It should have been a night to celebrate for the Washington Huskies after they pulled out a dramatic, last-second 31-28 victory on the road over the Stanford Cardinal Saturday.
Instead, it turned into a night of anguish.
Washington senior defensive back Curtis Williams was taken to the Stanford Medical Center after he was knocked out of Saturday’s game with a spinal cord injury.
He remained in intensive care Monday in Palo Alto, Calif., where he has been since Saturday night. The exact seriousness of his injury will not be known for several days. It is known, however, that there is blood in the spinal cord area, which could mean that Williams suffered a contusion.
Washington head coach Rick Neuheisal met with the media Monday and said that that there has been no significant change in Williams’ status and that he is still being given the “best care available.”
“As always, I am told in these types of traumatic injuries, uncertainty is the watchword,” Neuheisal said. “It is very difficult to press physicians into telling you one way or the other, because the fact is that these things can go in many different directions. Basically, it is a wait and see situation.”
Neuheisal stayed in Palo Alto Saturday night with safeties/special teams coach Bob Hauck and spent some time with Williams’ brothers, David and Paul.
The scary play occurred with just over two minutes remaining in the third quarter of Saturday’s game. Stanford running back Kerry Carter took off on a run and only Williams stood in the way of a Cardinal touchdown. Williams went in for the tackle and the two made the always dangerous helmet-to-helmet contact with each other.
Williams immediately fell to the ground, and Carter was shaken up and taken down by Washington’s assisted tacklers. When everybody stood up from the pile, Williams was left lying motionless.
Play was stopped for 15 minutes while the medical staff from both teams rushed to Williams’ side. Both teams’ then huddled around each other for a prayer while Williams was being treated.
“I saw him stay down,” Husky linebacker Darrell Daniels told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “I knew something was wrong. A lot of guys were saying, ‘Can you hear us? Wiggle your toes; move your hands if you can hear us.’ He didn’t do anything. It’s scary.”
Williams was eventually taken away on a stretcher and put into an ambulance, where he was taken to the hospital.
It was the type of scene that no player wants to think about it, but when it happens before their eyes, it is tough to ignore. Many Husky players found it tough to keep playing after seeing one of their teammates carried off the field in such a way.
“For your brother to go down, how would you feel?” said Washington noseguard Larry Tripplett, while fighting back tears after the game. “You want to yell at him, and tell him to get up. But we had to keep on playing.”
Washington did just that, but had to fight through the emotional pain to hold off a pesky Cardinal team. The Huskies led by as many as 18 points with less than six minutes to play in the game, and seemed on their way to victory.
But Stanford scored 22 unanswered points to grab the 28-24 lead with a mere 53 seconds left. It appeared to be the end to Washington’s Rose Bowl dreams, but somehow, the Dawgs fought back.
Quarterback Marques Tuiasosopo led the offense 80 yards down the field, and threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Justin Robbins for the game-winning score.
Yet, even despite the amazing comeback, the mood was solemn in the Husky locker room.
“You’d think after a game like that, we’d be happy and upbeat,” Tuiasosopo said. “We’re happy. But our thoughts are with our teammate and warrior, Curtis Williams.”
Teammate Wilbur Hooks added, “That’s probably one of the first times in Husky history when there’s a quiet locker room after a win.”
The entire Washington team held an emotional meeting Sunday night and Neuheisal told his team about his conversation with Williams.
“We, as a football team, are going to do the best that we can in order to press on and play with the same passion that Curtis Williams played with,” Neuheisal said. “When I mentioned [to Curtis] that our team was going to press on for him, it was evident that that was what he wanted.”
The coach admitted that this week’s preparation for the team’s big home game with Arizona will be a taxing process.
“I don’t think there is any question that is going to be difficult,” Neuheisal said.

Honor Roll
The second set of Bowl Championship Series rankings were released Monday, and Oregon moved up a spot to No. 7. Washington is close behind at No. 8 and Oregon State joined the BCS party at No. 11.
Also Monday, the Pacific-10 Conference named its players of the week. Oregon’s Joey Harrington received his second such honor for offense, while California’s Andre Carter and Jameel Powell were recognized for defense and special teams, respectively.