Inside The Huskies

If There Was Wind Victim Against Oregon State It Was the UW Punter

Jack McCallister struggled early on in the swirling gusts.
Dan Raley|
If There Was Wind Victim Against Oregon State It Was the UW Punter
If There Was Wind Victim Against Oregon State It Was the UW Punter

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Washington Huskies

In dealing with windy conditions in Husky Stadium that can be ever so tricky, the University of Washington football team last Friday night was able to beat Oregon State 24-21.

The Huskies made this happen with a last-second, 22-yard field goal from Peyton Henry that sliced through the swirling elements.

Quarterback Michael Penix Jr., while having a few throws altered in flight by the gusts, still managed to launch 52 passes, one off of his season high, and complete 30 for 298 yards and a touchdown.

Where the UW had to just hang on and ride out the turbulence was in the punting game. 

On this night, redshirt freshman Jack McCallister shanked his first punt for just 18 yards and had the next snap go through his hands and bounce off his facemask, and then his punt deflected off teammate Jack Westover's facemask after he recovered it. 

The first-year Husky punter was able to regroup and kick 49- and 43-yarders in the second half. Yet the wind clearly unnerved him at first.

"Jack has done a lot better job as the season has gone on in being more consistent — this was a new variable that was kind of thrown at him," DeBoer said. "[It's] learning from it.  Fortunately, we were able to learn from it and still win the football game."

McCallister, who currently averages 41.2 yards on 18 punts, beat out Idaho State transfer Kevin Ryan for the job in fall camp, a fairly heady accomplishment. Ryan was an All-Big Sky honorable-mention selection who averaged 45.6 last season, which was fifth nationally at the FCS level.

"I think we're fine with what we're doing," the UW coach said. "We have to be more consistent, especially punting into the wind, which I think was all of them." 

DeBoer said he still feels comfortable with McCallister as his No. 1 punter, though Ryan remains available at all times and continues to work on his punting.

"Jack is still certainly the guy that we stick with based on what he's done, especially the last three or four games," he said.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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