College Football - Washington Takes Off the Training Wheels and Thumps Stanford 27-9

Ed's Sports Corner:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Well, Dawg fans, are you fired up now? You should be. Washington traveled to Palo Alto (CA) and put a 27-9 whipping on Stanford Saturday (11-3-07) to end Washington's 6-game losing streak.

The Huskies finally took the training wheels off of their bicycle and showed us how to ride The Cardinal into the turf. The Cardinal is a really weird nickname for an American college football team; it refers to—believe it or not—the color of their jerseys and not some bird flying around Palo Alto.

I find it strange that The Cardinal is also always referred to in the singular rather than the plural, like, "here comes The Cardinal" as the players rush onto the field.

Despite all of the talk about Stanford being Washington's weakest opponent since its season opening 42-12 victory on the road at Syracuse, The Cardinal did upset USC 24-23 on the road. The Huskies lost to USC 27-24 at home.

I predicted that after Washington's loss to Oregon it would beat Arizona. The Huskies starting 22 then promptly went out and lost to the Wildcats 48-41 in Husky Stadium. So I was a game off.

What Washington did to Stanford was worth the wait. For openers:

1) Senior tailback Louis Rankin rushed for 255 yards and a touchdown, the 4th-best rushing performance in school history. The Husky offensive line regained some measure of pride as Rankin averaged 7.1 yards per carry.

I think a lot of us remember Corey Dillon's 259 yard rushing performance against Oregon in 1996. Thankfully, I am not old enough to remember record-holder Hugh McElhenny's 296-yard effort against Washington State in 1950.

2) Freshman Jake Locker added another 97 yards at 6.1 yards per carry. On the way, he broke Dennis Fitzpatrick's 1974 record of 697 yards by a Husky quarterback. When the game was over, Locker had 791 yards this season with 4 games left to play.

3) The Huskies piled up 388 net yards rushing and 151 yards passing (16 for 32, no touchdowns and 1 interception) for 547 total yards on offense. The defense gave up 234 total net yards.

4) Washington had 33 first downs (25 rushing) to Stanford's 15, and dominated the clock with 35:46 time of possession to Stanford's 24:14.

5) Loyal fans have been waiting all season for the Husky defense to rise up and look like the Huskies of the glory years under legendary Head Coach Don James and Defensive Coordinator (and later Head Coach) Jim Lambright.

That moment came in the second quarter with Washington leading 10-3 and Stanford on the Husky 2-yard line following a Louis Rankin fumble. On first down, the Huskies pushed Stanford back a yard.

Stanford's second attempt to score was stopped when senior linebacker Trenton Tuiasosopo stood up Stanford's ballcarrier, junior cornerback Byron Davenport flew in and punched the ball free, and senior safety Mesphin Forrester recovered.

In short, the Washington Husky team came together offensively and defensively against Stanford. When I predicted after the Oregon loss that the best was yet to come I was not simply writing words of encouragement.

Sooner or later, as day follows night, the inexperienced players become more experienced and perform better.

The next stop for the Huskies is at Oregon State. The Beavers are noted for their physical (translate brutal) hits and play. The game could become more of a rumble in football gear. The Huskies are going to get hit and they need to hit back harder. Brute force and courage could determine the winner.

Editor's Note: Read my Husky articles including "So Who Is Really Overrated? Hawaii (8-0) or Washington (2-6)" and "Meet the Nation's Most Statistically Incredible Team – The University of Washington Huskies".