PACIFIC 10 : Huskies Closing In on Rose Bowl Game

For the Washington Huskies, it’s four games left and counting as they move closer to the Pacific 10 Conference championship and the Rose Bowl game on New Year’s Day.

“Pretty soon, we’ll have it clinched, just a couple more games,” Husky linebacker Donald Jones said after his team’s 52-16 rout of Stanford last Saturday in Palo Alto.

Indeed, the Huskies are the dominant team in the Pac-10 with a 4-0 record. All the others except California, at 3-1, have lost two or more games. The Bears will play the Huskies Saturday in Seattle--and Washington is favored.

“We’re doing everything right,” Husky tailback Greg Lewis said. “We just want to continue against California. They’re still in this thing.”

Not for long, perhaps.

Washington has outscored USC, Arizona State, Oregon and Stanford by a combined score of 163-47.

After Cal, the No. 7 Huskies (6-1 overall) will play Arizona and UCLA at home, then conclude the season against Washington State at Pullman.

“This is the time to make a move,” Coach Don James said. “I don’t think it’s any secret that most programs would like to win their conference championship and a national championship.”

The Huskies have not played in a Rose Bowl game since after the 1981 season.

In 1984, they were ranked No. 1 going into a November Rose Bowl-bid showdown against USC at the Coliseum. Washington lost, 16-7, but beat Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl to finish No. 2 behind Brigham Young.

California has not been in contention for the conference championship this late in the season since 1975, when it lost to UCLA, 28-14, at the Coliseum.

The teams finished with 6-1 conference records, but the Bruins got the Rose Bowl bid by beating the Bears.

Cal is the most improved team in the Pac-10 this season after being picked to finish last in several preseason polls. The university newspaper even predicted that the Bears would be 0-11.

“I knew we’d be better than that, but I didn’t know how much better,” Cal Coach Bruce Snyder said. “Even with our success, there have been disappointments. We should have beaten Washington State. I held a big meeting after that loss to clear the air, but maybe that loss has helped us since.

“Maybe we wouldn’t have beaten the teams we have beaten if we’d won that game. This has been a very exciting team.”

Cal is second in the conference in rushing, averaging 212.6 yards a game. However, Washington leads the nation in rushing defense, giving up an average of 51.9 yards a game.

“Washington is the best team we’ve faced this year,” Snyder said. “I believe they would have beaten the Miami team that came to Berkeley (and won, 52-24) six weeks ago.”

Dire prediction: After California beat UCLA, 38-31, last Saturday in Berkeley, to snap an 18-game losing streak to the Bruins, strong safety Michael Davis of the Bears said: “It’s an up year for Cal, a down year for UCLA--especially after this. I don’t think they’re going to win another game.”

Not only was Stanford humiliated by Washington, the Cardinal had several starters injured.

“We’re suffering the effects of playing a tough schedule,” Coach Dennis Green said, referring to a three-game stretch against Notre Dame, USC and Washington.

“I don’t think anyone in the country could play those three teams and not suffer a little bit. I think each game took a little more out of us.”

Stanford is 2-5 overall, 1-3 in the Pac-10.

“We’ll see what type of team we are (now),” quarterback Jason Palumbis said. “A good team will bounce back from a grueling loss. The season is not over as far as I’m concerned. We want to win the rest of our games.”

The quest begins against Oregon Saturday at Eugene.

Press pickups, from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

--After Cal beat UCLA, Russell White, the Bears’ sophomore tailback from Crespi High greeted reporters by saying: “You’ve got two minutes and the clock is running.”

--Arizona center Paul Tofflemire, commenting on his team’s 35-26 upset victory over USC last Saturday at the Coliseum: “We all know about USC’s arrogance. Before the game, (Trojan linebacker) Scott Ross was talking trash to us. He kept saying, ‘I’m king of the jungle,’ junk like that.

“Well, toward the end of the game, someone knocked him down, and I was right on top of him. I said, ‘Hey, Tarzan, how do you like this?’ ”

Arizona is the conference’s strangest team. It has beaten No. 5 Illinois, UCLA and USC, but lost to Oregon State. The Beavers (1-6) have lost to--among others--Montana and Nevada Las Vegas.