Each week, a beat writer from the opponent’s campus newspaper will give his or her take on the day’s matchup against the Ducks. First up, Washington.
Those searching for a comparison between this year’s Washington-Oregon rivalry game and any of the past meetings between the two schools need not to search much more. Because there is no precedent for this year’s showdown.
After all, this is one of the few times in Oregon history that the Ducks will open the season with the Huskies (not that anyone actually researched that, but it’s definitely the first time since Oregon football officially began following Kenny Wheaton’s interception against UW in 1994).
Optimism is never higher for a college football team than it is in late August, and this season is no exception – even on Montlake, where demands for Husky head coach Tyrone Willingham’s head grow louder every day.
Washington’s crop of young (real young: Only sophomore D’Andre Goodwin has game experience at receiver), speedy wideouts coupled with a sophomore Jake Locker has Husky fans expecting an enhanced version of last season’s at-times high-octane offense, and new defensive coordinator Ed Donatell brings years of NFL experience to a unit that was the worst in school history last season. The Ducks can certainly (and will, rather loudly) attest to that.
What lies ahead for the Dawgs this year is what makes the lid-lifter so pressure-packed. BYU and Oklahoma – two ranked teams whose combined losses at the end of the year may very well not exceed UW’s own loss total – come to Seattle in the consecutive weekends following today’s contest, making an 0-3 start for the Huskies a very real possibility.
That’s a bad start no matter whom you are, but there may not be anyone in the country who has more motivation to avoid that mark than Willingham. After narrowly escaping last year’s 4-9 season with his job intact, there is little mystery as to what Willingham, entering year four of a five-year deal, has to do to still be employed by UW a year from now: Win, and win now.
A losing record and no bowl game will surely earn him a pink slip. A record of 6-6 and a bowl appearance is believed to be the minimum acceptable outcome. Anything beyond that is a step in the right direction and an indication that this program is more alive than dead.
That mission starts today, as Willingham marches the youngest UW team in years (again, real young: 12 true freshmen have a legitimate chance to play this season) into one of the most hostile environments in college football for what amounts to trial-by-fire at its finest.
Fifty-eight thousand-plus in green and gold, a 7 p.m. start time and a rivalry more bitter than cheap beer will fuel one of the nastiest atmospheres Autzen has ever seen.
Whether Willingham’s troops are up to this year’s monumental, coach-saving task will be determined in 60 minutes tonight.
Autzen awaits.