BYU football: Offense should be hard to handle
Dick Harmon
Washington has a proud and stingy home field in which they lose home-openers only about 30 percent of the time.
BYU's trying to hatchet itself out of an 0-9 coffin in these non-league road games, dating back to 2002 in Logan.
Husky coach Ty Willingham, once named the "Sporting News" Man of the Year when he was winning at Notre Dame, has his back, heels, elbows and noggin pushed up against the wall. He's got to start winning at Washington.
BYU's lofty No. 15 ranking and Quest for Perfection are nakedly on the line at a place many have stumbled.
Washington is struggling.
BYU is favored to win by 9.5 points and, if it doesn't, three years of credibility built by Bronco Mendenhall will be rocked.
This is the scene of today's showdown between the Cougars and Huskies.
For the Cougars, the only way they lose this game is if Max Hall is injured in the first half, the team suffers four or five turnovers and gives up kickoff returns for touchdowns.
For the Huskies, there are many ways they lose this game, especially if they play defense and tackle like they didn't last week at Oregon.
"Obviously their quarterback is their main player," said BYU defensive coordinator Jaime Hill. "He's very, very talented. We have to make sure we do everything we can to contain him. Their offensive line is very experienced, with four of the five starters back. Their running backs are young but talented, so are their receivers. The main focal point of their offense is the quarterback.
"Teams have tried to bottle him up and make sure he throws the ball. We'll do that sometimes and other times don't let him throw the ball; we'll do a little of both."
Locker? Who is this man and why is he so feared? Is his name Kal-El and did he drop in from some dying planet?
"He's faster than anybody on the field," Hill said.
But does he option, does he sprint out, does he QB sneak?
"He's faster than anybody on the field," the coach repeated.
"They have designed plays just for him. They've had 15 plays designed for him. This last game they had only five plays designed for just him, he touched it 10 times, but most of them were scrambles that he just took off running. He's most dangerous in a scramble situation. At least with the designed plays, you have blocks you can work to overcome."
Hill said it's seriously simple: Do not let Jake Locker create plays for himself.
The last time I covered a BYU game at Husky Stadium, in 1996, that Cougar team's main focus before kickoff was wardrobe issues. And it showed. That group gave up a 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and missed three field goals in losing 29-17. They never lost another game that season.
Recent comments
Good call, dude.
Did you predict a blocked extra point with 2…what else can you say | Sept. 6, 2008 at 9:55 p.m.
Props to "what else can you say": picked the score down to the last…
MT in MD | Sept. 6, 2008 at 9:04 p.m.
props to the humble BYU fans who take all the games as serious threats…
wow | Sept. 6, 2008 at 2:57 p.m.
