Had a chance the other day to talk to Washington cornerbacks coach Demetrice Martin, who like the rest of the team's coaches is continuing to learn a bit more about the players under his command in the first year for everyone on the staff.

Martin says that despite some of the pass defense numbers that show the Huskies near the bottom of the Pac-10, UW's corners have continued to get better.

"The statistics --- it is what it is,'' Martin said. "But every week, our guys are getting better and better as far as understanding the defense, missing less tackles, being where we are supposed to be in coverage, that type of thing. Like any other young defense, we make some busts here and there, and those busts are the ones that are costing us big time. That's the thing we've got to eliminate, those 1-2-3 busts. Get rid of those and that cuts out 150-200 yards of stats and puts us in a different situation where we may not have to win the game on the last drive, that type of thing.''

The Huskies have continued to experiement with combinations at cornerback but the last few weeks have settled on true freshman Desmond Trufant on one side, and redshirt freshman Adam Long on the other.

UW defensive coordinator Nick Holt has been so pleased with Trufant that he said recently he doesn't even consider him a freshman anymore.

Not that they are displeased with Long, but that side is more competitive and figures to be for the rest of the season. Long took over before the Arizona State game for Quinton Richardson who started the first six games of the season.

Martin says a nagging ankle injury helped contribute to the change.

"He's getting back on track,'' Martin said of Richardson. "I think some injuries may have slowed him down a little bit and he was kind of lagging and sulking and licking his wounds and frustrated that he couldn't do what he felt he could do as far as injuries and stuff like that. But now he's getting healthy, and not only healthy but hungry to get back out there on the field. So he's competing more and getting closer and making plays, so that's good. It's competitive and that gets everybody better within the group. So he's still pushing Adam, still pushing Trufant. And Vonzell (McDowell) is coming along, and then you move Anthony Boyles over and he's doing a good job, making plays. You see his natural ability. Once he learns the defense and the full technique of it, I think he's going to be a good one, too.''

The Huskies may need all of those corners to deal with Oregon State's offense this week as the Beavers operate out of the one-back, often putting three or more receivers on the field.

"You look at the corners, we've held up pretty good this year against a lot of taller, bigger faster receivers as far as playing our coverage within the scheme of the defense,'' he said. "So schematically we may change some things or do some different things this week to Oregon State to try to throw their quarterback off the rocker a little bit.''