Judging by his performance Saturday and the comments of coaches afterward, Isaiah Stanback is busting out ahead of the pack in the four-man race to become Washington's starting quarterback.

Which isn't bad considering Stanback said yesterday he feels like he can barely get out of the starting blocks because of a sore hamstring first suffered while running track during the indoor season. Stanback said he tweaked it again the first week of spring drills.

"I can't really run," he said.

Stanback looked fairly fleet, however, during Saturday's scrimmage, at one point running for an apparent 11-yard touchdown, though he was called down after being touched with QBs off limits to full contact.

"I felt like I was jogging," he said. "I watched it on tape and it didn't look like I was jogging. But I felt like I was jogging."

Stanback threw for one touchdown and was the only quarterback to consistently move the offense during the scrimmage, after which offensive coordinator Tim Lappano said Stanback was beginning to separate himself from the other three quarterbacks.

Added coach Tyrone Willingham yesterday: "I'm pleased with the progress he's made and he's been doing it on a (sore) hamstring at the same time, so I'm pleased by that commitment, that involvement and also his ability, as he showed on Saturday, to execute and get some things done."

Asked his assessment of his performance Saturday, Stanback said, "I think I did pretty cool. I'm still learning some things."

Sign of the times

In further evidence that Huskies football tickets aren't as hot an item as they used to be, UW announced yesterday it is "building a new marketing campaign designed to re-energize Husky fans and to promote ticket sales for the upcoming 2005 season."

The campaign will include three TV ads that are part of an campaign called the "Return of the Dawgs" that will feature Willingham and basketball coach Lorenzo Romar.

A spokesman said the school has sold about 44,000 season tickets, compared to about 48,000 at this stage a year ago.

UW sold 58,552 season tickets a year ago, continuing a trend that has seen numbers steadily decreased since the Huskies sold 65,362 in 2001, the year after winning the Rose Bowl.

Along the with team's 1-10 record a year ago, ticket sales have also likely been impacted by significant price increases.

Notes

• Willingham's general assessment of Saturday's scrimmage? "Upset with what I saw," he said. "Mental mistakes, mental mistakes, mental mistakes. There were far too many of those."

• Willingham said the turnout for Saturday's reunion and barbecue "probably exceeded my expectations." He said there were about 150 former players there, including Bud Erickson, a center from 1935 to 1937.

• Willingham got to know Tiger Woods when he was coaching at Stanford and Woods was a student. He said he watched every second of Sunday's coverage of the Masters. "We're friends. I think I can say it that way," he said.