UW Football | Huskies take a break in 2008, sort of

What looms as Tyrone Willingham's make-or-break season at Washington might begin against the opponent that has troubled him as much as any in his three years at UW — the Oregon Ducks.

The Huskies and Ducks have agreed to move their game for next season from Sept. 13 to Aug. 30, one of three changes Washington hopes to make to its 2008 schedule to create a few off weeks and give the players some rest.

The changes are expected to be discussed, and likely approved, by Pac-10 athletic directors today.

If approved, UW would:

• Move the Sept. 13 game at Oregon to Aug. 30, the season opener for both teams;

• Move a home game with Oklahoma on Sept. 20 to Sept. 13;

• Move the Oct. 11 game at California to Dec. 6.

The changes would give UW its longest regular season by creating three byes — on Sept. 20 (between home games against Oklahoma and Stanford), Oct. 11 (between games at Arizona and at home against Oregon State) and Nov. 29 (the week after the Apple Cup).

The Huskies wanted to create some byes to avoid playing 12 games in 12 weeks, as they did during the 2006 season. And in years when the Apple Cup is in Pullman it takes even more creativity because Washington State doesn't want to move the game from its Saturday-before-Thanksgiving date because students are off the following week and attendance would suffer.

Aside from creating byes, UW athletic director Todd Turner said he also likes the revamped schedule because "it spreads out the year and it keeps you playing right up until the last part of the season, so if there is a postseason in your future, you've kept your team sharp. The other piece about it is that it probably opens up some TV opportunities for us. I think we will have some pretty good TV exposure."

There was talk of playing the Oregon game on Aug. 28, a Thursday night, but that couldn't be worked out, Turner said.

Still, the game would be UW's earliest Pac-10 game and would be the first time the Huskies have opened with a conference game since 1998 at Arizona State.

Oregon has won four in a row against UW, and has outscored the Huskies 134-69 since Willingham became coach.

Turner said there was no real discussion of changing any opponents for next season — UW will host Oklahoma, BYU and Notre Dame in nonconference play.

DeCastro takes in UW

Bellevue High School center David DeCastro committed to Stanford last May. But wanting to make sure he made the right call, he decided to take a recruiting visit to Washington last weekend. And now, he says the Huskies might have a real shot.

"It definitely helped a lot in terms of the UW side," DeCastro said of his visit. "I still feel strong to Stanford but we'll see. You never know."

DeCastro is rated as the No. 3 center in the country by Scout.com and said he isn't sure when he'll make a final decision. He said it could go until signing day in February. Washington and Stanford are the only schools he is considering.

Another of UW's few remaining in-state targets — defensive end Everrette Thompson of Kennedy — also visited last weekend. Thompson is expected to take a trip this weekend to Oregon State.

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