Jake Locker - College Career

College Career

On July 31, 2005, Jake Locker committed to the Washington Huskies football team. Husky fans quickly dubbed him Montlake Jake and was expected to be the dismal program's savior. In 2006, Locker won UW's Pepsi Player of the Week Award for his work on the service team after the Fresno State, Arizona and Washington State games. He made the travel squad for every game, and suited up for all 12, but didn't see any game action. During this time Locker quarterbacked the UW service team. Locker in 2007, was named the Rivals.com Freshman of the Week following his two rushing TD performance in the opener at Syracuse. He carried the ball 10 times for 83 yards and went 14-for-19 passing for 142 yards. He was named the SIonCampus.com Player of the Week after leading the Huskies to a 24–10 win over then 20th-ranked Boise State, snapping the Broncos' 14-game win streak. During a loss to Arizona, he became the 19th player in college football to pass for 300 yards, and run for 100. Locker was handed the starting quarterback position prior to the start of spring drills and emerged from pre-season drills as the team's starter.

On November 10, 2007, Locker was injured during a game against Oregon State University, and was removed from the field by an ambulance and taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Corvallis, Oregon. He was able to return to the stadium in the fourth quarter to watch the end of the game, though he was wearing a neck brace.

Locker was named to the Rivals.com 2007 Freshman Second-team All-America and was named Pac-10 Freshman of the Year. In 2007, he set UW records for rushing yards in a season by a freshman (986), rushing yards in a season by a quarterback (986, which is also a PAC-10 record), rushing attempts by a quarterback (172), passing yards by a freshman (2,062), touchdown passes by a freshman (14) and longest pass completion (98 yards to Marcel Reece vs. Arizona).

During summer of 2008, Locker played outfield for the Bellingham Bells of the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League, where he was named by Baseball America as the league's top prospect.

On the 4th day of practice going into the 2008 season, Jake Locker partially tore his hamstring. He resumed full practices on August 18, 2008.

In the Huskies' second game of the 2008 season against Brigham Young University, with the Huskies trailing 28—21, Locker scored a rushing touchdown with two seconds remaining to bring the score to 28—27. After tumbling into the end zone, Locker threw the ball up into the air and was assessed a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. This backed the point after touchdown kick, which was to tie the game and in all likelihood send it to overtime, from the 3 yard line to the 18 yard line. The kick was blocked and UW lost the game by that 28—27 margin. The call was seen as controversial, in that it followed the letter of the rule dictating that players who score a touchdown must hand the ball over to officials in an orderly fashion but some believe violated its spirit, because Locker's act of throwing the ball was simply an emotional reaction to a big play and not an attempt to taunt his opponents or delay the game. Locker later apologized for incurring the penalty. The Huskies finished 0–12 in the 2008 season. The only BCS conference program to go 0-12 in NCAA history.

On September 19, 2009, Locker led the unranked Washington Huskies to a 16–13 victory over the 3rd ranked USC Trojans. Late in the 4th quarter, Locker engineered a 68 yard drive, with the game tied at 13–13, that ended with a 22 yard field goal with 3 seconds remaining that put the Huskies up 16–13. The win allowed the Huskies to move to 24th in the AP poll; this was the first time they had been ranked since the 2003 season. Locker and the Huskies would go on to have an up and down season, finishing with a 5–7 record highlighted by a 42–10 blowout win of No. 19 California to close the season. On Dec. 14, 2009, Locker released a press release through the Washington athletic department indicating his decision to remain in school and play his senior year at Washington, rather than turn pro.

For his performance in 2009, Jake Locker was named Male Sports Star of the Year in the 75th annual Seattle Sports Star of the Year awards. In 2010, Locker was a finalist for The Premier Player of College Football Trophy that's awarded based on the votes of fans.

Locker closed out his college career with a 19–7 win over heavily favored Nebraska in the 2010 Holiday Bowl despite completing only 5 of 16 passes in the game. This atoned for a 56–21 loss to the Cornhuskers in Seattle earlier in the season, a game in which Locker was criticized for his 4–20 performance with 2 interceptions.

This win lifted Locker's record to 10-21 as a starter for the Huskies. Twenty-eight quarterbacks have gone in the first round of the draft since 2000. Only five had losing records as college starters: Patrick Ramsey, Kyle Boller, J.P. Losman, Jay Cutler and Josh Freeman.