Washington Huskies Still Face Uphill Battle To Restore Program

Right before last season's Thursday night "Blackout" game against UCLA, the Washington Huskies were in a free fall and looked destined to be sitting at home during bowl season once again. But then something strange happened and the team reeled off three straight wins, starting with the Bruins, en route to setting up a rematch with the Nebraska Cornhuskers in the Holliday Bowl.

The Huskies avenged their early season loss and beat Nebraska, ending the Jake Locker era in Montlake in typical blue collar fashion, dominating the ball against the Huskers in a decidedly ugly game, and raised the reputation of the program. With that came higher expectations for the upcoming season, which could prove problematic for the Dawgs.

That's not to say that I have any doubts that the Huksies will be successful this year, I'm just aware of the pitfalls of expectations. Take the 2007 Michigan Wolverines, for instance.

Coming off of a strong 2006 campaign where their only loss was to top-ranked Ohio State in Columbus, the team was expected to compete for a National Championship under the leadership of seniors Chad Henne, Jake Long and Mike Hart.

Instead, they stumbled at home against FCS powerhouse Appalachian State and got walloped by Oregon before recovering to win the Capitol One Bowl, over defending National Champion Florida, and send coach Lloyd Carr off on a high note.

While the expectations aren't nearly as high for this Washington team, their performance last year made bowl appearances a yearly expectation, especially this season. While coach Steve Sarkisian continues his surprisngly expedient ressurrection of the football program, anything less than the Holiday Bowl will and should be considered a disappointment.

Sure, team leader and program icon Jake Locker is gone, but Sark has a done a good job of building the talent all around the team to sustain such a loss. Instead, the team will rely on the effective one-two punch of Chris Polk and Jesse Callier in the backfield to keep opposing teams' offense off the field. It will be a throwback to the glory days of the Don James era when he would rely on his running backs to wear teams down.

Chris Polk is set up to claim one of the top spots in the annals of great Husky tailbacks. His name deserves to be mentioned with the likes of Hugh McElhenny, Greg Lewis, Joe Steele, Beno Bryant, Corey Dillon and Napoleon Kaufman. His back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons have created a small buzz of possible Heisman hopes depending on how the team performs.

Callier, meanwhile proved himself capable of spelling the workhorse Polk and should see his number of touches increase this year. Even with the loss of Deontae Cooper for a second straight season, there are very few question marks at running back.

The big question mark happens to be at the most important position on the field, quarterback. Coming into the fall practices it looks like redshirt sophomore Keith Price has taken hold of the position over redshirt freshman Nick Montana. Personally, I think that this is the right move; Price looked capable of handling duties when he took over for an injured Locker in Eugene, against a very hostile Oregon crowd pumped to watch their second-ranked Ducks.

He looked good in spring practices and was really sharp in the Spring Game. He's got plenty of targets to throw to with the return of receivers Jermaine Kearse, Devin Aguilar, Cody Bruns and James Johnson as well as the arrival of high school All-American Kasen Williams and local tight end Austin Sefarian-Jenkins.

What's most to worry about is that he won't be able to play well even with all of these weapons at his disposal. He does, however have access to one of the better quarterback minds in Sarkisian and could end up being a huge boon for the offense. Still there is too much that could go wrong this season.

The Huskies open their season against FCS champion Eastern Washington, who returns star quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell. This is the exact same situation that tripped up Michigan in 2007 and it's worrisome that the Huskies could find history repeating itself.

Sark appears to know what he's doing; the team has improved in both years that he's been at the helm and he's steadily been building the program in the design of what made USC a powerhouse in the early 2000s. Along with defensive coordinator Nick Holt, he's been rebuilding and reshaping from top to bottom.

The 2011 season will be looked at as a gut-check season for the Dawgs as they break in a new quarterback and rely on a dynamic running attack and an (at times) inconsistent defense. Sark has spent the past two years instilling a confidence and swagger that was lacking under the regime of Tyrone Willingham. This could be the year the Huskies make the jump back to contender after finally returning to respectability.

After Eastern Washington, the team faces a strong Hawaii team before traveling to Lincoln to take on a revenge-minded Nebraska team. Until the jury will be out on what this team can offer fans this year. Will the Dawgs survive the season long enough to see it end in a bowl game? That's the question that fans will be waiting until September 17 to get the official answer to.