UW Football | Huskies focus on forcing turnovers

As the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame in 2002, Kent Baer oversaw a unit that forced 33 turnovers, one of the biggest reasons for the Irish's surprising success that season.

In the two years Baer has held the same job at Washington, the Huskies have yet to reach that number, getting a combined 31.

So what's the difference?

Baer wishes he knew.

"We're teaching a lot of the same things [at UW]," he says. "At Notre Dame, we were unbelievable. It was one of those things where you emphasize it and coach it and the kids had fun with it and believed they could do it and wanted to do it."

Baer's hoping that same mix will finally take hold at UW this season.

Certainly, he promises, it will be emphasized.

Especially after the Huskies forced just 14 turnovers last season, which ranked tied for 111th out of 117 Division I-A teams.

When the defense gathered for its initial preseason meeting, turnovers were the first item on the agenda.

"They just change the game so much," Baer said. "It's the biggest single stat in football."

But Baer says talking about it only goes so far.

He recalls once listening to longtime NFL defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmur, who told Baer he found it a little funny how coaches spent so much time trying to teach how to create turnovers in practice.

"That's important," Baer remembers him saying. "But what's really important is whether the players believe they can do it and the physical nature of how you play."

In essence, teaching your players how to strip the football doesn't do much good if they can't get in position to strip it in the first place.

"I don't think we've been the most physical football team defensively the last two years," Baer said. "But I think we have a chance to be a more physical team this year, and the more physical you are you create more turnovers."

Still, it wasn't as if the Huskies were never in position to get some potentially game-changing turnovers a year ago.

Coaches still cringe thinking about the USC game when the Huskies dropped two interceptions in the final minutes, one by returning cornerback Roy Lewis, that might have gone for touchdowns.

"Sometimes it's just making the play when it comes to you," Lewis said.

The Huskies finished the season with just 10 interceptions, ahead of only Stanford (seven) in the Pac-10, continuing a lowly trend of recent seasons. UW hasn't had more than 10 interceptions since getting 16 in 2003.

"We've got to do a much better job of catching the football," Baer said. "We had chances where there were tipped passes or dropped passes. We've got to do a better job of breaking on passes and catching the ball."

Sometimes it's also about simply falling on the ball.

Washington opponents had 19 fumbles last season, the highest total since 2002. But the Huskies somehow managed to recover only four of them — only the University of Central Florida, with two, recovered fewer.

Baer also wants to see the Huskies do something with turnovers once they get them.

UW has scored three defensive touchdowns the past two seasons (the 2002 Notre Dame team had six). And the Huskies have a paltry minus-one yard in fumble return yardage the past two seasons.

"When you do get it, the advantage is really with the defense," Baer said. "Those big offensive linemen aren't used to tackling. So it's important to try to score on them. Those are momentum-changers, game-changers."

Players hope that being in the system another season, thereby being able to react more instead of thinking, will make a difference, though it's worth pointing out that 2002 was the first season for Baer (and Tyrone Willingham) at Notre Dame.

"The more you understand the concepts and the schemes you can put yourself in a better position to make certain plays," Lewis said.

Linebacker Dan Howell said he thinks the players have to make a greater effort "to swarm to the ball" on every play and run faster and hit harder.

Whatever the method, all agree it has to get done somehow if the Huskies are to improve.

"We are trying to be will-killers this year," said defensive tackle Jordan Reffett. "Break our opponents' will. And the way you do that is creating turnovers."

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com. Read his blogs on Washington football and basketball at www.seattletimes.com/huskies.