Pac-10 Talk: Washington and Washington State

At the Pac-10 Football Media Day, Washington head coach Tyrone Willingham sounded positive about the Huskies’ chances this season while Washington State coach Bill Doba didn’t seem as sure.

Willingham acknowledged that his team (5-7 last year, 12 starters returning) will be a lot different without all-everything quarterback Isaiah Stanback, but he was excited about the possibilities with redshirt freshman Jake Locker at the controls.

"One of the cores of our football team will be our front seven if everyone’s healthy," he said. "Our team starting to understand the character it takes to be a champion. If we can master that, I like where we will finish."

On the conference race, Willingham saw positives in the attention that having a "dominant team from a national standpoint" brings, but also emphasized that "there’s not a weak link in the conference; you have to be ready to play your best football every week. Even USC had a couple of close calls [in games they won], so things could have been different [last year]. We’re excited, we like our chances." Washington was picked for ninth by the media panel.

Washington State’s Doba noted that the Cougars (6-6 last year, 14 starters returning) "had some key injuries in the last three games in which we struggled. The seniors made a new commitment and they want to win. We had excellent leadership throughout spring ball."

Entering his fifth year as the WSU head coach, Doba gave the frankest assessment of his team of any coach in the conference: "Our defensive front is solid, our linebackers are solid, our kicking is solid. We have to find a couple of corners and I’m scared to death about our offensive line."

Quarterback Alex Brink is back and Doba noted that "this league is great for quarterbacks. Its grass basketball. People throw the ball and you had better be ready to defend all kinds of formations."

On the conference race, Doba said "USC has to beat themselves, to be quite honest about it, or have really bad luck. They are solid defensively and offensively. The rest of the league is pretty even; it’s a toss up. The key is staying healthy."

The Cougars were picked for eighth by the media panel.

More to come from Pac-10 Football Media Day . . .