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Sleeping Dawgs won't lie Reggie and Cody awaken Dawgs with 70-yard TD By: Richard Linde, 6 September 2003
"In my opinion, this (UW) is a more talented team than Connecticut," so said Indiana’s Coach Gary DiNardo after watching film of the OSU/UW football game a couple of days before his Hoosiers matched up with the Dawgs in Seattle. A week ago Saturday, the Hoosiers lost to the Connecticut Huskies, 34-10, at Storrs, CT. Regardless of which team is better, this week's or last week's Huskies, both Huskies won, and that is the bottom line for their coaches, especially so for Keith Gilbertson, who secured his first win as Washington's head coach. "I feel better than I felt last week," Gilby said, referring to the UW's 28-9 defeat at 2nd-ranked Ohio State. In a pre-game tribute, the Washington band spelled out "GILBY" to honor his debut as Huskies' head coach. The game tied 10-10 at halftime, Indiana took a 13-10 lead after Bryan Robertson kicked a 39-yard field goal to open the second half. However, the sleeping Dawgs, who slept for most of the first half, finally woke up. Moments later, QB Cody Pickett hit WR Reggie Williams on a crossing pattern, and Williams took it to the house, aided by a block from Charles "ET" Frederick near the Hoosiers' 30-yard line. The play went for 70 yards. After that the jaws on Husky stadium put a vice-like clamp on the Hoosiers, who were dealt a fatal blow by the refs and by a lateral pass that was recovered by the Huskies on their own 46. After the lateral recovery, with his team stalled on the IU 34 with a fourth and 5, Coach Gilbertson decided on a field goal, but then changed his mind because of the wind coming off the lake. The confusion resulted in a 5 yard penalty against Indiana, giving the Huskies a first down. Acting like a Big Ten coach out of the past, Gary DiNardo protested the penalty more than vehemently, but to no avail, pushing one of his assistant coaches on the sidelines after stalking and yapping at a zebra on the field of play. The Huskies then drove to the IU six-yard line, where an improvising Shelton Sampson raced around the left side for a score on a play that was called up the gut. That gave the Dawgs a 24-13 lead. With 1:54 left in the quarter, Sampson ran the ball in from 4 yards, making the score 31-13. On the penultimate play of the quarter, Pickett hit Reggie Williams with a 6-yard TD pass, the Dawgs' last TD on the game. Handing the Hoosiers their eighth-straight loss, the Huskies, who out-muscled the Hoosiers, simply wore them down in the last half. Indiana has 64 scholarship players (85 is the limit), and was 3-8 last season. Up until their third-quarter outburst, the Huskies played perfunctorily, looking lethargic in comparison to the nettling Hoosiers, with their hustle and old-college try. The Pickett/Williams' hookup for 70 yards ignited the Huskies and, subsequently, they were never headed. A flip-flop from last week's encounter with Ohio State, when the Dawgs ran 24 times and passed 49 times, this week's Huskies rushed the ball 52 times, posting 193 yards on the ground (compared to 7 yards against OSU) and threw 27 times for 296 yards (compared to 255 yards against the Buckeyes). The good. Washington assembled a semblance of a rushing attack on the game. Shelton Sampson's run to the outside for a score was one the highlights of a running game that, up until now, has been moribund for over a year. His fumble, however, was a lowlight that the coach's noticed, and Sampson has got to hang on to the football as Coach Gilbertson said. Kenny James rushed 14 times for 38 yards and, impressively, hung onto the ball. FB Zach Tuiasosopo is the real deal, as evidenced by his performance against the Hoosiers, a performance that carbon-copied his outing at Olympia. He can block, and he's a steam roller to bring down when he has the ball. As a redshirt Junior, Tui has finally come into his own, and will be another Tui for fans to remember. As he runs the option, QB Isaiah Stanback's cat-like quickness reminds me of Willie Wood, the running quarterback from USC. Willie Wood was the first black to play QB in the conference, and went on to be an all-pro defensive back for Green Bay. Of course, Stanback is a much better passer than Wood was when he quarterbacked the Trojans. He's also about 5 inches taller. Washington has the potential of having the best group of punters and kickers that it has had in years. Coach Gilbertson owes former coach Neuheisel a debt of gratitude. The bad. Reggie Williams and Charles Frederick need some support from the freshmen wide receivers. Only one of the freshmen caught a pass, that being Sonny Shackelford, who caught one pass for nine yards. The Huskies committed three turnovers, two fumbles (Sampson and Seery) and an interception by Pickett. The Obvious. The fact that parity dominates college football nowadays is well illustrated by San Diego State's strong showing against the number two Buckeyes at Columbus. Unranked WSU took number 19 Notre Dame into overtime at South Bend. BYU threw Conquest off-key at the Coliseum; finally, in the fourth quarter, the incontinent Trojan band became consonant. And the helpless Hoosiers hobnobbed with the Huskies for the better part of two quarters before Reggie and Cody did the ostracizing.
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Behind in the third quarter, Washington scored 28-unanswered points to beat Indiana 38-13, in a football game played at Husky Stadium in front
of 71,125 fans. The Huskies' rushing attack, which accounted for 195 yards
on the game, was led by Rich Alexis (photo left) who ran for 74 yards on 18
carries.