Washington 36, San Diego State 3

Seattle, WA (TSN) - Brock Huard tossed for 314 yards and four touchdowns, including a pair to wide receiver Jerome Pathon, as the sixth-ranked Washington Huskies crushed the San Diego State Aztecs, 36-3, at Husky Stadium. Pathon finished with eight catches for 182 yards, as the Huskies improved to 2-0 on the season and dropped the Aztecs all-time record to 7-24-1 against Pac-10 schools.

Huard and Pathon started early, connecting on a 12-yard scoring just 4:56 into the game. Randy Jones extended the lead to 10-0 with an 18-yard field goal early in the second quarter.

Huard, who finished 16-of-26 with no interceptions, found Fred Coleman with a nine-yard touchdown pass for a 17-0 lead with 1:42 remaining in the half. Nate Tanberg split the uprights from 31 yards outs with just seven seconds left to pull the Aztecs within 17-3 at the break.

Huard continued where he left off and hit Pathon with a 53- yard touchdown pass 6:39 into the third quarter. John Smith tackled Marty Graham in the end zone for a safety with 7:37 remaining to up the Huskies lead to 29-3. Huard capped the scoring with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Reggie Davis with 5:05 left.


Washington vs. San Diego State Game Notes


Washington senior flanker Fred Coleman recorded the longest pass reception in his career during the first quarter of today's game. Coleman's catch went for 47 yards. His previous best was a 44-yarder vs. Arizona last season.

Sophomore kicker Randy Jones recorded the first field goal in his career during the second quarter of the game. Jones went 0-2 last week at BYU, including one kick that was blocked.

Senior linebacker Jerry Jensen recorded the first interception of his career today (2nd qtr.).

Washington receiver Fred Coleman pulled in one touchdown pass today to raise his season total to three. Coleman entered his senior season with four TD receptions during his career. All four came during the 1995 season when he was a sophomore.

With today's win, Washington is now 23-4-1 all-time against WAC opponents. San Diego State is now 7-24-1.

Washington's win today improves the Huskies' all-time record in home openers to 55-18-4. Washington has now won 12 consecutive home openers.

San Diego State receiver Az-zahir Hakim moved into fifth place on the Aztec's all-time receiving list today. He entered the game with 2,199 career receiving yards and finished with 108 today to raise his career total to 2307.

Washington's victory today is the Huskies' eighth straight win at home.

Jerome Pathon's eight receptions and 182 yards receiving are both career highs.

Jerome Pathon is the first Washington player to record back-to-back 100-yard receiving games since Mario Bailey did it in 1991. Last week Pathon had seven receptions for 163 yards at BYU -- both career highs. Bailey last accomplished the feat when he had 108 yards on seven catches vs. Oregon on Oct. 26, 1991 and followed up the next game with seven catches for 139 yards vs. Arizona State on Nov. 2.

Washington senior linebacker Todd Johnson recorded his the first interception of his career today.

Jason Chorak recorded one sack today to raise his career total to 19.5. With his next sack he can move into fourth place on UW's all-time list. Reggie Rogers currently holds down that spot with 20 career sacks. Donald Jones lead the list with 30.5 career sacks.

Brock Huard's 4 touchdown passes tie his career high, set last year vs. Arizona.

Today's win was Washington's largest margin of victory in a home opener since 56-3 vs. Kansas state in 1991.

Washington's fourth-quarter safety was the first one given up by SDSU since Oct. 28, 1995 vs. UTEP.

Washington Post Game Quotes

Washington Coach Jim Lambright
General Remarks: "I'm very impressed how this team prepares for games. We came out emotionally ready today an d proceeded to get a lot better on how to make big things happen in different phases such as the kickoff and punt returns. They were critical today. To have a punt team with a punter that averages over 42 yards at home. You don't have the altitude going for you. Big, big plays by Brock (Huard) Jerome Pathon. You talk about guys who can quickly swing field position, what a great thing to have as a 1-2 punch. Tremendous plays by Fred Coleman as an example of a situation where people cannot double up on our receivers. They had a nice Chicago Bear defense up front and they were determined not to let us run a whole lot. If somebody does that then we are going to go to the pass and were not always going to be balanced but we are smart enough to take what a team gives us. You don't like the turnovers and we certainly have to clean up the fumbles and lost fumbles. You look at the plays the defense contributed to balance that up. The defense gave up three points but they also get two points of that back on the safety so they only really gave up one point in the game. Overall, when you look at -7 yards rushing you can't applaud the defense's effort more as far as making an opponent more one-dimensional. I am very pleased, we seem to be quite healthy and I can't see us at this point losing any players for the Nebraska game."

On Josh Smith and Reggie Davis: "It is great to see Josh Smith in on that safety and Reggie Davis is starting to emerge as a talent that played better than he played against BYU and I believed stepped in productivity today for us."

On the kicking game: "To have a guy to go in and chip a ball through is a tremendous pleasure for me if you all well know to have the two phases of the kicking game back in order as far as making them a weapon."

On Joe Jarzynka: "Joe Jarzynka is a tremendously courageous young man and he's one that has a flare for life. He's one by stature that has a little guys attitude that he's going to show that he is a tremendous weapon for us to have out there to balance with Jerome Pathon."

On young players: "One of the really good things is that we're playing more people. One of the really good things is being able to get a Patrick Reddick more playing time. To get a Derrell Daniels out there on the No. 1 kickoff return team as a true freshman is a very talented and good running athlete. By the way we've played this weekend we have been able to get Marques Tuiasosopo some game experience. Those things are going to pay off for us down the road."

Thoughts on Nebraska: "The Nebraska game and the (scoring output of Central Florida) I will be very interested see just what happened in that game. How much of that was to credit Central Florida versus how well did Nebraska really play. Our team will be excited all week long because of the matchup."

On Jerome Pathon: "He's very athletically gifted. He has fine foot speed and has the toughness to go in the middle with safety and facing the big hit."


Washington Player Quotes

Brock Huard
On San Diego State: "I think I have to honestly give San Diego State a lot of credit. They came out and played real hard. Like I told their players afterward, ÔIf you guys play that hard every week they should win the WAC.' In the first half, they came out and they came ready to play. They had a pretty good plan for us. It felt good to get whacked a couple times to feel like a football player a little bit.

"They had some guys up front and some Ôbackers who were real aggressive. I don't think we took them lightly. We prepared all week, but their scheme was good and they came after us. They have some speed, and speed can make up for a lot of things. Last week the team we played against (Brigham Young) didn't have as much speed as San Diego State did. We have to come out and fly around like that. I think it was a wake-up call.

"They loaded up up front. They were going to stop the running game and we saw that last year. The nice thing about this offense is it is pretty balanced. If you load up to stop the run then we are going to have some guys running deep behind you. If you want to sit back and play the pass then we will bash you up front. This is a pretty balanced offense. We came out slow today, but we're going to pick it up and we still put 36 points on the board.

On Jerome Pathon: "He is usually open that's why I like to go to him. And Fred (Coleman) played really well. The offensive line really came together in the second half. This is going to be a pretty good offense. There was a little bit of a wake-up call with the turnovers today and we know we can't have that.

On the upcoming game with Nebraska: "We know we need to come out more ready to play. We have to score on our first drive. We've got to put points on the board and get our crowd in the game. Thankfully our crowd hung with us there and the defense kept us in the game today. My best friend was the defense today. They were unstoppable.

"I'm thrilled the way the defense played. They looked like the Ô91 defense today. I remember watching some games that year when the offense didn't play real well and the defense carried that team. If the defense plays like that we are going to have a lot of fun. It takes a lot of pressure off the offense and lets us make some plays."

Jerry Jensen
On his first collegiate interception: "I've battled balls down before, but never really got my hands on it. We weren't too worried about the outside routes, so I tried to rob that curl. The quarterback didn't see me."

"This is just a defense that likes to fly around and likes to hit people. If you are going to try to run the ball on us, you are going to have to come out and come after us because we're coming after you. They came out and tried to establish the run and I just don't think they were able to do that. The offense kind of struggled during the first half a little bit and we played good enough to pick them up.

"I think we're playing well right now. Who's to say we can't beat Nebraska. It's going to be a good challenge. Right now it's just nice to get San Diego State out of the way. Now, we can start thinking about Nebraska."

Benji Olson
"What you see out there is good and everything, but we can be a lot better. We just have to clean up some stuff. We can put up a lot more points up there then we are."

Todd Johnson
On Aztec receiver Az-Zahir Hakim: "He's got some wheels, that's for sure. Once he starts striding he can really get up and go. We were trying to kick away from him all day. We contained him a little bit at least."

On his first career interception: "I was just really happy. It's been a long time since I got my hands on the ball."

Fred Coleman
On his third touchdown catch of the season: "I had none last year, so this is a great start right now. I'm just happy to be out there and contribute. This is just one of the games we had to play.

"We knew they had to come out and stop us on the ground. When they throw eight or nine people up there it's on our shoulders then. Any team that does that we'll be prepared to go to war with them out there at the wideout."

On the Nebraska game: You know about Nebraska because they are always on top. They've got a lot of talent. They are loaded on offense and defense.

Tony Parrish
"We try to stay focus and play one game at a time. There's a lot of pressure on us, with Nebraska up next, to concentrate on San Diego State.

San Diego State Post Game Quotes

San Diego State Coach Ted Tollner
General remarks: "First of all that's a very good football team we just played. They play well. They are athletic, they are physical, and they play hard. They are a real top-notch football team."

"Defensively I thought we played hard the entire game. We gave our defense a bunch of short fields and they never turned it in. They gave up some big plays, but they battled defensively. Our special teams made a lot of foolish mistakes, offensively we made a lot of foolish mistakes, and up front they handled us."

"You have to be able to run the football, no matter how skilled your wideouts are. If you can't run the ball you put too much pressure on them, especially against a team like that. That's really what happened. Early in the game, when we had our chances to mix the run and pass sometimes, even though we weren't making anything there was some doubt in their minds and we were moving the ball. But then we don't convert a couple of opportunities into touchdowns, and then we fall out of it and can't run, and you lose any chance to win the game at that point."

On the penalties: "On a lot of them we just made some poor decisions on the covering of kicks. Sometimes we thought we were pushed into the area, but basically we didn't play smart. We can accept aggressive penalties, but we had some that were just poor judgment."

On the fumble at the one-yard line: "At the time it was critical. That would have allowed us, had we got in, to stay in the game and keep some semblance of balance even though we didn't run."

"You just have to be able to run. If they want to take your two big play guys away from you by doubling them and you can't run inside, it makes for a long afternoon, and they were capable of doing that."

"We went in the game saying we had to rush the ball for 100 yards to win. If we could do that it would keep them off-balance enough to make some big plays with our pass, and then if we played as well as we thought we did on defense...We did give up some big plays on defense, they had some yards and some points, but we gave them (SDSU defense) an awfully lot of short fields."

On what his team could learn: "I think if anything, offensively we learned that if we're going to be productive we have to run the football. Sometimes you can get spoiled if your receivers make plays with the pass and you think maybe there's an easy way. But against a good team there is no easy way. Defensively, I was proud of the way they played. They played hard. They played with a lot of short fields and didn't play like it affected them. That doesn't sound right when they score that many points and have nearly 500 yards, but the truth is we played quite well defensively."

San Diego State Player Quotes

Quarterback Kevin McKechnie
On the Aztecs' inability to run: "It's hard. They've got the linebackers coming in and out, and that makes it tough."

On his two interceptions: "I thought the linebacker made a good play on the first one where he dove and caught it. The second one was my fault, I was trying to make something happen, and he wasn't open. I'll learn from that, though. I'm still learning."

On Washington's secondary: "They were double covering Az and Taj there for a while. If they're doing that, we should have been able to run or get the inside patterns going. Washington's got a good defense, though."

Wide receiver Az-Zahir Hakim
On Washington's defense: "They basically played the same schemes as they did in the first half, but we were trying to establish our running game in the second half so that we could have some balance of the clock and everything."

On his fumble: "I got hit from the back side, that guy made a good play."

On Washington's secondary: "They were leaving the underneath routes open. They were bailing on us .. I think they were a little timid of our speed. Underneath routes were wide open for us, but they had a little backer to bracket me on my side on third downs and passing downs."

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