Lack of fight, no longer.
Lack of bite, that’s changing.
In the near future, these Dawgs of the Montlake might be ready to hunt again in the turned-inside-out Pacific-10 Conference.
Why wouldn’t they feel that way? Washington ended its first season under new coach Steve Sarkisian by throttling 19th-ranked California, 42-10, on a chilly Saturday in front of 62,334 spectators at Husky Stadium.
Coupled with an earlier 16-13 win over then-No. 3 Southern California, UW defeated two top-20 teams in the same season for the first time since 2001.
Its win was by the largest margin over the Bears since a 46-7 thrashing in 1990 – in the midst of its 19-game winning streak in the Pac-10’s longest-running series.
Certainly, the new coach was jacked up by what he termed the team’s most complete game all season.
“No doubt this (season) was a success,” Sarkisian said. “We’re as good as anybody in our conference. We can go play them next week, and we’ll be in a ballgame with them. I don’t know if we could have said that a year ago, but we can say that today.”
Amid swirling speculation about his future – final game or not – Huskies quarterback Jake Locker passed for three touchdowns and ran for another two scores. He had 325 total yards – 248 of them passing.
Chants of “One More Year” filled Husky Stadium throughout the game as Locker, a junior, considers bypassing his final season to go to the NFL.
But afterward, the Ferndale product was as diplomatic as possible trying to answer the onslaught of questions about his future.
“I’ve always said at the end of the season, I’ll come up with a plan, sit down with my family and coaches,” Locker said. “I’ll definitely take a few days to enjoy this (win over Cal).”
Yet, when UW pressed the issue early against the Bears, it didn’t do it with Locker’s arm. The first big play came on the pass of a seldom-used receiver who used to play some quarterback at Prosser High – Cody Bruns.
After the UW defense forced a missed field goal, the Huskies went right to a play called “Sparky” – a flanker pass that has been in the playbook since the Arizona State game.
On the second play, Bruns took a snap, rolled out to his right and fired a 38-yard strike to Jermaine Kearse.
“We wanted to start fast,” Bruns said. “That was a good way to start it.”
That started a career night for the Lakes High product, who was simply unstoppable with his seven receptions for 147 yards. On the next play, with the Huskies in a power-rushing set, Locker faked a handoff and laced a 40-yard touchdown pass to Kearse, who outmuscled Cal cornerback Bryant Nnabuife for the ball.
“He has the ability to high-point (and catch) a football as good or better than anyone I’ve ever been around, and it showed up again tonight,” Sarkisian said. “He set the tone.”
Washington would never trail after that. That drive seemed to put Cal on its heels the rest of the game – on both sides of the ball.
The Bears’ offense had back-to-back three-and-outs in the first half. Then, UW was able to generate a pass rush – enough to keep quarterback Kevin Riley feeling uneasy.
“Offensively, the first two drives we got down there but we didn’t get any touchdowns,” Riley said. “After that, they did a good job of disrupting our passing game with some pressure they brought. I was missing throws. Late in the game, we couldn’t take care of the ball.”
Locker had TD runs on the final two UW drives of the first half. His 2-yard scamper off a keeper gave the Huskies a 21-3 halftime lead.
And when his legs weren’t doing a number on Cal’s defense, he tossed a pair of scoring passes to Devin Aguilar (25, 13 yards) to start the second half in building a 35-10 cushion.
That would be enough to gift-wrap this victory with a Christmas bow for the outgoing seniors, particularly linebacker Donald Butler, defensive end Daniel Te’o-Nesheim and fullback Paul Homer.
“In my (postgame) speech, I … thanked the coaches for everything they’ve done for us, and said, ‘Hats off to the young guys for helping the seniors leave on a good note,’ ” Butler said. “I’ll bleed purple and gold until I die.”
A 5-7 season isn’t a success by Florida’s standards, or Alabama’s or even Boise State’s.
But for the Huskies, they think it’s a sign of greater things yet to happen under a new regime.
“We got a lot accomplished,” Sarkisian said. “We’ve obviously still got a lot of work to do. We’d just like to have a couple of fourth-and-1s on the goal line back, and you never know where we might be today.”
Todd Milles: 253-597-8442
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