That was the question I raised in my main story for today's paper, whether history might ultimately judge the 2006 Oregon State game as a turning point for the Tyrone Willingham era at Washington.

That's the day Isaiah Stanback suffered a Lisfranc injury and was lost for the season, with UW then losing four of its last five games without him after going 4-2 to start the year --- the Huskies were losing 27-17 with just over 10 minutes left at the time he was hurt, so that was probably going to be a defeat that day, as well. Still, that team went from 4-3 with Stanback to 5-7 without him.

Obviously, it's a completely hypothetical question, and who really knows for sure what would have happened had Stanback stayed healthy. UW came close to winning the next two weeks, OT losses to Cal and Arizona State. Would Stanback have made the difference in those games? Maybe, especially considering replacement Carl Bonnell had to leave the ASU game with an injury, starting a merry-go-round of QB instability the remainder of the season.

Fans can argue the point, and those who have soured on Willingham I'm sure will say no, the collapse that has followed would likely have happened anyway. Obviously, last year's team started 2-0 with Jake Locker and seemed to have all the momentum in the world and couldn't sustain it, falling prey to greater weaknesses in the program. The six losses that followed may be just as relevant a turning point.

But I can tell you a lot of people close to the team at the time will say otherwise, and that's what I was trying to get at today --- that there are a lot of people who do think Stanback's injury was the difference between the 2006 team going to a bowl, and it instead finishing 5-7.

"Not to take anything away from Carl because he was good, too, but it definitely took away from the uprising and the fire we had as a team to see your starting QB go down,'' said Johnie Kirton.

And if that team goes to a bowl, a whole lot might be different right now. Maybe the players would have bought into Willingham's system a little more eagerly. Maybe going to a bowl, and getting those 15 extra practices, would have served as a tipping point to later success. Maybe the ugly Suddenly Senior controversy, which a lot of other people point to as a turning point in the public perception of Willingham, wouldn't have seemed like as big a deal if the team was 6-4 at that point and heading to a bowl, instead of 4-6.

What some will say is a flaw in the argument is that UW was on its way to losing that game that day even before Stanback got hurt, as I noted above. Indeed, Stanback was 3 yards shy of picking up a first down on the play he was hurt, so UW had to punt, making a comeback that much less likely. Also, he hadn't played his best game that day, though Tim Lappano told me this week Stanback was banged up a lot more than people realized during the close loss the previous week at USC.

But I thought it a worthy premise to at least explore with OSU again in town almost two years to the date of that game, which was played on Oct. 14, 2006.

And again, I realize completely it's all hypothetical. I didn't write it as a way to try to find another apology for Willingham --- I've already gotten some complaints along those lines --- just something I thought was interesting to consider in a season when storylines aren't exactly popping out all over the place.

The story also includes a chart with five other games when things seemed to swing downward for the Willingham Huskies, including the 2006 Stanford game.

I talked with Stanback last week, and as is always the case, there was a lot that I didn't have room for in the paper.

For one thing, Stanback remains a staunch supporter of Willingham.

"The last thing we need is another change at head coach,'' he said. "That's what got us into the position we are in. When I was there, there was so much change and not enough stability. Not that they listen to me. They listen to the guys who hand out the money.''

When I asked Stanback how he thinks instability hurts a program, he pointed to the uneven distribution of players at certain positions and said, "That's what happens when you have three different coaches with three different philosophies.'' An example of that would be all the WRs in the class of 2003, one reason the team is so young at that spot now.

I also talked with Roy Lewis, who is now on the practice squad with the Pittsburgh Steelers, to get his views, and he's quoted in the story saying he also thinks things would have turned out a lot different if Stanback had remained upright. Lewis, however, said he didn't want to comment on the status of Willingham, which you can maybe read into whatever you want, saying only that "what is going on in the program at this point, it definitely has to change. It has to right now. We are not where we need to be and UW has always been, through history, known as a pretty dominant program. Everyone remembers UW as a dominant program. Things can always get better with time. Right now we are just a little down.''