Huskies look forward to Cal

By Bob Condotta
Seattle Times staff reporter
Through the gloom of another losing locker room Saturday, Washington coaches insisted there was still plenty to feel good about. The Huskies committed no turnovers in their 20-17 loss to Air Force, for instance, something they did just once last season. Quarterback Isaiah Stanback turned in "a performance you can win with," in the words of offensive coordinator Tim Lappano. Louis Rankin looked like the tailback of the present, and Johnie Kirton the tight end of the future.
And for roughly 50 minutes, the defense was as salty as advertised, particularly the linebacking tandem of Evan Benjamin, Joe Lobendahn and Scott White, which combined for 31 tackles. The best reasons for immediate hope, however, may be these — California comes to town this week, and Tyrone Willingham is on UW's sideline.
Willingham is 7-0 against the Bears, all coming when he coached at Stanford — his best record against any team. He won blowouts against the Bears, he won in overtime, he won slugfests, and he won shootouts.
Willingham, of course, will downplay that this week, saying it doesn't mean anything. And obviously, much has changed since he left Stanford, namely the hiring of Jeff Tedford as Cal's coach. But maybe the Willingham curse on the Bears is still intact, as it's doubtful the Huskies could have picked a better time to be facing the Bears since Tedford took over.
Cal beat Sacramento State 41-3 Saturday but lost starting quarterback Nate Longshore to a broken left fibula late in the first half. Cal's backup, Joseph Ayoob — a highly touted JC transfer who has struggled since joining the Bears last spring — threw 10 straight incompletions and was benched in favor of third-teamer Steve Levy. Levy originally signed with Cal in 2002 as a quarterback, but moved to fullback in 2004 after failing to make a move on the depth chart. He moved back to QB in the spring.
Tedford said after the game that he would review film and announce a starter for Saturday's game today. Some media in Berkeley yesterday speculated that Cal may have to take the redshirt off highly touted freshman recruit Kyle Reed. Tedford said, "We may have to get him in the mix now," but indicated it was unlikely that would happen quickly enough for Reed to play against Washington.
While Cal has issues with its passing offense, and will surely lean that much more on superstar running back Marshawn Lynch, UW has issues with its pass defense.
Injuries to starting cornerback Roy Lewis and safety C.J. Wallace — each hurt when they ran into each other on a play in the second quarter — left the Huskies exceedingly thin in the secondary, and Air Force eventually took advantage.
There was no updated injury report yesterday; a school spokesman said it will be Willingham's general policy not to address those issues until Mondays. But if the injuries to Lewis and Wallace are serious, the Huskies may have to switch some players around to fill out the secondary. The injuries only exacerbated the loss of JC transfers Chris Handy (declared ineligible last week) and Qwenton Freeman (not admitted to school, now at Arizona), who UW coaches hoped would provide immediate help at cornerback this year.
UW players, meanwhile, said fans needn't worry about whether the Huskies can bounce back.
"You compete — you don't accept it," said Stanback, when asked how the Huskies would respond. "We lost. Yeah, we have one L on our belt. But we are 0-0 in Pac-10 play and we've got our Pac-10 opener next weekend. That's what we've got to switch our focus to. You've got to move on."
Notes
• Some fans surely questioned UW's decision to go for it on fourth-and-two at the Air Force 18 late in the first quarter with UW up 3-0. A Stanback pass to Anthony Russo gained just 1 yard, and the Huskies ended up losing by three points. Willingham didn't second-guess the decision later, saying he called timeout before the play "to make sure we were doing the right thing." Said Lappano: "We needed to get more than 2 yards on that. We've got to turn it upfield. When he [Willingham] makes a decision like that, we've got to answer the bell."
• The last time UW didn't have a turnover was the UCLA game last Sept. 18, the second game of the season. "That was one of the priorities going into the season, playing with discipline and protecting the football, and we did that," Lappano said.
• Stanback's game earned him a passer rating of 157.9, which ranked him 16th in the nation among QBs who had played as of Saturday. UW finished last season with a rating of 78.73, worst in the nation.