The whole kit and caboodle is back
Richard Linde, 12 November 2006

The rushing numbers have soured. The pass efficiency numbers are back. Isaiah Stanback is gone. The beleaguered quarterbacks have returned. Tyrone Willingham has morphed into Keith Gilbertson. Rick Neuheisel should be happy he is in Baltimore. Gilby, Rick and Babs can say, “I told you so.”

The whole kit and caboodle is back, with déjà vu.

The numbers say it all -- the return of the 2K4 offense -- trumping all causatives explaining the Huskies' downward spiral, pointing in a singular direction, not obliquely but directly.

We're talking offense here, not defense.

In their last five games, the Huskies have rushed for an average of 84.8 yards per game. The offensive pass efficiency number is 82.04 for those five games, in consecutive losses to Oregon State, Cal, Arizona State, Oregon and Stanford. Total offense has sunk to 254.2 yards per game, starting with the loss to OSU.  

Throw out the first six games of the season (a 4-2 start), along with last season’s improvement over the season before, and the Huskies are back to Keith Gilbertson’s 2K4 Dawgs, whose pass efficiency offense was 78.7, the worst in Division I-A. Back then, the Huskies’ 311 total yards per game ranked 103 in NCAA stats.

The Huskies averaged 14 points per game in 2004, the worst number in Division I-A football. This season, they've averaged 16.2 points per game in their last five outings.

Stat	2004	Last 5 games of 2006	First 6 games of 2006
Pass efficiency	78.7	82.04	134.53
Total offense	311	254.2	367.6
Points scored	14	16.2	24.3
Rushing offense	120.2	84.8	167

Table. After losing QB Isaiah Stanback to injury, this team has looked very much like the 2004 offensive juggernaut that finished 1-10 on the season under former coach Keith Gilbertson, pass efficiency offense and total offense being key comparators (see above).

"You always get that question, 'Is it a step back?' In this case, I have to say yes, it is," Tyrone Willingham told a reporter after the loss to the Tree.

You bet your bippy it tis. At least on offense.

The Dawgs had a chance to get a leg up on the Tree for Ty, but now, as a UW coach, he is 0-1 against his former team.

The Dawgs (4-7, 2-6 Pac-10) have lost 6 straight games, with a seventh on the way in next week’s Apple Cup.

What’s the reason for this disastrous finish to the season?

Because of Stanback’s elusiveness and exceptional athleticism, he emboldened the offensive line, masking its deficiencies during the team’s 4-1 start on the season. With his running and passing, Stanback accounted for most of the Huskies’ offense up until the time he was injured. Most importantly, Stanback was not interception prone, surrendering only 3 picks in his 6 plus games.

In the Huskies’ last five games, they’ve been picked 11 times.

Although the offensive line has played as a unit for most of the season, the backups to its five mainstays have been well rested. In part, I guess, you could make an excuse for the line’s being worn down by the rigors of 11 games, but still it wasn’t expected to do much before the season began. 

Lack of emotion and enthusiasm is not a factor in the Huskies' tailspin; lack of talent is a factor. Before the season began, Willingham said that his offensive line would be the most important ingredient in his recipe for a successful season, that is, going to a bowl game and winning it.

The last three recruiting classes have enervated the talent pool at UW, especially with its offensive line. The J. C. transfers that were expected to buttress the OL never jelled; locally, the Huskies missed out on a highly regarded offensive lineman. The list goes on. Excuses run rampant.

To those fans that are growing impatient with Willingham, I am afraid we’re locked into him for the remainder of his contract (approximately 3 years), unless something drastically changes for the worse.

Firing and replacing him with a new coach at this time would be a public relations disaster, considering the local media's obsession with UW's past problems, both minor and major. 

No coaching continuity would be lost, however. The Dawgs are back to Gilby, who was asked to leave.

With the loss of 26 seniors this year, Willingham and his staff need to upgrade the talent level, both out of high schools and junior colleges, in an unparalleled endeavor to rebuild UW football. 

However, AD Todd Turner and Coach Willingham are committed to recruiting student athletes who will make good leaders, be model citizens, and who will fulfill the UW graduation requirements, all of which is the general direction the NCAA is headed in its quest to graduate better student athletes.

Are the goals of producing better student athletes and achieving success on the gridiron mutually exclusive?

UW is ahead of other schools in its commitment to achieving the student-athlete goal, with an emphasis on student. That’s a positive, in my opinion, meeting the ultimate goal half way. My glass is half full.

Adage: Beginning the game with three grunts and a kick means ending the game with three passes and a pick.