Game Daily: Arizona provides chance for UW to prove itself

Oct 9, 2009, 12:00 AM

Tyrone Willingham repeated the same things he'd end up saying all season, lamenting the fact that his Huskies had just lost, 48-14, following a pathetic effort against the Arizona Wildcats. This was the scene after UW rolled over and died against the Wildcats in Tucson last season, a loss that dropped them to 0-5 and was probably the final nail through a very long overdue coffin for Willingham's UW coaching career. But Washington's game against Arizona this season couldn't be coming under more different circumstances. Steve Sarkisian has erased any memory of the nightmarish 0-12 season that was Willingham's demise last year, and at 2-3, Washington enters this game with a legitimate chance to put itself in position for a bowl game. Arizona this year could make or break them. Last year, they were just broken. "I don't think there's any comparison," Arizona head coach Mike Stoops said of the Huskies from last year to this one. "As a team, obviously the organization is much different. Their ability on both sides of the ball is much different." Different, yes. But the UW defense still hasn't looked great since an upset over USC on Sept. 19, first getting run over by Stanford, then allowing 530 yards to Notre Dame. The Irish mainly hurt them through the air. But Arizona averages only 188 yards passing per game, a number that could indicate that the Wildcats will opt to run the ball a little bit more with speedy tailback Nic Grigsby. He's expected to play after nursing a shoulder injury the past week. Arizona averages 223.2 yards per game on the ground. And they're 3-1, another opponent for the Huskies that seems to be destined for an above-.500 season. But in a way, this seems like the one game on the schedule that can allow fans to really take something away about where this team is at. LSU was a heavy favorite, so an encouraging loss was acceptable. Beating Idaho was a given. The USC game obviously exceeded expectations. The Stanford loss was disappointing, but predicted by oddsmakers. And UW essentially had Notre Dame beat last week before letting the Irish off the hook. So at home, against an Arizona team that has played well but is by no means a powerhouse, the Huskies have a chance to prove that they're capable of beating the kind of teams that they're going to be competing with in the middle of the Pac-10 standings. "When you look at the body of work of our football game up to this point, our five opponents are a combined 21-4, and two of those losses were to us," Sarkisian said. "And Arizona's coming in with a 3-1 record with their only loss against a very good Iowa team on the road. This is a very tough opponent." The Wildcats might not be quite as tough due to some injury issues, though a bye last week may have helped. Grigsby practiced on Monday and is insistent that he'll play, and Stoops said defensive end Brooks Reed returned to practice this week. Receiver Bud Wright is still out. "It came at a great time for us," Stoops said of the bye week. "It would have been very difficult for us to put a bunch of our guys out there this past Saturday. We were pretty banged up, obviously, from the experience at Iowa and Oregon State. Those are usually two pretty physical games. So we were pretty banged up. It came at a good time for us." Arizona comes into Husky Stadium at a perfect time for UW to prove itself - which makes last season's fiasco seem to fade further and further into the past. Reach Sports Editor Christian Caple at sports@dailyuw.com.

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