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 (AP/George Niktin)
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COLUMBUS, OH - Washington players looked a bit grass-stained, drained, and disappointed when they trudged into the media room at Ohio Stadium late Saturday night. Still, they didn’t have that same devastated look in their eyes that they had after losing to Michigan in heartbreaking fashion last year. You could tell that they were ready to begin working on what is needed before Pac-10 play begins. | |||||||||||
Pickett was asked if OSU’s pressure was the best he’d ever faced. “Miami was awful good, too. These guys are good, too. It’s a quality defense, take nothing away from them. But there are a lot of things we could’ve done better. We only scored nine points, so we’re looking forward to getting better.” “We are capable of better things on offense.” WR Reggie Williams was similar in his outlook at Cody Pickett, and certainly not ready to give up the season after a tough road loss. “That was a solid defense, they got a lot of pressure up front and caused us to do some things that we should’ve have done. They are up there with some of the better teams that we’ve played against. I’m disappointed and we are a much better team than we showed out there, but I’m looking forward to practicing Monday and showing improvement. We will.”
“We were doing what we thought would work because they were getting so much rush. Just to get the ball out of Cody’s hands, we had to play a little quicker. It wasn’t frustrating, it was just what we had to take,” said Williams of the Huskies’ inability to throw it deep last night. Williams and Pickett will not let this team get down after this loss. “This is a new team with a new coach. The loss against Michigan was a year ago. After this loss, we’ll come back strong against Indiana and we’ll play a lot better,” said Williams. Punter Garth Erickson had a nice night kicking the ball, making his debut as a Husky in punting 10 times for nearly a 40 yard average, including two punts out of his own endzone. “That’s not where you want to be, but you just have to get it out of there,” said Erickson. “I was just trying to do my job. This is an exciting place to play.” Erickson didn’t have time to be nervous, as he only found out that he would be the punter after Thursday’s practice. “I am confident in my ability. Once I got out there and warmed up and got a sweat going, I took everything in and then got into the zone. You can’t pay attention to the fans or the noise.” Evan Knudson had a decent debut as well, nailing a 47-yarder before having a 35-yarder blocked. “Their defense really shut us down, they are a really good team. Obviously when I make my first college field goal, I’m going to be excited. But afterwards its kind of sobering when you see the scoreboard and we’re still down big,” said Knudson. “It was a lot of fun to make that first one. The one that got blocked was a little slow. We need to speed that up in practice this week. I’d heard advice from kickers to just slow things down in your first game, and I think I may have slowed that one down a little to much,” said Knudson with a smile. “I feel comfortable that I can get the job done.” Greg Carothers started his first game as a linebacker. “It was different. They threw the ball more than we expected, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. They have a great tight end and he made it hard on me to make plays. We have a lot to learn form this experience, so it’s good. This was a powerful team we just played, and we’re not that outmatched based on the score.” Senior LB Marquis Cooper wasn’t unhappy with the effort from the defense. “Overall I think we did pretty good. We’ll work on some things. Those scrambles by Krenzel really hurt us, a lot. That score at halftime really killed us, it made us all mad. We came back in the second half well, though, and stopped them. Now we use this, put it behind us, and get on with our future. This was just one game, and we have a big season ahead of us.” Cooper likes the simpler defensive schemes, which resulted in fewer blown assignments and confusion. “We stayed in a base defense all night. It’s fine with me, we can win games with it.” Notes: There was one new offensive wrinkle this week that never got to be showcased by Washington last night because of how quickly they fell behind. We won’t mention it here, as they may use it next week. They’ll no doubt practice it more this week….Zach Tuiasosopo should return to the team by the time the Pac-10 play begins. It will be interesting to see where he lines up when he comes back. If your asking me, I believe that he’ll line up at defensive end. The fullback position is in capable hands right now with Eriks, who will continue to improve, and Seery, who is a solid if not flashy performer. Defensive end needs some toughness injected, and Zach is definitely tough…..OG Clay Walker got a rough indoctrination to college football, opening on the road against Ohio State. He looked overmatched, but this is a guy that is tough and will improve a great deal. He has a bright future at Washington….Todd Bachert, bad shoulder and all, played most of the snaps at center last night. Dan Dicks went the entire first quarter but then headed for the bench…..WR Quintin Daniels is the fastest of the wide receivers, and will be trouble for Pac-10 defenses that don’t pay attention to him. He made a nice grab down the middle for the final play of the game….The OSU press box was one of the nicest I’ve ever been in. It was huge, well equipped, and definitely world class. That entire stadium, since the renovation, is one of the best in the country. It’s also significantly louder than Michigan. The only complaint I had was after the pre-game walk around the field to watch the players warm up, we headed up with Husky coaches Tim Hundley, Chuck Heater, Cornell Jackson, and John Pettas in the elevator to the press box. One obnoxious OSU fan, dressed messily in red, began to harass them verbally. When the elevator door opened to the “Varsity Club” level, the drunken fan exited, but not before trying to grab Heater’s note book and notes. The guy finally left after his girlfriend looked hopefully embarrassed by the buffoon…..hopefully Husky fans aren’t ready to throw in the towel after one game. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and this team believes in Gilbertson. This team needs to get tougher and it may take some time, but I’m confident that they’ll get there. They’re going to try to find a running game behind an offensive line that has had extreme difficulty producing one for over two years. Cozzetto has his work cut out for him, but it took him three years to get Cal’s going, and two years to get ASU’s going. Hopefully he can find answers sooner at Washington. |
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