These Huskies Never Push the Panic Button

With the Apple Cup all that remains of a historic regular season, the unbeaten and fourth-ranked University of Washington football team enters Saturday's game against rival Washington State with a mindset that doesn't waver.

From East Lansing, Michigan, to Los Angeles, the approach has been nothing short of amazing. Above all, the Huskies have demonstrated that there's just no need to panic.

While uncomfortable moments certainly have cropped up along the way — see lowly Arizona State pining for an upset for the longest time — consider that Kalen DeBoer's second UW football team has never once trailed by more than seven points on the scoreboard this season.

In every game to date, the Huskies (11-0 overall, 8-0 Pac-12) always have been within striking distance of tying the score in a single possession.

The UW's overly dominant 1991 national championship team couldn't make that claim after falling behind 21-9 in the third quarter at Nebraska before rescuing that game with an unanswered 27-0 finishing kick.

These DeBoer Huskies actually have trailed on 13 separate occasions this season — twice in the season opener to Boise State (6-0, 9-7), three times to Oregon (8-7, 15-14, 33-29), once to ASU (7-0), four times to USC (7-0, 14-7, 21-14, 28-21) and three times to Utah (14-10, 21-17, 28-24) — but been behind in just five instances by as many as seven points.

The response always been the same as that 1980s Bobby McFerrin hit song: Don't worry, be happy.

"It's just a matter of bringing it together," DeBoer said. "You're going to have maybe not your best unit out there because of injuries and you're going to have weather, but you're going to have confidence in every game because you know what you've got. You know the guy next to you is going to give everything he's got."

This unblemished UW season largely has avoided the crisis moment that, say, befell Florida State last weekend with the loss of starting quarterback Travis Jordan to a season-ending leg injury.

Even the 1991 UW title team had to seriously reset and find a new starting quarterback in the little-used Billy Joe Hobert once Mark Brunell, its returning Rose Bowl MVP, suffered a spring knee injury.

For the most part, the current Huskies have remained upright. While quarterback Michael Penix Jr. couldn't finish any of his four injury-interrupted seasons at his previous stop with Indiana, he and his starting offensive tackles, Troy Fautanu and Roger Rosengarten, have started all 24 games of the DeBoer era — the only UW players who can say that.

This season, Penix has been the national leader in passing almost wire to wire, standing in there and dealing with wind gusts that buffeted the Utah game and the monsoon conditions that soaked last weekend's Oregon State outing.

The personnel challenges have come with the Huskies losing projected starting running back Cam Davis in fall camp to a season-ending knee injury, and having wide receiver Jalen McMillan and free safety Asa Turner largely unavailable this season with various ailments.

Again, the UW has been able to adjust and show little drop-off without these veteran players and major contributors.

As WSU (5-6, 2-6) will find out on this visit, these Huskies approach each game much like Penix stands in the pocket. Everyone is so cool, calm and collected at all times.

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