The Washington Huskies have arrived in South Bend, Ind.!
Well, not so fast.
The players and coaches themselves are still scheduled to hold a mid-morning practice Thursday, then board an early-afternoon charter flight from Sea-Tac Airport to the home of Notre Dame football.
But most of their equipment is already there.
Many Pacific-10 Conference teams are getting healthy (Arizona) while a few are still bruised and battered (WSU, USC).
ARIZONA: Nic Grigsby, the Wildcats’ talented running back and 1,000-yard rusher from last season, will be ready to go for the Huskies on Oct. 10. He’s coming off a sprained AC joint in his shoulder.
ARIZONA STATE: Cover man Holman, who had a monster game against Georgia, is still dealing with hard time after death of grandfather and two close friends in short amount of time.
CALIFORNIA: In the aftermath of a bad loss at Oregon, Bears are still …
Rain, rain – stick around!
The weather reported called for showers in Seattle much of the week, and the Huskies saw that (and a little bit of wind) Tuesday for their afternoon practice.
And in anticipation for wet weather in South Bend, Ind. this week for the matchup against Notre Dame, coach Steve Sarkisian held practice outdoors instead of in the Dempsey Center.
The Stafon Johnson accident was a popular topic among those watching practice Monday. Sad. The USC tailback will miss the season.
ARIZONA: A year later, Ross gets redemption, and not fried, on a long pass against Oregon State. It helped net a much-needed win.
ARIZONA STATE: Suddenly, Erickson facing his old team (Oregon State) becomes pivotal game to both teams’ postseason chances.
CALIFORNIA: It was originally dubbed the early-October meeting for the Pac-10 title. Now, it’s just another ordinary Cal-USC matchup.
OREGON: Nobody is really sure what the status of Thurmond (knee) is for the coming …
Notre Dame week only comes around every so often – and for the second time in as many years. The big difference this time around, as opposed to last season, is that the Huskies travel to the site of “Touchdown Jesus” for the fourth time in school history.
Aside from defensive end Daniel Te’o-Nesheim, who likes to read the “history” section in the media guides for a lot of the storied college programs around the country (Pacific Lutheran excluded), many of the UW players aren’t in tune to the tradition of Notre Dame football, looking at the iconoclastic bits of the Irish’s history as more trivial than relevant.
Why would they? Notre Dame has slipped off the national scale pretty much the past decade-and-a-half.
There’s always, “Rudy” (after Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, former Notre Dame walkon). The real-life movie for all underdogs. The football flick that tugs at your senses. Yes, even Huskies like it.
The Pacific-10 Conference has been turned inside-out, and nobody really knows what to expect going forward.
ARIZONA: Ignore the punter story (or read it … it is about a punter), but what’s next to it. Stoops figures a lot of his injured players will be back by the UW game on Oct. 10.
ARIZONA STATE: A good recap about the Sun Devils’ almost-successful weekend at Georgia. Good showing by ASU.
CALIFORNIA: After Best was smothered at the line of scrimmage by the Ducks, the Bears can expect the same approach in coming weeks – until they can …
Oh, how fast optimism dissipates, how quickly hope sinks after a bad defeat – and the Washington Huskies’ 34-14 stinker at Stanford was, plain and simple, a rude reality check.
Blame can be painted in every corner:
• Like quarterback Jake Locker, who wasn’t nearly as efficient as he was in the first game. The early interception was his fault – he threw into double coverage. The second one was a miscue off a broken play, and debatable.
• Or how about the special-team corps, in general. Inexplicably, Erik Folk booted the kickoff in the opposite direction to start the game, and the Huskies paid on Chris Owusu’s 91-return for a touchdown. Or bad decisions by Johri Fogerson or Jordan Polk on the UW’s returns on kickoffs.
Nothing like a grinding, churning, nasty 235-pound running back to send the Washington Huskies sprawling back to earth in the Pacific-10 Conference football race.
Stanford throttled the 24th-ranked Huskies, 34-14, in front of 36,930 in its home stadium. But this was Toby Gerhart’s night to put the Cardinal on its back en route to a career-high 200 rushing yards.
About Gerhart’s performance:
• Except for when Stanford ran out the clock at the end of the first half, he touched the ball at least one on every one of the team’s nine drives.