Delayed by a pair of bye weeks, the Washington Huskies have finally reached the midpoint of their football season.
Unfortunately for UW, those two byes represent the only two non-losing weekends the Huskies have had so far.
That makes the team’s midseason grades a pretty sad but straight-forward matter (see below): The team has thus far failed to demonstrate even the modest improvements most observers expected in coach Tyrone Willingham’s fourth season.
Even athletic director Scott Woodward awarded the Huskies an “F” when asked to rate their first five games – and last weekend’s 34-13 loss to Oregon State didn’t improve things.
A midseason report card:
QUARTERBACK: The Huskies’ top priority for this season was keeping Jake Locker healthy. Instead, he went down in the fourth game and may not suit up again until spring. In his brief playing time, Locker’s second season was mixed: improved passing accuracy, but less domination as a runner. His replacement, Ronnie Fouch, is a promising young player and perhaps even an accuracy upgrade. But he doesn’t cause defensive coordinators to break out in the kind of cold sweats that Locker did. Grade: D.
RUNNERS: Locker remains UW’s leading rusher, so that implies a bit of a problem. Part of that is the constant run of injuries that took Chris Polk and Brandon Yakaboski out of the mix and slowed Willie Griffin and Brandon Johnson. But for all that subtraction, the Huskies may have finally dug deep enough to unearth their two best runners: Terrance Dailey and David Freeman, who have shown sparks in their few chances so far. Grade D+.
RECEIVERS: Prematurely forced into a lead role, sophomore D’Andre Goodwin has risen to the challenge with 32 receptions for 451 yards – both twice that of any other Husky. However, while freshmen such as Devin Aguilar, Jermaine Kearse and Kavario Middleton have given reason for hope, they aren’t yet game-changers at this level. Grade: C-.
OFFENSIVE LINE: The team placed its offensive hopes on this one veteran-dominated group, and their response has been disappointing. The line’s distinguishing characteristic is size, yet it hasn’t dominated in straight-ahead blocking or shown the athleticism to do much else. The return of Juan Garcia from a career-threatening foot injury is a feel-good story, but the group hasn’t lived up to expectations. Grade: D.
DEFENSIVE LINE: The hope was that Daniel Te’o-Nesheim would blossom into the kind of force that would make life easier on the three new starters around him. Instead, the other three have done so little that offenses have been able to concentrate on neutralizing the ever-hustling Te’o-Nesheim. The Huskies are last in the Pac-10 in sacks and second-to-last in rushing defense, and the problem starts here. Grade: D-.
LINEBACKERS: The three current starters – Mason Foster, Donald Butler and Trenton Tuiasosopo – all rank among the team’s top five tacklers. But while the unit has been solid, it hasn’t provided enough game-changing plays: no sacks, one interception and one forced fumble over half a season. The interception belongs to Foster, who leads UW with 50 tackles, including 6.5 behind the line of scrimmage. Grade: C-.
SECONDARY: The Huskies are eighth in the conference in pass defense and pass-efficiency defense. That doesn’t reflect fully on the secondary, considering the weak pass rush and how much attention the defensive backs have to pay to helping with the run. But while Nate Williams has been good and Quinton Richardson has shown flashes, this is another area that just hasn’t been good enough and healthy enough to make up for the weakness around it. Grade: D+.
SPECIAL TEAMS: The Huskies rank ninth or 10th in the conference in kickoff returns, punt returns, field goals, punting and even PAT kicking. That means their shining achievement is on kickoff coverage, where they rank sixth. Grade: F.
COACHING: The case could be made that every opponent, except perhaps Stanford, has had superior personnel. So that might mitigate things if you limit this category to use of available talent. However, there has been no game where the staff tried to close the talent gap with a memorably innovative game plan. And no game where the Huskies seemed inspired to take the field breathing fire. Even if a talent disparity could explain all six losses, the average score of 41-18 appears out of whack. A pure failing grade is avoided not by anything that has happened, but by what hasn’t. The team hasn’t seemed to quit, it hasn’t pointed fingers, it hasn’t let a bad season on the field morph into an ugly spectacle off of it. In short, they have been exemplary every day except Saturday. Grade: D-.
Extra points
Coach Tyrone Willingham said that previously injured or limited players such as Freeman, safety Johri Fogerson and receiver Cody Bruns are working this week and should be available for the Notre Dame game at 5 p.m. Saturday at Husky Stadium. … The game isn’t drawing the national attention that once seemed likely. The UW sports information office said the only national media that requested time with Willingham this week was ESPN, which apparently will use its interview as part of its “College GameDay” coverage. On Wednesday, the game was part of the ESPN talk show “Pardon the Interruption.” In an “odds” feature, regular co-host Tony Kornheiser predicted a 10 percent chance of UW upsetting the Irish, while guest host J.A. Adande listed an eight percent chance.
Don Ruiz: 253-597-8808
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