Chance awaits for Huskies big return

NORMAN, Okla. — For a few hours, anyway, Washington Huskies football will be back in the limelight.

Whether the Huskies can prolong the stay depends on what happens after kickoff here today against a traditional power in one of the game's great venues and before an ABC-TV audience.

Win today, or even just stay in it all the way against the Oklahoma Sooners at Memorial Stadium, and the Huskies will show they might really be on the way back in the second year of Tyrone Willingham's tenure.

But lose decisively, as they have done so many times in games like these the past few years, and the Huskies will go back in the closet, consigned to the college football scrap heap for another season.

"This is our chance," UW senior linebacker Scott White said of the 12:30 p.m. contest. "This is our opportunity to take that next step and be talked about on 'ESPN GameDay" and in USA Today and really show people that we are back. I know guys are really excited what this opportunity could bring to the program. This could get us back on the national landscape."

Not that anyone outside their locker room is really expecting that to happen.

Washington enters the game as a 16 ˝-point underdog, a spread as close as it is due in part to some lingering uncertainty about the Sooners.

And therein might lie the key to UW's chances.

Consider that this is the youngest team Bob Stoops has had in eight years at Oklahoma, with just 11 seniors, six of whom start.

Consider further that starting quarterback Rhett Bomar was kicked off the team in early August for violating NCAA rules, which also cost the team starting offensive lineman J.D. Quinn. The loss of Bomar persuaded many analysts to drop OU from national title contender to merely a top-10 team.

The new quarterback is Paul Thompson, a senior who has just two starts at QB, having played receiver a year ago. Thompson is operating behind an offensive line that features four new starters, all sophomores, and one is a junior-college transfer.

Without Bomar, the Sooners figure to be more dependant than ever on running back Adrian Peterson, a contender for the Heisman Trophy.

And while Stoops said this could be a really good defensive team, OU struggled to put the clamps on Alabama-Birmingham last week despite the presence of linebacker Rufus Alexander, a Butkus Award candidate.

The Sooners had to rally in the third quarter to win their home opener, 24-17, losing four turnovers and allowing two long touchdown drives.

"We didn't play our best," Stoops said.

That the Sooners figure to be inspired to come out and show they are a lot better than that might be one of UW's biggest obstacles today.

On the other hand, UW players have looked at that score and the fact Oklahoma was blown out last season by fellow Pac-10 member UCLA and taken solace that maybe there isn't as big a gap between the two teams as everyone thinks.

"They are college kids just like we are," said UW defensive end Greyson Gunheim.

Still, they are college kids playing for a program that has lost just 16 games since 1998. UW has lost 19 since 2004.

And the Huskies did little to convince anyone last week they are really on the road back, having to fight to the end to hold off lowly San Jose State, 35-29.

"I feel like that was kind of a blessing in disguise," White said, adding that the Huskies began to succumb to some of their old bad habits, namely not playing as intensely as needed for all 60 minutes.

That they won anyway, UW players and coaches said all week, shows a difference between this team and the ones of the past two years.

Today, however, will tell a lot more.

The Huskies probably couldn't have picked a better top-10 team to play this season than Oklahoma in terms of the overall matchup. UW's defensive strength might be against the run, which also figures to be Oklahoma's prime weapon today thanks to the presence of Peterson.

And Oklahoma has had some trouble in recent years defending mobile quarterbacks such as UW's Isaiah Stanback.

"Why can't the Huskies go down there and win?" Willingham asked defiantly this week.

But he, more than anyone, understands why the doubters remain. And how winning a game like this is the only thing that will change the lowly perception of the Huskies.

"That's what this program needs," he said. "You don't prove yourselves until you prove it against good competition and good teams that have the kind of history and tradition that earmarks great programs. So that's what we have to get, a win like that."

Note

• With the roster limit expanded for a nonconference game, five true freshmen made the trip, including QB Jake Locker. Others are FB Paul Homer and LB Donald Butler — who have already played — and OLs Cody Habben and Ryan Tolar.

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com