Category Archives: Huskies Football

1. Can the offense become a consistent threat? I don’t think spring showed anything that would make us think otherwise.  Jake and the receivers looked as good as we expected, maybe better.  The offensive line, with Senio Kelemete at left tackle and a lot of experience everywhere else, gave hope for a bust-out year.  With Polk out, Cooper and Callier showed that they’ll be at least back-up threats this year.  The only concerns at all are fullback, back-up QB and maybe Middleton, who didn’t take the step forward that would have been great to see.  But the fact remains, if Jake’s healthy, this unit should be tough.
2. Can the Dawgs field a defensive line that will stop anyone?  Injuries were a major problem for this group, as it was shorthanded to start and always seemed to have at least one addition member out.  Everyone should be back healthy for the season though, so we’ll just have to wait and see once they have a full group and the incoming frosh on the field.  One plus: Elisara played a lot of DE and looked solid, which will help with versatility, if nothing else. 
3. Will quality depth emerge on offense? As mentioned above, the offensive depth looked much improved this spring.  The running backs might have fewer bodies, but the ones they have are better and more versatile than in recent years.  Receiver looked to be in good shape but actually suffered some injuries and could possibly need a freshman to play.  The top four or so look great, however.  Izbicki passed Middleton on the depth chart and they’re a solid tandem.  The line isn’t as deep as we’d like yet, but again, it looks better than any line in recent memory.  The back-up QB’s were shaky, as was expected.
4. Can the defense take the next step?  It’s tough to say on this, with the line such a mish-mash.  The linebackers looked good and the safeties were much improved.  The corners looked like a very deep group, even with Trufant out.  It’ll all depend on the line, but there’s definitely promise here.
5. Will special teams find any playmakers?  Special teams is the one thing that’s not practiced much, at least in scrimmages, so I don’t have a good answer for this.  The presence of the freshman is a positive, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed.
6. Will we see any changes in Nick Holt’s defensive game-calling in his second year? This is tough to call as well.  It seemed like there were a few more blitzes in what I watched, but that could be my imagination.  Between keeping schemes vanilla so as not to give away much and the practices being more geared toward fundamental improvement, we won’t really know this until games start.
7. Who will emerge at safety and linebacker?  Safety was maybe the most improved position on the team this spring.  Nate Williams missed some time with injury, but looked much-improved.  I saw the other day that he’s dropped his 40 time from the 4.7s to the 4.5s, which is huge.  The real positive was the battle between Nate Fellner and Will Shamburger at the other spot.  Both showed big improvement and should battle for the job, along with Justin Glenn.  At linebacker, the Foster-Dennison due looked like the strength of the defense.  Alvin Logan, Matt Houston, and Victor Burnett all had their moments competing for the other spot, although Victor Aieywa might have the lead over all of them this fall.
8. How much of the team’s success is dependent on Jake Locker?  How far can he lead them?  In a word, still pretty much all of it.  This team is good enough to win a few without Locker, but with him healthy for the full season, I think they have a good shot at one of the top three Pac-10 bowl games, especially with USC out.

The team recently started their summer workouts, which are “voluntary”, and the rest of the freshman will report in the middle of July.  It sounds like Chris Young and Darius Waters, two linebackers, are the only possible academic casualties.  Cross your fingers, because they’re not two we want to lose, especially Young.  Husky specific news (non-expansion will probably be sparse until August, with the exception of the occasional fluff piece from the beat writers about how much stronger a certain player has gotten or how the team is really bonding this summer.  That leaves plenty of time for the Good Guys to cover the exciting Mariners season.  Lucky us.

Have a good weekend everyone.  Go Dawgs!

-Matthew

Since 3/4 of the good guys were at this game we’ll each have a little (or a lot, I don’t know) to say about the spring game.  Enjoy.

Andrew’s perspective:

After the Terrances committed, although Jones is making everyone nervous by not signing his LOI, I headed over to U Village.  It was already a good day because of that news and because it was my last day of classes.  There was a buzz around the U Village and that buzz lasted throughout the night.  People were excited about football.  This was shown in the 15,000 people who showed up to the glorified scrimmage.  I took my seat right next to the band at about 5:30 and watched the place fill up.  I’ve been going to Husky games all my life; I haven’t missed a home game in six years and somehow the feeling of that stadium always seems fresh to me. 

It was a great move to put this game on a Friday night.  The way they put this game together was smart and kept the fans into it throughout the game despite the wind and rain.  This is just another move showing how Sark understands how to run a program.  The section I was in stood the entire game.  Although sitting might have been nice at times, it was nice to see that some fans are as excited as I am.

The game itself was a little bit weird, as all spring games are.  The crowd doesn’t really know when to cheer and people get frustrated by the vanilla playcalling.  The first few series’ were owned by the defense.  The starting offense went 3 and out a couple times to start the game and fans behind me kept yelling for Jake to throw it deep.  People like this crack me up.  Are your really going to be upset about the play calling in a spring game?  Really?  Jake did look a little off.  It’s funny that his worst practice of the spring was when the most people were there.  If you’re worried about Jake’s performance in this game, stop.  I went to 11 practices and he was fantastic all spring.  Anthony Boyles proved how good he could be.  He had a fumble recovery, interception return, and a couple really good hits.

Others that impressed me were Demetrius Bronson, Johri Fogerson, the linebackers and Nick Montana.  Bronson and Fogerson had their best days of the spring also.  Bronson had switched between halfback and fullback all spring and finally had a really good day.  He ran very physically and showed power.  Fogerson did the same.  The linebackers really flew around and that was led by Cort Dennison.  Montana came on strong towards the end of the day.  He was hooking up with Jordan Polk regularly.

It seems like every single practice ended with the competition coming down to the last play so, it was fitting that the game did also.  It was weird that they did the last play 3 times (the first play 1 second was added to the clock which seemed to be the right call, the second play the refs couldn’t tell if Montana got into the end zone without getting touched, and the third play was an actual touchdown).  It was fun to see the players have so much enthusiasm even during a spring game.  That was a common theme all spring.

All in all, the game was a fun experience.  Sure, it was a little sloppy at times and the team might not have looked their best but they are miles ahead of this time last year.  Sadly, we have to wait another 4 months for more football.  Go Dawgs!

Matthew’s Perspective:

After fighting through some of the worst 520 traffic I’ve ever seen, my wife and I finally got to the game right at the end of the first quarter.  Sitting in traffic for two hours just trying to go over the water from Bellevue didn’t really leave me wanting to pay close attention, so I don’t have any specific thoughts on individual players.  As Andrew said, Bronson had a really good day, and Boyles seemed to be all over the field.  The back-up QBs didn’t light up the field or anything, but they didn’t seem to be terrible.  There were a few bad passes, but they seemed capable otherwise. 

The highlight of the night was the festive atmosphere.  We were sitting with Andrew around a lot of students, close to the band, and everybody was just happy to be there enjoying some out of season football.  The little fan contests added some excitement to what otherwise can be a bit of a boring game.  The kid who made the forty yard field goal in the rain might have gotten the biggest cheers of the night, except for possibly strength coach Ivan Lewis when he stripped his shirt off during the hot dog eating contest.

Andrew said the team looked miles ahead of this time last year, and I completely agree.  They actually look like a football team.  There were hard hits and some big plays, and the collective team physique is much more football-playeresque now.  I saw nothing that made me worry about whether they could make a bowl next year.  Granted, I’m not positive they will, but they’re certainly much improved.

Dan’s Perspective:

Last Friday was my first Husky Spring Game, and I didn’t know what to expect. Would it feel like a real game? A scrimmage? Or maybe a high school game because of the whole Friday night thing. I’d say it was a combination of all three, which is a pretty good mix. Going in I felt pretty informed on the team thanks to Andrew’s husky spring practice reports, and there were a few players I was especially excited to see. Anthony Boyles, Nick Montana, and Keith Price topped this list. On Boyles, he did not disappoint, for reasons stated above. If you knew nothing about UW football, and attended the Spring Game, you would guess he was our playmaker on defense. He played that role on Friday, and If he can turn into a solid contributor, suddenly cornerback could be a position of strength with him, Trufant, Richardson, Adam Long, and Vonzell McDowell.

On the quarterback front, just seeing Jake Locker was the best part. He didn’t play much though, so Montana and Price got most the work. Montana played well, rarely threw a bad pass, and overall, I was excited by his play. He is basically a high school kid still so size and strength are understandably lacking, but when his career really gets going, I think he will be known for his accuracy and high football IQ. Maybe he has good genes or something. Keith Price took most the snaps for team purple, and for some reason I look at him and think Dennis Dixon. He is tall and lanky, and speed is his strength. Price may never end up starting at UW, but he is talented. In fact, if he were at Oregon this year, I could see him starting and flourishing in that system. Thank goodness he is not a duck, and my apologies for even bringing that up.

Lastly, I was not the least bit upset that rain poured throughout the game, and the temperature was about 45 degrees. It felt like Fall, and for a couple hours, I got a taste of how sweet it will be to watch this team, led by Jake Locker, in just a few months.