Rough first start for Nick Montana

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Nick Montana couldn’t hide the disappointment in losing his first college start Saturday.

The redshirt freshman quarterback met with the media with eyes puffy and red following Washington’s 38-21 loss to Oregon State at Reser Stadium.

And even as he tried to answer questions about the start, the emotion choked his voice and tears appeared in the corners of his eyes.

“It just didn’t go the way I wanted it to go,” he said, his voice cracking. “I need to play a lot better and I just didn’t do it.’’

Montana didn’t play poorly, but he wasn’t outstanding, either.

He threw for 79 yards and two touchdowns – both to Austin Seferian-Jenkins – on 11-of-21 accuracy. He also threw an interception, which led to an OSU touchdown, and was sacked and fumbled, which led to another Beavers score.

“I think today was a freshman making his first start,” UW coach Steve Sarkisian said. “There were some moments where he did some nice things, and some other times, not so nice. That was somewhat to be expected. I didn’t expect him to come out and just set the world on fire, but I thought he handled himself admirably and will only get better for it.”

But Montana expected more from himself.

“We started off strong, we just missed a few plays here and there, some big ones we needed to make,” he said. “I needed to make a few throws, it just comes down to a few plays.’’

Montana did make some good throws early – both touchdown passes were solid. But as is so often the case, the mistakes he made were magnified.

The interception in the first quarter was a pass that was late to Jermaine Kearse, allowing Jordan Poyer to pick it off. That set up an OSU touchdown.

In the third quarter, he was sacked from behind by Scott Crichton and fumbled deep in Washington territory. Oregon State needed two plays to capitalize with a touchdown.

“It was just my fault, there is nothing to say,” Montana said of the fumble.

Sarkisian went to Keith Price on the next Washington possession, hoping to “get a spark.” Montana said he understood the reasoning.

“Anything we can do to win and give them a little spark, so it was good,” he said. “Keith did a good job”

Once the comeback attempt failed with Price after two series, Montana finished the game.

The postgame emotion and disappointment from Montana was genuine.

“It’s everything,” he said. “I don’t like losing. We work so hard with these guys and the coaches.’’

Price understood what his teammate was feeling. He had some words of advice.

“Keep your head up, keep fighting,” Price said. “It’s hard to win. No matter who you play in this conference, it’s going to be tough every week. He’s kind of emotional, but he’ll get back up.”

PRICE PLAYS

Sarkisian needed a spark from Price, which he got with a 20-yard touchdown pass to cut the deficit to 10 points.

But Sarkisian also may have found second-guessing from fans wondering why he didn’t start Price if he was healthy enough to play.

“Everything in my mind comes to the health of the player first,” Sarkisian said. “These guys are my kids, and if we could have gotten though this game without using Keith I would have done that. For his health, as he moves forward, as we move into next week and into the offseason and then bowl game and then offseason – I felt like not starting him was the right thing to do, based on the health of Keith Price.”

Price admitted he didn’t think he would play, but he wanted to.

“I wanted to play the whole game,” he said. “I felt like I could play the whole game. But Coach thought it was best for me to sit out, so I sat out.”

Will he be sitting out next week in the Apple Cup?

“We’ll see,” Sarkisian said. “I would imagine so. We would like for that to happen, but again we’ll see how he looks. I think he came out of it OK. Those moments like that, you put a guy in and the adrenaline is pumping pretty good and you feel really good right at that moment – but we’ll see how it responds tomorrow.”

COSTLY DROP

Seferian-Jenkins is probably the best young tight end, not just in the Pacific-12 Conference, but in the entire country. He’s helped change the Huskies’ passing attack as a true freshman. More importantly, he’s been sure-handed with minimal drops.

But one of those rare drops came at the worst time for the Huskies.

Late in the third quarter with the Huskies trailing 17-14, Seferian-Jenkins slipped into the secondary uncovered because of a blown OSU coverage. Montana fired a deep pass to him all alone. If it wasn’t a sure touchdown, it would have led to one.

Inexplicably, the ball hit him in the hands and body and dropped to the turf.

“Wide open, dropped the pass,” he said. “Big players make big-time plays and I didn’t make that play. I’m disappointed in myself, I let down my team and it’s really hard to deal with right now but I’ve just got to move on.’’

It overshadowed an otherwise good game from Seferian-Jenkins, who caught six passes for 40 yards and two short touchdowns.

But that drop will sting.

“I shook it off next play,” he said. “It happens, but it’s just really tough to have that opportunity and you don’t capture that opportunity. Opportunities are not given to you very often and when you don’t take full advantage of them, it’s really tough and I personally take it really tough because I feel like the team can count on me and when you don’t come through … it’s really tough, really tough.’’

INJURIES PILE UP

The Huskies may have lost one of their best offensive linemen for the rest of the season when guard Colin Tanigawa went down with a knee injury in the second quarter.

Sarkisian said that it could be a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Tanigawa will undergo a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test to assess the damage. Senior Nick Wood took his place on the line.

Safety Justin Glenn suffered a concussion on the opening kickoff and didn’t play the rest of the game. Fellow safety Will Shamburger missed much of the second half with a stinger.

Ryan Divish: 253-597-8483 ryan.divish@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/uwsports