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Oahu Bowl 1998
Air Force 45 Washington 35
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Bryce Fisher got two real good shots at Brock Huard's 6-foot-5,
225-pound frame last night. Once was when he sacked him for a 6-yard
loss in a 45-25 Air Force (12-1) victory over Washington (6-6) in the
first Jeep Oahu Bowl at Aloha Stadium. The other time was when he placed
a bear hug on him outside the stadium's hospitality room after the game
and told him he's the best quarterback he's faced. It was Christmas,
after all.
If Snoopy and the Red Baron can toast each other, then so can Fisher
and the man he spent a whole evening trying to put on his back. The
sportsmanlike gesture by Fisher, the Western Athletic Conference's top
defensive player of 1998, served to give Huard, one of the nation's top
college quarterbacks, a brief respite from his postgame misery.
After being sacked by Fisher and four of his teammates, Huard needed
all the kindness he could get. He just didn't expect it to come from one
of the guys who beat him up. "You're supposed to let me throw the ball, you jerk," was Huard's good-natured greeting to the 6-2, 275-pound right defensive tackle from Renton, Wash. Fisher spotted Huard down the hallway and went directly for him. "That guy's one hell of a quarterback and he's going to be someone special in the NFL," said Fisher, referring to the fact that Huard, a junior, will enter the 1999 National Football League draft.
The Huskies saw more than they wanted as the Falcons avenged a 1997
Las Vegas Bowl loss to a Pac-10 team (Oregon 41, Air Force 13) and a
three-game bowl losing streak that dated back to 1992.
Air Force came with a blitz that was furious and sustained. And even
though Huard completed 23 of 32 attempts for 267 yards, he did not throw
for a single touchdown and was picked off by three different Falcons.
Air Force led the WAC in scoring defense for the second year in a row.
"I hadn't seen on any of their films as much blitzing as they did,"
said Huard, who was never at ease in the pocket.
On the other side of the ball, Air Force quarterback Blane Morgan had
a career night as leader of the Falcons' triple option attack. But
Morgan played a dimension beyond the option. He had exactly the same
passing yardage as Huard but got it on 12 of 16 attempts and threw for
two touchdowns. He was not intercepted.
Morgan, whose brother, Beau, played quarterback for the Falcons
before him, chipped into an evenly balanced rushing game (eight players
in double-digit yardage) with 50 of his own. Washington faced only one
option team this year, Nebraska, and lost, 55-7. But Lambright said Air
Force's option was a much different look.
"Nebraska's approach doesn't involve nearly as many changeups as Air
Force's," he said. "We knew they (Washington) would be zeroed in on the
option, so we ran a midline option, which Blane had a lot of success
with," DeBerry said. "We used some motion we hadn't used in previous
games. And we used some big pass plays."
DeBerry said the biggest and most decisive Air Force pass play was
Morgan's 79-yard connection to Matt Farmer with 12 seconds left in the
third quarter to give Air Force a 38-13 lead. On the previous play, All-WAC
safety Tim Curry, another Washington native not recruited by the
Huskies, had held Washington tailback Braxton Cleman to a 1-yard gain on
fourth and 2 at the Falcons' 21. Curry also had a sack and an
interception.
Air Force's Scott McKay scored with 3:07 left in the half, completing
a 12-play, 74-yard drive that ate up 6:11. The critical play that
sustained the drive was a fake punt on fourth-and-8 in which Jon
Sanderson ran for 10 yards to the Washington 33.
Cleman scored again for Washington with 1:06 remaining on a 1-yard
plunge to cut Air Force's lead to 22-13. "We just wanted to go out and gain some respect," said McKay. "My heart's thumpin' and I think this gives us a lot of momentum going into the new conference next year." |
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| AFA's C.J. Zanotti tackles Willie Hurst. | Spanky Gilliam finds an opening. |
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Blane Morgan |
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Attendance- 34,803
Scoring Summary
First Quarter Second Quarter Third Quarter Fourth Quarter
Individual Statistics Rushing AFA- Morgan 20-50, Gilliam 8-34, McKay 5-32, Singleton 5-28, Brown 5-27, Paroda 4-17, Becker 4-16 UW- Hurst 9-66, Jarzunka 1-16, Cleman 9-16, Tuiasosopo 4-11
Passing AFA- Morgan 12-16-267 UW- Huard 23-32-267,
Tuiasosopo 5-7-43 Receiving AFA- Farmer 4-109, McKay 4-77, Brown 2-58, Newman 1-17 UW- Looker 8-100, Harris
5-38, Jarzynka 4-39, Jurgens 4-23, DeSaussure 3-78 |
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Air Force's defense set the tone for the evening as it stopped
Washington at the Falcons' 27 after a 48-yard drive on the Huskies'
first possession. Joe Jarzynka's attempt at a 44-yard field goal was
blocked by Shawn Thomas. The ensuing Air Force drive went 10 plays and
72 yards, ending in the first of Singleton's touchdowns -- an 11-yard
romp. The second one came 24 seconds into the second quarter on a 2-yard
run to give Air Force a two-touchdown lead. Washington needed to set up
a score, so Huard hit Andre DeSaussure with a 44-yard pass and Cleman
ran 3 yards on the next play for the score. 
