Seattle ? If Rick Neuheisel cracks a joke these days, he hopes it’s not interpreted as a sign the struggling Washington Huskies have accepted their predicament.

“Just trying to maintain my sense of humor,” he said.

Times are tough, not only for the Huskies (4-5, 1-4 Pac-10) but for their coach. Washington started the season ranked No. 11, but after losing four of the last five, it might endure its first losing season since 1976.

Neuheisel, meanwhile, was penalized by the NCAA this fall for recruiting violations that occurred during his watch at Colorado from 1995-98. He was banned from off-campus recruiting through May 31.

All this after Washington gave Neuheisel a $1.5 million “loan” that he’ll be allowed to keep if he fulfills the six-year contract extension awarded days after Washington’s embarrassing gaffe in an opening loss at Michigan.

Neuheisel knows the “buzzards are swirling,” as he said when the losses began to pile up last month.

Perhaps he’s always been an easy target for critics because he got the chance to be head coach at a major football program so early. Neuheisel was only 34 when he took over at Colorado. Then, after only modest success with the Buffaloes, he got a contract at Washington that pays him $1.2 million a year.

“I don’t know what it is that grates on people, what I do or whatever,” he said. “There’s a feeling out there that things come easily to me, that I haven’t paid my dues to get in the very fortunate position that I find myself.”

The Huskies are losing close games this season, the kind of matchups they won previously. Neuheisel philosophically says things balance out, but skeptics are using it as ammunition that he’s a soft coach.

The Michigan game was the first black eye for the Huskies.

Washington was penalized 15 yards in the closing seconds for having 12 players break the huddle ” after a timeout, no less. The Wolverines kicked a 44-yard game-winning field goal.

Is it possible that Neuheisel is repeating a pattern from his days at Colorado? The Buffaloes went 10-2 in each of his first two seasons, then 5-6 and 8-4 before he jumped to Washington in 1999.

Neuheisel went 7-5 in his first season with the Huskies, then 11-1 with a Rose Bowl title in his second. He rejects the suggestion Washington and Colorado went downhill as he settled in with his own players.

“I’ll just say I don’t agree. That’s my quote on that one,” Neuheisel said.

He’s got support from his boss. Washington athletic director Barbara Hedges said it’s disappointing for fans if the Huskies don’t win, but it’s more important to see the big picture.

“You can’t quickly forget that we won the Rose Bowl and went to two Holiday Bowls in Rick’s first three years at Washington,” Hedges said. “You have to put everything in perspective.”