Battered Huskies have few options

Any honeymoon for Keith Gilbertson — long a favored son of Washington fans for his role in building the offense that led to the 1991 national title — is over now.

Gilbertson is just six games into his UW head-coaching career, and while his entire tenure has had a hint of crisis to it, the heat is really on now.

After losing 28-17 to Nevada on Saturday, the Huskies are 3-3 and in serious danger of their first losing season since 1976. Washington found itself in a similar position last year under Rick Neuheisel, standing 4-5 with three games left. But Neuheisel then rallied his team around "the Northwest championship" and the Huskies won three in a row to notch the school's 26th straight non-losing season.

Maybe Gilbertson can try the same tack this week as the Huskies head to Oregon State, their first Northwest opponent of this season.

But this UW team appears to have much bigger problems than last year's, which at least usually scored points and gained yards in bunches. And some are now wondering if the events of the summer — the traumatic change in coaches from Neuheisel to Gilbertson — isn't playing a role.

The two have vastly different coaching styles — Gilbertson is more old school to paint it in the broadest brush possible. Players have said all along they felt the changes were positive, that the team needed to have more discipline. But now that the season appears to be going awry, questions will be raised.

Gilbertson, asked if he thought the coaching change might be impacting what's happening, said, "I don't know. Maybe. Could be. I certainly don't excuse myself. I'm not going to stand here and pass the blame to anybody else. I understand that we weren't ready to play, and that's my deal. I thought maybe we were farther along than what we were, and thought we would play better than what we played."

Angry fans are already posting "fire Gilbertson" messages on UW-related Internet boards and sending similar missives to writers who cover the team. But unless the news from the NCAA investigation is worse than anyone has reason to believe, that seems unlikely even if the Huskies lose the rest of their games.

UW is something of a rudderless ship right now, as it has no full-time president, and athletic director Barbara Hedges is working without a contract. Gilbertson signed a four-year deal in July with the first two years essentially guaranteed. If Gilbertson were fired this year, for instance, he would apparently be owed roughly $2 million. Considering Neuheisel is suing the school for what will likely be several million dollars, the finances involved would seem to negate the possibility of any coaching change for at least two years.

Impatient and frustrated fans are also calling for drastic changes in other areas, such as quarterback, where Cody Pickett continues to struggle, and on the offensive line. But as Gilbertson said after the game Saturday, UW's options are pretty limited.

"I'm not sure who to throw in there to compete because we've lost a lot of front-line guys (to injury and attrition) and it shows," Gilbertson said. "We're one-deep on the offensive line, we're playing our second and third tight end and freshmen at receiver."

The most drastic move would be changing things up at quarterback, where Pickett has played maybe the worst back-to-back games of his UW career.

"If he has a terrible, terrible time every game, yeah," Gilbertson said when asked if he would consider making a change at QB. "But that's not in order right now. He's done an awful lot for Washington football, and I'm not going to pull the plug on him."

The reality is also that neither sophomore Casey Paus nor freshman Isaiah Stanback seems ready to play.

Nothing would give the team more of a boost right now, though, than a return to form by Pickett. He not only threw three interceptions and lost a fumble against Nevada, but was also so unable to get the ball to Reggie Williams that some fans wondered if Pickett was freezing Williams out. Few around the team take that idea seriously, however, pointing out that Pickett and Williams are good friends. They walked together from the locker room into the team room for interviews after Saturday's game, for instance.

"We've just got to play better everywhere," Pickett said. "All we can do is go back, look at the film, try to get better and keep our heads up and go and play hard next week."

Notes

• WR Justin Robbins is likely out for this week's game with a knee injury suffered in the first quarter. Robbins apparently re-injured the same knee that has caused him to miss most of the last two seasons. The extent of the injury, however, is still to be determined. Roc Alexander and Chris Massey will be listed as co-starters at one cornerback spot as Alexander continues to be bothered by a shoulder injury.

• The Huskies did receive some good news this weekend, learning that freshman OL Juan Garcia of Yakima has been granted partial-qualifier status by the NCAA. Garcia is not eligible to play this season but can enroll and practice with the team and will be eligible to play next year.