SEATTLE (AP) -Juan Garcia put a lot on the line to return to the Huskies this season, bypassing a shot at the NFL only to wind up with a team that’s a dismal 0-8 so far.
Garcia kept quiet for most of the year, but the veteran Washington center let his guard down Tuesday, saying the team’s 10-game losing streak is “eating away at me.
“I don’t know whether to run, whether to scream, I feel like crying. I don’t know,” Garcia said. “I’ve got a lot of emotions going through me right now.”
Garcia bypassed a chance to leave after last season when he was granted a sixth year of eligibility after missing two seasons earlier in his career with injuries. The decision to bypass the NFL was questioned in April when he suffered a severe left foot sprain during drills.
Garcia chose rehab over surgery with the hope of playing this season. He was ready for the opener against Oregon and has played in every game.
ng the surgery, saying he’d rather be on the field losing than watching from the sidelines.
Garcia has served as one of coach Tyrone Willingham’s staunchest defenders, both last year and before the start of the 2008 season. Even though Willingham was fired last week, effective at the end of the season, Garcia doesn’t blame him for the Huskies’ downfall.
He said some of the problems may be due to Willingham’s loyalty to some players, who simply haven’t followed through on the promise they showed before coming to Washington.
“I really like coach Willingham, the stuff he did,” he said. “I always say I think coach Willingham’s downfall was he was too loyal to some guys on the team. He always wanted to give a guy an opportunity instead of cutting them loose; he always wants to see people succeed. And some of them came back and bit him.”
Having already been through three coaches – he was recruited by Rick Neuheisel and played for Keith Gilbertson before Willingham – Garcia is trying to cherish his final weeks of Huskies football. One of his remaining goals is making sure 2008 isn’t remembered as the only winless season in the Huskies’ modern history.
time that’s left.”
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