Please click here for the enlarged
infographic EDWARD LIN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Despite
efforts to hold him back, sophomore defensive tackle Rodney
Leisle, center, sacks Huskies’ quarterback Taylor
Barton.
By Hannah Gordon Daily Bruin Reporter
There was more pop in the UCLA-Washington game than a bowl of
Rice Krispies. Statistics can only count the number of tackles, but
the crowd’s wild reaction let you know how forceful they
were.
“There were a couple more pops than normal,” senior
strong safety Jason Stephens said. “Playing a big team like
that, you’re going to use your helmet and shoulder pads to
intimidate them.”
But No. 8 Washington was not just another big team. The matchup
is always a big one given that one or both of the teams have been
ranked their last nine meetings.
It was the Bruins who kept Washington from the Rose Bowl with a
23-20 overtime upset in 1999. Last year the Huskies had their
revenge with a 35-28 victory.
“They rubbed it in. They made it known that we lost, and
it didn’t sit well with us,” said sophomore wide
receiver Tab Perry.
It was junior cornerback Ricky Manning Jr.’s turn to rub
it in when he sent Husky cornerback Omare Lowe flying over the
sideline like a rag doll on his carry off a fake punt in the third
quarter.
All week the talk had been about true freshmen Bruin cornerback
Matt Ware and Husky wide receiver Reggie Williams, but it was
Manning in Williams’ ear most of Saturday.
“He’s a freshman, so I’m gonna talk a little
trash and try to get in his head,” Manning said. “I
wanted to get him thinking about me every play instead of what
he’s got to do.”
Manning was happy to see Williams talking right back to the end
of the game. Even Ware got in on the action.
“I usually don’t talk, but Ricky had me talking a
little bit,” he said.
Williams felt the heat from the whole secondary when senior
strong safety Marques Anderson plowed into a fully extended and
airborne Williams helmet-first in the second quarter.
“Williams was talking some big noise before the
game,” Anderson said. “He’s a good player, but I
think that veteran came out in me. Sometimes when you’re a
veteran you want to discipline the young ‘uns.”
Discipline extended to the Bruin defensive line, which gave
sophomore Husky quarterback Taylor Barton such a beating that he
got a concussion.
Whether the brutality of the game stemmed solely from the
physicality of the Bruin defense or from the rivalry is
debatable. The game was certainly personal for Washington head
coach Rick Neuheisel, who quarterbacked the Bruins to a 1984 Rose
Bowl victory and was an assistant coach from 1988-1993.
Though there has been talk of a rivalry between Neuheisel and
Toledo, both deny it. Despite fans shouting for the Bruins to
punch it in, Toledo walked onto the field to end the game with the
Bruin third string at the Washington one-yard line.
Some say there is no rivalry for other reasons, however.
“They gotta win games for it to be a rivalry. The last
five years, we’ve won four of the games,” senior wide
receiver Brian Poli-Dixon said.
Husky senior free safety Wondame Davis would rather leave the
war of words to Poli-Dixon and others.
“Words don’t win football games,” he said.
UCLA redshirt freshman Craig Bragg could not agree more.
“We let our pads do the talking today.”