Huskies Hope for Fine Tuning

The Washington Huskies arrived in L.A. for their Rose Bowl preparation last Wednesday while the Purdue Boilermakers came in Saturday.

Does that give the Huskies an advantage?

Washington Coach Rick Neuheisel said he likes the additional time to get his team acclimated so that he has a full week to implement the game plan.

But Neuheisel admits sometimes extra time can do more harm than good.

“Coaches are like mechanics,” he said. “Even if the car is running perfectly, you always want to tinker with it. You have to be careful not to do too much.”

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It figures to be an advantage for the Huskies to have Purdue running back Steve Ennis sitting out the Rose Bowl. Ennis, who led the Boilermakers with eight rushing touchdowns, has been suspended for conduct detrimental to the team. School officials won’t reveal the nature of the conduct.

Neuheisel insists he’ll be sorry to see Ennis miss the game.

“You hate to see that,” Neuheisel said. “The Rose Bowl is a dream for young football players. To miss out on it because of a mistake is unfortunate.”

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The Huskies are staying at a Beverly Hills hotel this week. But because their rooms weren’t available until now, they had been staying at a Santa Monica hotel.

The switch-over was made while the players were on a 24-hour leave of absence for the holidays.

Which meant that, for some team officials, the holiday was a moving experience.

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This will be Washington’s 14th appearance in the Rose Bowl game, second only to USC among Pacific 10 teams. The Trojans have played in the game 28 times. The Huskies are appearing in their 27th bowl game, which also puts them second among conference teams behind the Trojans, who have been in 39.

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It will be a homecoming game for Husky guard Matt Rogers, a senior who was born in Arcadia and attended West Covina South Hills High and Citrus College.

Asked by some of his teammates before the trip what the big difference was between Seattle and Los Angeles, Rogers gave them his big two: “Weather and women.”