to the Tigers at home despite out-gaining them in total yards.

Future prognosis:
The good news: The Huskies return 18 starters.
The bad news: Other than Jake Locker, they all suck.

Key Players:
Jake Locker. Locker, Jake. Jacob Locker. Everybody else is superfluous. To win, Locker has to play like a man possessed. And the Huskies need to be really, really lucky. Locker was heavily recruited by USC but took Willingham’s offer to play in his home state. He’s extremely effective running and throwing the ball, can take a hit, measures 6-3, 225, and is fast as lightning. Big No. 10 is averaging over 300 yards of total offense per game for the Huskies. He’s even been drafted as a baseball player. This kid can do it all.

Key Matchup: Steve Sarkesian vs. Pete Carroll

Over the offseason, Washington imported several Trojan lieutenants, most importantly Offensive Coordinator (now UW Head Coach) Steve Sarkesian and Defensive Coordinator (now UW Defensive Coordinator) Nick Holt. UW has essentially become a Trojan clone in terms of attitude, scheme, and strategy. Obviously, USC still holds a substantive edge in personnel. It should be interesting to see how Sark (calling plays for the UW offense) and Pete (calling plays for the SC defense) will scheme against each other.