Who Are These Guys: Sean Parker

“Who Are These Guys?” is a series the Good Guys are doing on the Husky football freshman class.  We’ll be telling you a little more about the guys who we think will play this year in this series.

Sean Parker was the surprise of the recruiting class.  On signing day, Parker chose UW over USC on ESPN.  The strong safety was the cherry on top of the recruiting class and may be the most decorated player in the class.  Parker has been getting quite a few looks in practice and will certainly play in some capacity this season, although it may be mostly on special teams.  Parker could play both safety positions but he’s starting out at strong safety.  He’s listed at 5-10, 200 lbs.  That is a little bit shorter than some safeties but his weight is right where it needs to be.

After years on ineptitude, the Huskies secondary finally looks to be a strength of the defense.  There is a lot of depth at the corner position with Trufant, Richardson, Long, McDowell, and fellow true freshman Greg Ducre.  The safety spots also have depth although it’s not completely clear if the talent is great at those positions.  The strong safety position is held down by Nate Williams who could turn into an all Pac-10 caliber player.  The free safety position was a revolving door last year but it appears to have come down to Will Shamburger and Nate Fellner.  Justin Glenn and Greg Walker also add depth at both positions.

With all these guys returning you’d think it’d be hard for a true freshman to see the field but Parker currently sits as Nate Williams backup.  Nate Williams is also taking quite a few days off in camp (because of past injuries and the coaches wanting him to stay fresh) so that gives Parker some valuable time with the first team defense.  Parker is definitely being groomed to take over once Williams graduates next year.

But, where does that leave our young safety this year?  We could see Parker on the field in 3rd down situations and on special teams.  He’d been mentioned by Sark as a returner but I haven’t heard anything more on that in about a week.  If Williams gets injured (pray that this doesn’t happen), we’ll obviously see Parker quite a bit.

If Sean was at a weaker position I think we could see him start right away but now we’ll see him get eased in.  This is a good thing.  I look forward to watching Parker roam around the secondary for the next four years.  He is mentioned by the coaches in just about every practice report I read.  He could be something special.

Andrew