He wasn't always "Cool Hand Jake."
He was once "Little Dude Jake."
As an 8-year-old with the Folsom (Calif.) Junior Bulldogs, Jake Browning's helmet was wider than his torso, his twig arms snaked out of his shoulder pads. But the kid could chuck it.
"I was pretty good when I started," Browning said a laugh, pinpointing the origins of a career that has flourished in Seattle as the Washington Huskies' star quarterback.
"Then everyone hit puberty and I didn't, and that sucked. Physics can be pretty hard if you're the smaller guy in football."
But Browning's natural instinct and feel for the game were unmatched, and he grew into his own _ in body and in spirit, and in lore.
As Browning enters his third season as a starter for the Huskies, his presence on the college football landscape couldn't get much bigger. He leads a program boasting its highest preseason ranking _ No. 8 by the Associated Press _ in 20 years. Washington beat Rutgers, 30-14, in Friday's opener.
Browning tossed 43 touchdowns last season, tying the Pacific-12 Conference record, and guided the Huskies to a conference title and into the College Football Playoff semifinal, a crushing 24-7 loss to Alabama that still pains him.
He is wiser now, and thicker, too, with 215 pounds on his 6-foot-2 frame. And hungrier. He's expected to contend again for the Heisman Trophy, but dismisses it, and he won't touch any topic on the NFL.
"If confidence is the word that I use to accomplish some of these cool things, OK," Browning said. "I just need to take it the next step forward."
