Dillon Grounds Up Bruin Run Defense

Freewheelin’ Corey Dillon wasn’t about to jump over anybody or anything, for any reason.

Instead, Washington’s 6-foot-2, 225-pound junior college transfer just kept rolling like a stone into the UCLA defensive line, and, more often than any Washington runner has since Husky great Hugh McElhenny in 1950, Dillon ended the run upright, and in the end zone.

“I don’t like that,” Dillon said after Washington’s dominating 41-21 victory, when he was asked why none of his record-tying five rushing touchdowns Saturday against the Bruins came on leaps over the goal line. “I like punishing people, I like the contact. None of this jumping nowhere.”

Why fly when you can take the train? No jumps, all smashes into the line, most of them straight through a handful of stumbling Bruin defenders. How does it feel?

“I just love to watch Corey run when he starts punishing people,” said Husky linebacker Jason Chorak. “I think he hurts people more than they hurt him.”

Dillon, who played two years at Dixie Junior College in Utah, after going to high school in Seattle, has moved into the Huskies’ starting lineup in his first season here because of nagging injuries to last year’s starter, Rashaan Shehee.

Dillon, who came into the game as the conference’s second-leading rusher (three yards behind UCLA’s Skip Hicks), gained 145 yards in 33 carries, and added three catches for 53 yards.

Said Hicks: “Everybody was talking about that this week, No. 1 vs. No. 2, and I was looking forward to it. But look at the game he had, and what did I have, negative yards?”

For the record, Hicks gained eight yards in seven carries.

For his record, Dillon punched in his fifth score with 11:39 left in the third quarter, giving Washington a 34-7 lead. Dillon might have been used a sixth time near the goal line in the fourth quarter, but he was a little banged up and let Mike Reed get the one-yard score.

Dillon, with Washington getting the ball repeatedly in UCLA territory because of turnovers and big kick returns, had caused enough damage by then, anyway.

By halftime, with Washington ahead, 28-0, Dillon had 21 carries for 95 yards and four touchdowns--matching his touchdown output for the season.

“I’m not too small, and I don’t have that much quickness,” said Dillon, who gained 173 yards against Stanford earlier this season. “I think I’m best off just using weight.’

Said Husky tackle Tony Coats: “He’s the kind of running back who, if you’re not moving your guy quick enough, he’s just going to stick his head in there and knock you down and get his four yards out of it that way.”

Dillon, who praised both his offensive line and his defense for providing him with all the easy opportunities to score, said he didn’t know until late in the game that he had tied a record.

“No, not at all,” Dillon said. “After three, it was like, ‘OK, I’ll take a couple more.’ I wasn’t aware of it until somebody came up and told me. I was thinking I’d like to get about three or four more.”

Is he familiar at all with the legend of McElhenny?

“I’m getting familiar with what he did,” Dillon said. “He was a great running back here, and I’m getting up to what he accomplished. But I’m just taking it as it comes. I’m just doing my job.”