SEATTLE (AP) - Nate Williams went home to see his family, visited a fair and indulged in some fast food.

After three miserable weeks in which Washington opened the season by stumbling through a brutal schedule, Williams and his teammates enjoyed a weekend off.

"It was a good weekend," said Williams, the Huskies' starting strong safety. "We needed it."

The Huskies (0-3) returned on Monday from the first of their three bye weeks this season to enter a stretch of four games that will most likely determine the future of coach Tyrone Willingham. The first game is Saturday night at home against Stanford as Willingham tries to avoid starting 0-4 for the first time in his coaching career.

He wasn't aware he had never opened 0-4 until it was brought to his attention.

"Thank you for the great thoughts," Willingham said. "Now that's you've forced me to think about it, you want to win the next game and that's always been my focus."

Willingham also had not gotten off to an 0-3 start before this season in his previous stops at Stanford and Notre Dame, but he rarely faced a schedule as loaded as the Huskies just completed - at Oregon followed by home games against Brigham Young and Oklahoma, all three nationally ranked at the time and with his own team littered by young, inexperienced players.

Washington was outscored 127-51, and questions about Willingham's future as Washington's coach were amplified by the Huskies lack of competitiveness in two of the three losses.

In the next part of the Huskies schedule, they have a chance to do better. After Stanford, the Huskies travel to Arizona and host Oregon State and Notre Dame over the next month.

"I would think that maybe some of our young men are looking at this as a fresh start," Willingham said.

Washington used the bye week to rest some injured players but also conducted live scrimmages during some of the three days of practice. Part of the decision to go live was to work on defense, which struggled with tackling in the first three weeks.

Facing three of the top 13 offenses in the country, the Huskies have allowed 520.7 yards per game on defense, ranking next-to-last in the country.

"We just focused on the little things, certain aspects of the game," linebacker Mason Foster said. "We worked hard and felt like it was a good week. We're always confident, but we still feel like we have to go out and prove something."

Willingham's biggest concern is in the defensive secondary, where neither Victor Aiyewa or Darin Harris is listed on the depth chart for Saturday. Coming out of spring practice, both were expected to be significant contributors, but Aiyewa has been unable to shake a nagging groin injury and Harris is recovering from a concussion from the BYU game.

Willingham said Aiyewa is day-to-day and Harris is likely out for this week. That leaves Williams and freshman Johri Fogerson as starting safeties on Saturday.

"Hopefully we can get some guys back and get healthy there," Willingham said.