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Must-win game for bowl dreams at Rose Bowl?

Huskies: Both struggling at 3-5, UW and UCLA need a win today to sustain already fading bowl hopes

TODD MILLES; The News Tribune | • Published November 07, 2009

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LOS ANGELES – Free-spirited and boundlessly optimistic, college football players think any mountain can be scaled.

And any hole can be climbed out of – even the ones that UCLA and Washington find themselves in, with both owning 3-5 records heading into the key home stretch of November in the Pacific-10 Conference.

Mathematically, both are still alive for postseason consideration.

The six-win plateau is reachable.

But it figures only the victor in today’s 12:30 p.m. matchup at The Rose Bowl can maintain even the faintest of hopes for a late-season boon.

“The kids are very upbeat,” Huskies coach Steve Sarkisian said. “I think they realize they’ve got a great opportunity ahead of them this week, and also the final four games of the season.”

The biggest reason for hope? The schedule.

In UW’s case, the hard stretch is over. The Huskies have faced opponents with a combined record of 42-14, which ranks as the second-most-difficult schedule in the NCAA behind Virginia Tech (45-13) heading into this week.

With UCLA and Washington State still left to play, the record of the remaining opponents collectively is 15-17.

The Bruins have the same luxury with UW, WSU and Arizona State as three of their final four games.

The question is, is it too late for either school to think bowl game in 2009?

History might say it is. The last school to enter the November stretch of its schedule two games under .500 and finish bowl-eligible was Arizona in 2006.

The Wildcats were 3-5, then won three of their final four games to finish 6-6 and still did not receive a bowl bid.

Oregon State was also 3-5 in 2004, beat Stanford, Oregon and Washington to close out the regular season and earned a berth to the Insight Bowl where it defeated Notre Dame, 38-21.

Neither UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel nor UW’s Sarkisian really want their players to view the rest of the season in those terms. Both have young teams. Of the 44 projected starters on offense and defense for the game today, 24 are sophomores or freshmen.

“The real message is to get re-energized to focus and be attentive to the details as we were earlier in the season. I think we have diminished in that area as the season has gone on,” Sarkisian said. “We’ve gotten a little bit sloppy, a little bit spotty in all areas of our football team.”

Of course, the pressure on Neuheisel to win is extreme and unforgiving, given the Bruins had made it to 10 bowl games in 11 seasons before his arrival last season.

If UCLA, on a five-game skid, misses the postseason in back-to-back seasons, it will mark the first time in Neuheisel’s coaching career that has occurred.

“We’re starving (for a win),” Neuheisel said. “We’ve just not played well enough to get over the top. The only way I know is how to fix that is keep working at it, and keep getting guys to understand that little things matter. Hopefully we can get past that barrier this weekend.”

Todd Milles: 253-597-8442

todd.milles@thenewstribune.com

blog.thenewstribune.com/uw sports