Husky fans celebrate their big win over the Trojans. Photo Courtesy MCT.

By Patrick Cowles
Daily Titan Assistant News Editor

Under gray skies with a chill breeze flurrying into Husky Stadium from Lake Washington, the University of Washington Huskies sank their teeth into the tender Achilles heel of the USC Trojans, Saturday in Seattle.

Yet the question that captivated sports columns all week still remained unanswered before kick-off: Who will be taking the snaps under Trojan center?

That job fell back to red-shirt sophomore Aaron Corp.

Queued as the starter for the season in the spring, Corp fractured his fibula during fall camp, which gave freshman Matt Barkley the start for USC against San Jose State and the Ohio State University.

With the depth chart chosen for the day’s game, the Huskies won the toss and deferred to receive the kick in the second half.

The Trojans chose their side of the field, then settled in to play their most electric game so far this college season.

As the Huskies readied the kick-off Husky Stadium roared with life.

With its massive concrete construction, filled tooth-and-file with metal seats sheltered by cascading stands and over-hanging roofs, Husky Stadium offers its fans an acoustic paradise for making noise. And when your fans naturally howl at the moon before they lay to sleep, the place can get loud – jet-liner loud.

In fact, the loudest recorded sounds from the stadium during a game reached 132 decibels. For a little context, your car muffler is illegally loud at 110 dB, and a jet-liner’s engines purr at 120 dB. The Husky Howl inside their home stadium is literally deafening.

However, the Trojans gained success early on. The offense ran smoothly throughout the first quarter. With fullback Stanley Havili breaking a 38-yard run in the first drive capped by a Joe McKnight rushing touchdown, all seemed well for the land of Troy.

Trojan fullback Stanley Havili and Husky defender Donald Butler battle for a fumble. Photo courtesy MCT.

Yet the Trojan team lost eight starters to the NFL draft on its defensive side of the ball, and this showed immensely throughout the game.

Early on, I noticed Huskies breaking tackles and picking up key yardage after sustaining a hit from scrimmage. Husky running back Chris Polk, a formerly-committed USC player, had two solid stiff arms on one run, picking up over a dozen yards in the process.

Although the defensive line played well, keeping Husky quarterback Jake Locker slammed shut throughout the first quarter, (especially Jurrel Casey, grillin’ Locker like a Foreman), the secondary and linebackers became the cracks in the concrete for this once solid Trojan defense.

Once Locker found his rhythm in the final drive of the first quarter, the Husky receivers began threading the secondary like a sewing circle. Locker went 4-for-4 in the air for 60 yards that drive, capped by a seven-yard touchdown run.

The Trojan’s weak secondary schemes became the defensive Achilles heel that the Huskies would exploit until the game’s end.

For the Trojan offense’s heel, long third downs and turn-overs tripped up any chance at offensive consistency for Corp.

Looking like a bewildered half-baked Dolph Lundgren, Corp showed difficulty in maintaining his confidence not just in himself, but in his team. With an offensive line boasting 84 collective starts between five guys, there was no need for Corp to scramble around as much as he did. It doesn’t matter if this kid is a good runner; Pete Carroll football professes pocket-passers, so stay put and throw the ball rookie!

Yet the offensive decapitation the Trojans suffered Saturday was not just the fault of their dead-fish rookie ‘Carp.’ His big play makers made big mistakes. Joe McKnight fumbled twice, USC recovered one. Stafon Johnson lost a fumble on a fourth-and-one play within Husky territory when Husky linebacker Mason Foster laid a solid hit on the loosely-handled ball. Stanley Havili also lost a fumble in the third quarter well within Husky territory.

With the world roaring around them, the Trojans seemed backed up against a wall surrounded by rabid wolves at the end of the first half.

With a sloppy finish to a promising end of the half drive, the Trojans showed no stride in their offensive swagger. The defunct and rusted running game for USC failed to carry the drive like they needed to. Why would you ever hand off a third and some to the fullback who’d only carried once or twice before? Havili broke his big 38-yard hustle at the beginning of the game, a solid hour before his next carry, he was cold and slow to the hole getting hit for a loss.

But this shows the staple of Trojan offense last year and now. The offensive unit is treated by the coaching staff as a mechanism, not an organism. When players are swapped out play after play to fit mathematically-calculated packages like parts to a machine, how can you expect an inexperienced quarterback to gain any consistency with his play makers?

In any quarterback situation, he needs the elasticity to audible and he needs consistency in his personnel. You have to let the kid get comfortable in his position and in his depth chart or he’ll never make plays. If you don’t, he won’t relax under the pressure that all college players shoulder every Saturday. With a big interception by Husky linebacker Butler late in the game, Corp’s poise oozed out of his pours like puss. After a grueling first half for the junior, the Husky defense offered no remorse in the second half.

Although the lights were out on the Trojan bench, the Huskies were wired the whole game.

With lightning-rod tenacity the Huskies stayed white hot quarter after quarter, increasing the heat on the Trojan offense and unleashing a maelstrom of creative offensive play-calling that kept the Trojan secondary on the run.

Sleek ‘Sharkisian’, with his inventory of knowledge from his tenure as Pete Carroll’s assistant, showed great esteem and saavy in his play calling on both sides of the ball. Few USC trick plays garnished much success, only their straight-forward run plays and passing routes produced winning results. The quick tosses to the sidelines and screens failed to fool the Husky defense.

But the game ball goes to Husky quarterback Jake Locker. His Galahad charge down the field at the end of the fourth quarter won this game. With key third down pick-ups in the air and on the ground, Locker set-up place kicker Erik Folk for the winning field goal. With only three seconds left to the tick off the clock, Folk’s third field goal of the night sailed right through the goal posts, sealing the 16-13 victory for the Huskies.

As the time expired, the Howl Horn blew like a banshee’s wail as the crowd rushed the field.

With such an exciting start to the PAC-10 season, the entire conference is up for grabs with nine games to go. As for the Huskies, keep your eyes on this team, they won’t be losing much this season.