UW Football | Legacy at stake today for UW seniors

They are almost the forgotten men in all the debate over the future of the Huskies football program.

A future that could be determined greatly by what happens today when UW hosts Stanford at 7 p.m. at Husky Stadium.

A loss, and the Huskies will fall to 0-4, with few figuring UW will be able to get the six or seven wins it likely needs to save the job of coach Tyrone Willingham.

But for the 14 seniors on the Huskies roster, this is all the future that is left. For them, it's not necessarily about saving a job, but about attempting to leave UW with a last good memory, and maybe something of a legacy of being the ones who helped turn the program around.

Those feelings resonate strongly with the 10 players remaining who predate Willingham — nine who signed in 2004 when Keith Gilbertson was coach, and Juan Garcia, a sixth-year player who signed in 2003.

They signed when winning seasons and bowl games were still considered a birthright at UW. Instead, they are in danger of being the first set of fifth-year seniors to go through an entire career without a .500 season.

"It's been hard, no doubt about it," said fifth-year senior fullback Luke Kravitz. "We look at those things and talk about them, and we can't accept that as our fate. And we are not going to this year."

Indeed, the seniors this week agreed that despite a rugged 0-3 start to this season, they think this team is different from the previous ones they have played on.

"I felt the past couple of years there have been guys that just accepted losing and became comfortable with a culture of losing," Kravitz said. "I don't see that in any of the guys on this team this year. So it's with that in mind I feel this has to turn around."

Tight end Michael Gottlieb, a walk-on in 2004 who quickly earned a scholarship that season, agreed.

"I say this team definitely has a lot of fight and a real strong character about us," he said. "Where that takes us, I don't know. But I feel very confident it will lead us in some good directions. Obviously, we have failed to achieve that the last couple of years. But I feel really good about it."

The task now is to turn good feelings into good play. The Huskies had last Saturday off after a 55-14 loss to Oklahoma. Much of the extra time was spent refocusing on fundamentals, especially tackling. The team did a lot of live scrimmaging to work on tackling the past two weeks.

That will be especially critical today against Stanford running back Toby Gerhart, a 6-foot-1, 228-pounder who is the most dangerous player on the Cardinal roster. Gerhart is third in the Pac-10 in rushing with 407 yards.

"Every game you see one or two plays where it looks like he's stopped and he's not," said UW linebackers coach Chris Tormey. "So we have to do a great job of gang tackling."

Offensively, the Huskies expect the Cardinal to come with a lot of blitzes. Stanford had eight sacks last week in a 23-10 victory over San Jose State.

That win improved Stanford's record to 2-2 and set this game up as pivotal for the Cardinal's hopes of getting to a bowl game for the first time since 2001 — Willingham's last year as coach at Stanford.

The best way for UW to beat those blitzes could be by re-establishing its running game. While the defense worked on tackling during the bye week, the offense attempted to get the running game going.

An offensive line featuring three seniors was expected to be the strength of the team. Instead, it has struggled, and the Huskies are averaging just 2.8 yards per carry.

But the bye week, and a downshift in opponent, could help revive the line. So could the memory of last year's game against Stanford when UW rushed for 388 yards in a 27-9 win in Palo Alto, the most rushing yards for the Huskies since 1996.

UW offensive coordinator Tim Lappano said the team talked the past two weeks of a "new beginning" in the wake of the 0-3 start against three ranked teams, and now playing opponents who don't appear as stout.

"We've backed ourselves into a corner," he said this week. "We've got to do whatever it takes to get this thing going. We know that. Our players are aware of that."

None more so than the seniors, who are aware that their time is running out.

"Every year the upperclassmen say they want to leave the young guys with something to build on, and now it's our last year," said senior defensive tackle Johnie Kirton. "So that's our goal, to leave this place with a winning record and a bowl victory."

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