Washington and Arizona State rank eighth and ninth, respectively, in the Pacific-10 Conference rushing statistics.
That’s often a telling indicator of struggling teams, which the Huskies and Sun Devils certainly are.
UW will take an 0-8 record into its 4 p.m. Saturday game against ASU at Husky Stadium, while the Sun Devils have lost six in a row after a 2-0 start.
Yet, both teams believe they saw glimmers of hope in their ground games last week, when the Huskies were routed at Southern Cal, 56-0, and the Sun Devils were nipped at Oregon State, 27-25.
And in ASU’s case, it may have been more than a glimmer as Shaun DeWitty, a 227-pound junior, unleashed a season-high 110 rushing yards in Corvallis.
That individual effort topped the 71 total yards coming from the combined efforts of five Huskies last weekend. However, tailbacks Brandon Johnson and Terrance Dailey seemed to make the most of the running room that was available to them against the dominating Trojans defense.
“I thought both of those guys had some good runs in there for us,”
coach Tyrone Willingham said. “Brandon stepped up and had some very positive, some very strong runs and was our leading rusher. I was not pleased, but I liked a lot of things I saw from them.”
Johnson had 54 yards on 18 carries, while Dailey managed 30 on nine attempts.
UW is 113th among the 119 teams of the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision with an average of 89.5 rushing yards per game. In a particularly telling statistic, the Huskies’ leading rusher remains Jake Locker – a quarterback who has been lost to injury since the fourth game.
The Sun Devils have been even less effective, rushing for an average of 85.9 yards per game – 115th in the FBS.
That’s what made DeWitty’s performance so encouraging.
“He’s pretty physical and (helped with) the things that we planed to do against Oregon State,”
coach Dennis Erickson said. “We actually got a long run (54 yards, by DeWitty) – that’s been unusual for us. We were just a little more consistent with blocking and attempted to run it a little bit more in the right situations. Basically, that’s what happened. Hopefully, we can be a little more consistent running it.”
Much of that hope rests with ASU’s reworked offensive line. The Sun Devils came into the season looking to replace offensive linemen representing a total 127 career starts. But in Erickson’s second season, they were not as prepared to do it as the coach hopes they will be once his program is more established.
“We’ve got a lot of young guys,”
he said. “You’d like to have older guys that those guys can build on and replace as time goes on. The great programs in the country do that and are always pretty solid there. ... If you can do that and be pretty good all the time in the offensive front, then you’ve got a real, real good chance to be successful year in and year out.”
Extra points
The UW injury list includes two starting defensive linemen hurt during separate pregame warmups. Senio Kelemete, who hurt his knee before the Notre Dame game, is out again this week; Cameron Elisara, who suffered a neck injury while warning up at USC, has returned to practice and is likely for ASU. Cornerback Mesphin Forrester (knee) is expected to be out at least one more week. Linebacker Donald Butler (neck) started wearing a protective red practice jersey but is probable for the weekend. ... The Huskies practiced under dark cloud but there was nothing as dramatic as the lightning and thunder that altered their Tuesday practice. ... Asked about Tuesday’s election of Barack Obama as the country’s first black president, Willingham called it a “great day for America because now what is written in the Constitution comes to life.”
