Washington Huskies
Pac-12
Steve Sarkisian has Washington on the move. More specifically, he has Washington out of the bottom of the conference. There were a few bleak years there when Ty Willingham was at the helm. Sarkisian has reignited the passion and the recruiting base in Seattle. In his first season he beat USC and had a heck of a quarterback in Jake Locker. This year he beat Stanford and has another good quarterback in Keith Price. 2012 looked like it might be a regression after the Huskies started 3-4. But after a four-game win streak near the end of the season, Washington hit the seven win mark for the second straight year.
2012 Record: 7-5, 5-4
Coach: Steve Sarkisian
Coach Bowl Record: 1-1
Big Wins: 9/27 Stanford (17-13), 10/27 Oregon State (20-17)
Bad Losses: 10/20 at Arizona (17-52), 11/23 at Washington State (28-31)
Strengths:
Overall, Washington’s main asset is its talent base. They do not stack up to other teams in the conference like Oregon or Stanford. They have players that can compete at the highest level, however. Keith Price has been huge for the Huskies. He threw for nearly 2,500 yards and 18 touchdowns. He has poor rushing totals, but he is a big, athletic guy that has some escapability. More than anything, he is an experienced signal caller for Sarkisian. On defense, they have a stud pro prospect in safety Shaq Thompson. He has three interceptions and intimidates offensive coordinators. In fact, Thompson was a big reason why Washington was awesome at defending the pass. They were second only to Stanford in that category at 188 yards per game allowed. The strength of that unit led the way for the whole defense. They only gave up a total of 353 yards per game. Despite the fact that Price threw 11 interceptions, the Huskies were very good at holding onto the ball and forcing other teams to give it up. They were second in the conference in turnover margin and averaged a half a turnover better than their opponents.
Weaknesses:
Even though Price is a talent, he can only work with what he has on offense. They were not the strongest team in the Pac-12 at generating yardage. They gained less than 350 per game. They had a hard time getting anything going on the ground. Even with running back Bishop Sankey’s good season with 1,234 yards and 15 touchdowns, as a team they were fairly ineffective at rushing. Passing was not much better. Price averaged just over 210 yards per game. Neither of his top two receivers reached 1,000 yards. Each has only caught six touchdowns. Those numbers do not keep defensive coordinators awake at night. On defense, their pass defending was good, but their front seven was not. They were one of the weakest teams in the conference at sacking the quarterback. They were dead last in the Pac-12 at attacking the line of scrimmage. They forced very few negative plays on their opponents. Going into their bowl game the Huskies are not playing well either. They lost an overtime matchup to a horrible Washington State team. They cannot be feeling too confident after that.
Statistical Leaders:
Rushing: Bishop Sankey, RB, 1,234 yards
Passing: Keith Price, QB, 2,484 yards
Receiving: Austin Seferian-Jenkins, WR, 789 yards
Tackles: John Timu, LB, 76
Sacks: Andrew Hudson, LB, 6.5; Josh Shirley, LB, 6.5
Interceptions: Justin Glenn, S, 3; Marcus Peters, CB, 3; Shaq Thompson, S, 3
2012 Team Stats:
Rushing Offense: 137.17 (90th in nation, 8th in conference)
Passing Offense: 210.42 (85, 8)
Total Offense: 347.58 (98, 10)
Scoring Offense: 23.83 (88, 9)
Rushing Defense: 164.33 (68, 8)
Pass Defense: 188.92 (17, 2)
Total Defense: 353.25 (30, 3)
Scoring Defense: 23.83 (39, 4)
Turnover Margin: 0.58 (28, 2)
Sacks: 2.08 (50, 10)
Sacks Allowed: 2.83 (102, 7)
Recent Bowl Appearances:
2011 Alamo Bowl Baylor (56-67)
2010 Holiday Bowl Nebraska (19-7)
2002 Sun Bowl Purdue (24-34)
2001 Holiday Bowl Texas (43-47)
2000 Rose Bowl Purdue (34-24)
*all team stats through 11/24
