SEATTLE (AP) -A week ago, on the day Washington announced coach Tyrone Willingham’s firing, university president Mark Emmert said the Huskies’ lowly football program was at the “lowest ebb” in the school’s storied history.
His reference was probably a week early.
Burdened with a lame-duck coach in Willingham, and players still reacting to the news of Williingham’s firing, the Huskies’ 56-0 loss to No. 7 USC on Saturday left Washington as the only winless team in the country. North Texas beat Western Kentucky 51-40 on Saturday, ending its own nine-game losing skid.
The Huskies (0-8, 0-5 Pac-10) are caught in a 10-game losing streak dating back to last year, matching the longest skid in school history. The 56-point rout was the third-worst loss ever for the Huskies in the modern era, and could have been far worse if Trojans’ coach Pete Carroll had wanted it to be.
“Honestly, it’s not easy,” Willingham said Monday of his “interim” status. “I’ve never been in this situation before.”
Willingham’s firing, effective the end of the season, surely felt like the lowest point of Washington’s downward spiral. That was before the Huskies were shut out for just the second time since 1981, prompting Willingham to be asked Monday whether he second-guessed sticking around for the final five games of the season.
“No, not at all,” Willingham said.
When later asked if a new voice was needed to incite some emotion from a dreary team that has scored more than 14 points only twice this season, Willingham said: “That’s a hypothetical that I won’t consider.”
What Willingham must now consider is whether his team has the desire remaining to rally around it’s outgoing coach and find a way to avoid the first winless season in Washington’s history. The Huskies schedule appears to soften for the next three weeks, beginning with Arizona State at home on Saturday, which is dealing with its own six-game losing streak.
After the Sun Devils comes a visit from former coach Rick Neuheisel and UCLA (3-5) and the Apple Cup pillow fight against equally woeful Washington State (1-8).
“Our head coach keeps us grounded and keeps us focused. It’s easy for anybody in this kind of situation to lose focus but our team is pulling together and we’re staying close,” quarterback Ronnie Fouch said. “We’re not letting people get frustrated or give up on the season.”
ult week for Washington’s players. It started with most of them receiving word by e-mail or text message that Willingham would be out at the season’s end. It concluded with a lifeless performance against the Trojans, where Washington managed only 184 total yards and didn’t make a first down on offense until its sixth possession.
In the modern era, only a 65-7 loss at Miami in 2001 and a 58-0 loss against Oregon in 1973 had larger margins of defeat. Washington lost to California 72-3 in 1921.
Despite knowing that a new regime will be in charge next year, players still believe that Willingham’s direction is getting through and being taken seriously.
“Definitely. He’s an incredible man. He has a lot of things he can coach us on as far as being better young men and players,” defensive tackle Johnie Kirton said. “I feel people are still listening to him and taking his words of advice. I don’t think anyone is going to give up on the way he teaches us.”
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