ATLANTA — If Jimi Hendrix had held a news conference before a concert, a reporter would probably have asked him about guitar solos. In the same way, it only made sense that when Washington Coach Chris Petersen held court this week ahead of the Huskies’ matchup Saturday against No. 1 Alabama in the College Football Playoff semifinals, someone brought up trick plays.
Petersen is an acknowledged maestro of the trick play. While he earned this reputation as the coach of the power-conference party crasher Boise State, where among other things he dialed up a so-called Statue of Liberty play to beat Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, he also has deployed them in his three seasons in Seattle, including a double-pass touchdown against Southern California last year.