FACTS & STATS: Site: Memorial Stadium (71,799) -- Berkeley, California. Television: FSN. Home Record: Washington 0-7, Cal 6-0. Away Record: Washington 0-4, Cal 1-4. Neutral Record: Washington 0-0, Cal 0-0. Conference Record: Washington 0-8, Cal 5-3. Series Record: Washington leads, 46-37-4.
GAME NOTES: The Tyrone Willingham era at Washington comes to an end this weekend as he and his Huskies make the trip to Berkeley to challenge the California Golden Bears in the 2008 regular-season finale. Willingham, who is closing out his fourth campaign with the Huskies, is winless on the season and has not finished better than ninth in the Pac-10 since moving back to the conference in 2005 following his three-year stint at Notre Dame. The only winless program in the FBS still this season, the Huskies have actually lost 13 straight games dating back to last season. The most recent setback for Washington came on November 22nd versus Washington State in a 16-13 double- overtime affair on the road. As for the Golden Bears, they managed to pick up their seventh win of 2008 and snap a two-game slide at the same time on November 22nd with a 37-16 win over Stanford. The team is now bowl eligible and is fourth in the Pac-10 with a record of 5-3. The series between these two programs has been running since 1904 and favors the Huskies by a count of 46-37-4. Cal had rung up five straight wins over Washington heading into last year's meeting on the road in Seattle but suffered a 37-23 setback versus the Huskies, which was the last time Washington celebrated a victory.
Washington's poor record this season stems from the fact that it has had to deal with unproven quarterbacks for much of the year after Jake Locker went down with an injury. The Huskies have had to turn to youngster Ronnie Fouch to try and shake them out of their funk but it just hasn't happened. Fouch has completed a mere 45.3 percent of his attempts for 132.3 ypg and four touchdowns, but has been picked off 12 times. D'Andre Goodwin has been a bright spot in an otherwise dark and gloomy season with his 58 receptions for 685 yards, although he has reached the end zone just one time on all those catches. As far as the running game is concerned, Washington ranks seventh in the conference and 107th in the nation this week with an average of just 98.9 ypg, which in turn gives the program a total of only 268.9 ypg of total offense, making them 115th in the country.
With an offense that is second-to-last in the conference and 117th in the nation in scoring with a mere 13.8 ppg, the Huskies needed the defense to step up and play big this season and it never happened. Except for the meeting with Washington State when it allowed a mere 16 points in two overtimes, the unit allowed no less than 27 points in any one contest and averaged 37.7 ppg permitted, which is ninth in the league and 115th in the country at the moment. The run defense has been beaten down for 223.3 ypg, the pass defense giving up 219.6 ypg. The push up front has been missing almost all season with the team checking in last in the conference in both sacks (1.27 per game) and tackles for loss (4.18). Were it not for seven sacks and 17 TFLs in the last two games versus WSU and UCLA, the numbers would be even worse for the Huskies. Mason Foster currently leads the program with 92 tackles and 10 stops behind the line of scrimmage.
California head coach Jeff Tedford is gunning for his third undefeated season at home during his tenure with the Golden Bears and will be calling upon Kevin Riley to try and make that happen. The signal-caller has completed 50.9 percent of his pass attempts for 134.2 ypg and 14 touchdowns and, along with Nate Longshore, has been able to spread the ball to several different players down the field. No single receiver has more than 27 receptions and the one that does, Jahvid Best, has just a single touchdown to show for his efforts coming out of the backfield. In the case of Cameron Morrah, he leads the program with seven TD catches, yet has a total of just 23 grabs to his credit. As a running back, Best is easily the most productive performer with his 1,083 yards and nine touchdowns, his average of 108.3 ypg in his 10 appearances ranking him second in the conference and 19th nationally entering play this week.
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