LOCKER'S THE KEY FOR UW.

Byline: Curtis Anderson The Register-Guard

Seven out of every 10 yards.

That's how much the Washington football team has relied on redshirt freshman quarterback Jake Locker this year.

Six games into his collegiate career, the 6-foot-3, 225-pound phenom from Ferndale, Wash., has accounted for an astounding 71.5 percent of the yardage gained by the Huskies.

"Washington is scary because of Locker," UO coach Mike Bellotti said. "He's physical and he runs the ball really well. If there is the opportunity to run the ball on every single down, he'll do it."

And why not?

He is the team's best running back, displaying a rare mixture of size, speed, power and toughness usually reserved for a middle linebacker. Locker stands seventh overall among Pac-10 rushers with 459 yards in 85 carries, a robust average of 5.4 yards per carry, with six touchdowns.

The lone chink in his armor, to date, has been a slightly erratic passing game.

Nobody doubts the strength of his arm, but Locker has completed just fewer than 50 percent of his tosses for a league-low average of 156 yards per game.

Still, when the subject is Washington football, the discussion begins with Locker, who was anointed the savior of the forlorn UW football program, and a future Heisman Trophy candidate, from the moment he signed with the Huskies.

"We recruited Jake," Bellotti said. "So we're very aware of his skills. He's a tremendous athlete - a great runner, fast and physical, and he possesses a great arm. In my mind, he's just a person to reckon with."

UW coach Tyrone Willingham handed Locker the keys to the Husky offense before spring drills even began last year, and while the learning curve has been a steep one, he has shown flashes of brilliance.

Consider:

In his first collegiate start, a road game at Syracuse, Locker completed 14-of-19 passes for 142 yards.

He accounted for 277 yards of total offense in an upset win over then-No. 22 Boise State.

He ran for 102 yards against top-ranked Ohio State.

He threw four touchdown passes in his Pac-10 baptism versus UCLA.

He gave the Huskies a 17-13 halftime lead against unbeaten Arizona State last week after tearing through the Sun Devil defense on a 32-yard touchdown on a quarterback draw.

"He's really good," UO rover Patrick Chung said. "He can run and pass, so we have to stop him both ways. It's like having an extra running back out there. He's big and fast and he's not afraid to take the hit."

The missing item in Locker's first go-round on the collegiate stage is a signature win over a ranked opponent.

The seventh-ranked Ducks (5-1 overall, 2-1 Pac-10), who will be making their first visit to Husky Stadium since 2003 on Saturday, certainly fit that billing.

Although the Huskies (2-4, 0-3) have dropped four straight since opening the year with promising back-to-back wins over Syracuse and Boise State, and they're a dismal 4-16 in conference games in21/2seasons under Willingham, Locker sees no reason why UW can't pull off the upset.

Especially in this wacky college football season.

"The past two weeks, the No. 1 team in the nation has been knocked off," Locker said of monumental victories recorded by Stanford (over USC) and Kentucky (over LSU). "Each of those teams went into it looking at those games as good opportunities to turn their seasons around, and that's what we're looking for this weekend."

Locker has never played against the Ducks, but he made the trip to Eugene last year, and he received an early indoctrination into the intensity of dislike between the two schools.

In particular, the Autzen Stadium fans made their presence known.

"When I got here, I always thought the Apple Cup, WSU and Washington, was the big rivalry," he said. "But I learned that Oregon week is almost as big as Washington State week.

"They (the Oregon fans) knew a lot about us. They were calling a lot of us by name ... It was a pretty hostile environment, to say the least. They really kind of personally went after you. It was fun, all in good humor, but it was a different feeling when we went down there."

For all of Locker's exploits, no team in the Pac-10 should be better prepared to deal with him than the Ducks.

The UO defense has to face the explosive tandem of Dennis Dixon and Jonathan Stewart in practice every day, and those reps can only help the Ducks as they attempt to minimize Locker's impact by focusing on tight coverage, proper containment and good tackling.

"Oh yeah, that's Locker right there," Chung said of trying to defend both Dixon and Stewart. "We're playing our own offense this week, so that's very good practice."

Despite the losing streak, Locker said the Huskies are still a confident bunch.

"We all understand that we have a good football team," he said.

"We're good enough to play with these teams. We just have to put together four quarters, and we haven't done that yet."

Oregon plans to delay that process for at least one more week, and corralling the fleet-footed Locker will be the first step in accomplishing that goal.

OREGON AT WASHINGTON

Saturday, 4:30 p.m., at Husky Stadium in Seattle. TV: FSN. Radio: KUGN-AM and KZEL-FM (96.1). More UO football coverage at www.registerguard.com/blogs