They’ll Find Time to Play Game Too

The Washington Huskies have practiced the last two weeks at Husky Stadium.

It’s a good thing, because once they step off their plane today at LAX, they will step onto a social merry-go-round in which their preparation for the Rose Bowl is just another item on a busy schedule that includes:

* Today: Magic Mountain.

* Christmas Day: Laker game.

* Tuesday: Disneyland.

* Dec. 27: City of Hope hospital visit and Lawry’s Beef Bowl.

* Dec. 28: “Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”

* Dec. 29: Dinner at RJ’s Ribs.

Oh yeah, almost forgot.

* Jan 1: Rose Bowl against Purdue.

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This year’s Rose Bowl might not be for a national championship, but Washington Coach Rick Neuheisel insists his players are thrilled to be playing in Pasadena.

“The Rose Bowl is rightly called the granddaddy of them all,” he said. “We are in the greatest game.”

That was the feeling, he said, after his team ran over Washington State, 51-3, for the victory that put the Huskies in Pasadena.

‘If you could have been in our locker room,” Neuheisel said, “and seen the faces of our players when we knew we were going to the Rose Bowl, you’d know that they don’t want to be anyplace else.”

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Washington (10-1) will come into the game powered by the momentum of a seven-game winning streak, its longest since the Huskies won 22 in a row from 1990-92. . . . Washington wound up 7-1 in the Pacific 10 Conference, tied for the top spot with Oregon and Oregon State. But the Huskies were in the middle of the pack in terms of team statistics. They were fourth in total offense at 407.9 yards a game and fifth defensively, giving up an average of 349.5 yards. The only major category Washington led the conference in was rushing offense with 211.7 yards a game.