SPORTS
Saturday, December 21, 2019
East Oregonian
B3
‘Petersen Bowl’: Washington, Boise State meet in Las Vegas
does it, you need to utilize
that and pay attention to it and
try to make it part of who you
are and what you do.”
By DAN GREENSPAN
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — Chris
Petersen brought Boise State
into the national conscious-
ness with trick plays and
toughness.
He returned Washington
to the top of the Pac-12 with
his kind of guys.
Now, as Petersen is set
to step away after six sea-
sons leading the Huskies
and 14 consecutive years of
the “frustration and anxiety
and stress” that come with
being a head coach, his fi nal
game for the time being will
fi ttingly match the Huskies
against the No. 18 Broncos
in the Las Vegas Bowl on
Saturday.
Petersen
initially
expressed hesitation about
having his Huskies (7-5) play
the Broncos (12-1), who are
led by his former offensive
coordinator Bryan Harsin.
But Washington players have
embraced everything around
the matchup.
“There is motivation,
100%,” defensive lineman
Levi Onwuzurike said.
“We all know the history,
(Petersen) has been at Boise
State and is here now. We
want to win a bowl game
and send him out with a
win.”
Petersen, 55, caught col-
Moving on up
The Las Vegas Bowl will
relocate from Sam Boyd Sta-
dium to the new Allegiant
Stadium just off the Las
Vegas Strip in 2020, bring-
ing with it upgraded con-
ference tie-ins. The game
moves up the Pac-12 peck-
ing order against Southeast-
ern Conference or Big Ten
foes on a rotating basis. The
Mountain West champion
will still face a Pac-12 oppo-
nent but in a new bowl game
to be held at the stadium the
Los Angeles Rams and Char-
gers will share in Inglewood,
California.
Musical chairs
AP Photo/Chase Stevens
Washington head coach Chris Petersen speaks with reporters Tuesday ahead of the Las Ve-
gas Bowl in Las Vegas.
lege football by surprise
when Washington announced
on Dec. 2 that he would step
down, with defensive coor-
dinator Jimmy Lake tak-
ing over as the next coach
of the Huskies following the
bowl. It was typical Petersen,
unexpected but carefully
measured.
Petersen has led Washing-
ton to two Pac-12 titles and
three New Year’s Six bowls,
including a berth in the Col-
lege Football Playoff in 2016.
But he was feeling the need
to recharge, and Washing-
ton already had Lake ready to
provide both continuity and a
fresh perspective.
The ability to identify tal-
ent and build relationships
has always been at the heart of
Petersen’s success. Harsin has
tried to emulate that model,
and with fi ve seasons of at
least 10 wins in his six years
with the Broncos, it seems to
have carried through.
“If you’re smart, you want
to try to fi gure out the for-
mula and how do you incor-
porate that into what you do,”
Harsin said. “You do it your
way, but when people are
doing things the way that he
The Broncos needed
three different quarterbacks
to win the Mountain West,
and they will have a differ-
ent play caller after offensive
coordinator Zak Hill took
the same position at Arizona
State. Harsin will take a big-
ger role but joked he will “just
put it on autopilot. Yeah, it’s
already prerecorded, so we’re
good that way.”
Ascendant Ahmed
After his fi rst two seasons
at Washington saw him used
as a change of pace rusher
capable of providing big
plays, Huskies running back
Salvon Ahmed showed he
could handle a full workload
as a junior. Ahmed had four
games with at least 20 car-
ries, including a career-high
25 attempts for 174 yards
and two touchdowns against
Oregon State, en route to
rushing for 1,000 yards and
nine touchdowns.
Pac attack
Boise State is 12-6
against the Conference of
Champions since 2004,
including a 4-1 record in
bowl games with wins over
Arizona State, Washing-
ton and Oregon in the Las
Vegas Bowl.
Draft departures
Washington will be with-
out two of its top offensive
players as tight end Hunter
Bryant and left tackle Trey
Adams will not play in the
Las Vegas Bowl. Bryant is
entering the NFL draft after
he led the Huskies in receiv-
ing yards (825), was second
in receptions (52) and tied for
second in touchdown recep-
tions (3) as a junior. Adams
started 44 games in fi ve sea-
sons with the Huskies, but
he missed time in 2017-18
because of knee and back
injuries.
Seahawks defensive lineman Woods suspended 4 games for PEDs
By TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
RENTON, Wash. —
Seattle Seahawks defensive
tackle Al Woods was sus-
pended for four games by
the NFL on Friday for vio-
lating the league’s policy
on performance-enhancing
substances.
Woods is the second
Seattle player to be sus-
pended this week. Wide
receiver Josh Gordon was
suspended indefi nitely Mon-
day for violating policies on
performance-enhancers and
“substances of abuse.”
Woods will miss the fi nal
two regular season games
— beginning with Sun-
day’s game against Arizona
— and at least two poten-
tial playoff games. He could
return for either the NFC
championship or the Super
Bowl should Seattle make
it that far, depending on the
Seahawks’ playoff seed.
“He’s been a great kid in
the program. We’ve loved
what he has done,” coach
Pete Carroll said.
Woods was an import-
ant role player for Seattle’s
defensive line. He started
fi ve of 14 games but saw sig-
nifi cant playing time, play-
ing more than 50% of defen-
sive snaps in seven games.
Woods was primarily a run
stopper and had 32 tack-
les, one sack and two forced
fumbles. His loss may not be
felt much this week against
the Cardinals but could be
signifi cant next week with
the Seahawks facing the San
Francisco 49ers in Week 17.
Woods is in his 10th
season and fi rst with the
Seahawks.
Carroll said the Sea-
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hawks will add undrafted
rookie Brian Mone off
the practice squad to take
Woods’ roster spot. Mone
was on the active roster for
the fi rst three weeks before
being released and added
back to Seattle’s practice
squad.
“He’s tough. He’s phys-
ical. He’s got a great motor
for chasing the ball for such
a big man. ... Players are
fi red up he gets a chance to
help us right now,” Carroll
said.
Along with losing Woods,
the Seahawks could be with-
out defensive end Jadeveon
Clowney against the Cardi-
nals. Clowney missed last
week’s game due to illness,
but it’s his ongoing core
injury that has kept him out
of practice this week.
Carroll indicated there
haven’t been any setbacks
and that Clowney was not
being rested.
“We’ve got to see if he
can elevate that in the next
couple of days and surprise
us. We didn’t get much out
of him practice wise,” Car-
roll said. “It’s just been
over time it’s been a prob-
lem. He just can’t get going
yet during the week. We’re
looking to give him days off
to see if the rest will help
him by game day.”
Carroll
said
defen-
sive end Ziggy Ansah
will return after missing
two games with a shoul-
der injury. Safety Quan-
dre Diggs is not expected
to play due to a high-an-
kle sprain, while linebacker
Mychal Kendricks and cor-
nerback Shaquill Griffi n —
both with hamstring inju-
ries — will be game-time
decisions.