Gaskin re-emerges as weapon for No. 6 Washington

Sep 26, 2017 - 1:52 AM Myles Gaskin was often an afterthought while the Washington running attack was practically invisible through the first three games of the season.

But toss in a career-best rushing performance in Game 4, and Gaskin and the Huskies' ground game looks significantly better entering Saturday's game at Oregon State (1-3, 0-1 Pac-12).

Gaskin rushed for a career-best 202 yards in last Saturday's 37-10 victory over Colorado. The junior entered with just 153 yards in three games.

"Myles always gets better the more you give him the ball," Washington coach Chris Petersen said. "He'll get into a rhythm if you can give him a little bit of space. I think we took a step forward in the run game."

Call it multiple steps now that the reliable Gaskin was able to get into the flow.

Gaskin topped 1,300 rushing yards in each of his first two college seasons. But the No. 6 Huskies (4-0, 1-0) only gave him 24 carries over the first three games.

He received 27 attempts in less than ideal conditions against the Buffaloes and suddenly looked like the highly productive back of the past two seasons.

"The guys up front we're doing their job, they were making it easy for me," Gaskin said of an offensive line that enjoyed its best overall game of the season. "The rain and everything kind of factored in so we were sticking to the run and it worked out how it did."

Going from the sparse workload to a bell-cow level certainly was fine with Gaskin, but it also spurred questions for why the drop in usage.

Petersen insists there was no plan in place to keep Gaskin leashed up until the start of Pac-12 play.

"No, I don't think we were that specific. I mean, we are trying to come out, and we always want to run the ball," Petersen said.

"We are disappointed from Game 1 if it doesn't look like we want it to. It is not like some, 'OK, get him ready for the league.' We come out trying to do the best we can from the very start. But we do know it takes a minute. It's not ready made."

Washington did receive a dose of bad news in the win over Colorado -- junior receiver Chico McClatcher broke his left ankle and is expected to miss the rest of the season.

--QB Jake Browning has passed for 958 yards and nine touchdowns against two interceptions but experienced his second straight subpar performance against Colorado, including last season's Pac-12 title game. The junior completed just 11 of 21 attempts for 160 yards and one touchdown but did avoid key mistakes. Browning's completion percentage dipped to 69.7 percent, which ranks 14th nationally, but he could be in line for a nice rebound against an Oregon State team that has already allowed 12 passing touchdowns.

--CB Jordan Miller is coming off a solid effort against Colorado in which he recorded his first two interceptions of the season. The junior will be counted on even more moving forward with redshirt freshman Byron Murphy out with a broken foot. "He's an athletic guy. He's another guy that's kind of been lurking in the shadows so to speak," coach Chris Petersen said. "I think we saw that he could do some really good things out there at a really tough position on the island."

--DT Vita Vea displayed his rare form of athleticism by blocking a punt against Colorado in addition to his typical style of tying up blockers in the trenches. "Thought Vita Vea was playing at a really, really high level," coach Chris Petersen said. "Not only on special teams but on defense." The 6-foot-5, 340-pound junior has 13 tackles and one sack this season with room to elevate his performance.