Sarkisian concerned with UW's short-yardage woes

PROVO, Utah — Of all the things that led Washington to lose here to Brigham Young 23-17 Saturday night, one of the most worrisome for UW coach Steve Sarkisian was an inability to convert third-and-shorts.

Washington failed on three plays of third-and-two or third-and-one, twice on consecutive drives in the third quarter as the momentum swung toward BYU.

Twice, the Huskies tried to run for it and couldn't get it, another time deciding to throw.

"Our ability to knock people off the football is concerning to me," Sarkisian said. "And it's been concerning, and we'll continue to stress it and work on it because it's such a big factor in the ballgame to extend drives, and it didn't work out today. We'll get better."

Huskies tailback Chris Polk said he thought it came down to a matter of will.

"I just think that they just wanted it more, honestly," he said.

Or as UW tight end Chris Izbicki said: "They came out and outworked us. It's too bad."

BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall, meanwhile, said he didn't think it is a coincidence that his team won more of those battles as the game wore on.

"It looked like we played with more energy," he said. "It looked like we held our conditioning in the second half and it looked as the game went on that we were more conditioned. It looked like we were handling the pace at a better level than our opponent."

Not-so-special teams

Other than a 54-yard field goal by Erik Folk — the third-longest in school history — the UW special teams were anything but much of the night.

Washington gave up a safety when long snapper Brendan Lopez, playing in his first game, fired it far over punter Will Mahan in the first quarter.

And Polk mishandled a couple of kickoffs resulting in poor field position for the Huskies.

"I thought our kickoff return was not very good at all tonight," Sarkisian said. "We didn't block very well, we didn't catch it very well, we didn't make good decisions. We've spent enough time on special teams that I think we can be better than that, and we will be better than that. There are things there that we can definitely clean up that is not about our opponent, but about us."

Polk was replaced as kickoff returner late in the game with true freshman Jesse Callier.

Polk said he understood the decision and took the blame for the misplays.

"That's on me," he said. "I'm supposed to field it at all times. That's just me. That was my mistake. I take the blame for that one."

Folk boots it long

Sarkisian had marveled during training camp at the improved leg of Folk.

And that, combined with the altitude here of about 4,400 feet and the wind at UW's back enticed Sarkisian to allow Folk to try a 54-yard field goal on the last play of the first half.

Folk hit it with plenty of room to spare to give UW a 17-13 halftime lead and put his name in the record book.

"I hit it pretty well," Folk said. "I think that would have been good at Husky Stadium."

It was the third-longest field goal in UW history behind only 56-yarders by John Anderson in 1999 and Don Martin against Air Force in 1967.

UW hadn't hit a field goal of 50 yards or more since Anderson nailed a 52-yarder against Arizona in 2002.

Notes

• Sarkisian was honored at halftime as one of BYU's eight greatest quarterbacks. However, he stayed in the locker room for the ceremony. There was a nice round of applause as his name was announced. Sarkisian had said somewhat tongue-in-cheek that he would attend the ceremony if UW led by 21 at halftime. With the Huskies up just 17-13, he obviously felt he had more important duties.

• The Huskies played 13 true freshmen in the game, which set a record for UW for a season, breaking the 12 of 2008.

• Starting receiver James Johnson didn't play due to a lingering ankle injury and was replaced primarily by Cody Bruns, who had a career-high three catches.