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by | April 13, 2010 · 7:30 pm

Huskies Practice Report – 4/13/2010

It was a beautiful day over at Montlake today.  The wind was blowing a little bit but the sun was enough to keep me and a few hundred other fans warm.  I showed up about 40 minutes late but I only missed a few drills and stretching.  The team is entering its third week of spring practice.  In the past years spring practice had stretched over 4 weeks but this year they stretched it out over 5 to keep the players fresh.  This idea seems to be working.  Guys are staying healthy and the team doesn’t appear to be tired at all.  There have been no significant injuries so far and several guys returned from minor injuries today.  De’Shon Matthews and Cody Bruns had each sat out the last couple of practices but both saw time today.  Nate Williams also practiced at full strength today.  D’Andre Goodwin remains sidelined with a hamstring injury but it doesn’t seem very serious.

The focus of today seemed to be red-zone offense and defense.  This is an area where the Huskies offense struggled last year; I had nightmares of the Notre Dame game while typing that sentence.  The offense and defense both had their moments today.  Specifically, it seemed as if the secondary had a very good day.  I think that group is going to be a strength next year.  These guys go up against one of the best passing attacks in the pac-10 in Jake Locker and a good group of receivers every day and usually hold their own.  I’ll have more on a few players in the secondary after the jump.

The quarterbacks were pretty much how they are every practice.  Jake Locker was great and the other two were mediocre.  Keith Price struggled early in drills but got a little better as the day progressed.  Montana’s always learning and he’s a little slower than the other two but you can see the talent there.

The running backs had decent days.  Deontae Cooper had a 75 yard run for a touchdown and that was probably the play of the day. 

Ryan Tolar got quite a bit of time at backup center today (he’s also working with the starters as guard).  I guess they just want him to be able to play everywhere or maybe they were giving Greg Christine a break.  The starting offensive and defensive lines are usually pretty even but the second team defensive line generally has their way with second team offensive line.  The walk-on defensive end Peter Follmer may actually have an impact on this team.  He made a few plays today and is really strong. 

To end the practice Sark gave the offense the ball and the defense’s 20 and let the starters go at it.  The offense got the ball down to the 2 yard line and then was stopped on 3 different plays.  When the coaches decided they were going to go for it all of the backups came running onto the field and surrounded the play.  They started cheering and yelling encouragement to the players they were backing up.  Deontae Cooper ran the ball in for a touchdown and all the offensive guys ran and tackled him in the end zone.  Then the offense went for a two point conversion and the defense stopped them.  This is what the staff has instilled in this team, competition.  It was a really cool moment and there were many smiles going around as the players left the field.

My players of the day after the jump. Continue reading →

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by | April 13, 2010 · 12:16 pm

Husky Practice Report 4/10/2010

Just in time for today’s practice, here’s a quick recap of the practice/scrimmage from Saturday.  I don’t have a lot to say that’s different from Condotta or anyone else, but here are my quick thoughts. 

Quarterback: We spent most of the drills watching the quarterbacks.  Locker looks excellent.  I only saw him miss two, maybe three throws at most.  The back-ups are hard to figure.  Keith Price looked good throwing the short stuff, some of the time, but wasn’t accurate at all throwing more than five yards past the line of scrimmage.  Nick Montana, was much more accurate overall, but his arm looks a little weak right now and it took him a second longer to deliver the ball than the other two.  It wasn’t a release issue, just a processing issue, which isn’t too surprising.  A lot of the time, he’d struggle with the first pass on a route, and then the next time throwing it, he’d be right on.  He’s also as skinny as a rail.  I’m sure he’ll keep improving significantly, but I’m not sure either one of them could win many games right now.

Running Back: Those two freshman are good.  They had some mistakes, especially Callier with catching the ball, but they both looked significantly more talented than any of the other running backs (Polk is out).  Cooper looks a lot like Polk to me, and had a nice run through traffic that he broke out for a touchdown.  Callier is very shifty, and had one of the highlights on a run where he reversed field and then juked a guy to the ground before bouncing it outside for a few more yards.  Both will play a lot, I’d say.  Callier looks like an answer at kick returner especially, if he can catch.

Wide Receiver: Not much to say except that they’re going to be excellent.  Kearse and Aguilar might be the best wide receiver tandem in the conference.

Tight End: Didn’t notice a whole lot with them, but I wouldn’t take that as a criticism.  Izbicki actually looked a little better than Middleton, but that could be just circumstances.  He’s a big dude, though.

O-Line: Hard to say anything here, so I won’t.  There were some nice runs in the scrimmage though and I noticed linemen blocking downfield a few times, so those would seem to be good signs.

D-Line: They actually looked pretty good, given the circumstances.  I think Elisara will stick at end.  It just looks a lot more natural for him, and makes for a big line if Thompson can come back and play the other end.  Duncan had a nice play, I believe during drills, where he got through the line to the running back.  Overall, I was encouraged.

Linebackers: Mason Foster has that man among boys look about him.  It’s early, but I told Andrew he’s my sleeper pick for Pac-10 defensive player of the year.  He and Cort Dennison, along with Matt Houston, really stand out size-wise  compared to the other backers.  Logan looked extremely fast, so I’ll be curious to see how he can stand up against the run in a real game.

Secondary:  Nathan Fellner looked a lot better from last year, and made some big hits.  Boyles was with the second team, but clearly has all the tools.  He’s probably the biggest corner and looks confident.  But he clearly isn’t there yet, and with his history, you have to wonder if he ever will be.  I think he’s probably the type where he either won’t see the field a ton or he’ll be one of the best corners in the conference.  It will either click or it won’t.  Overall, the secondary looked pretty good, even with Nate Williams playing sparingly.  Williams looked good, by the way.  I can’t remember the play exactly, but he did something that made Andrew and I both comment on his improvement and how he wouldn’t have made that play before.  Him taking a step forward would be huge.

Kickers: Two of the walk-ons were kicking from the goal line at the sideline towards the goal-post on the same end, and they both managed to hit the upright one after the other.  One of them also seemed to have trouble kicking it across the field, so I wouldn’t take that as a good sign or anything, but they were really excited.

Making judgements from one practice and a quick scrimmage is tough, so don’t take any of this too seriously.  I came away moderatly impressed, though.  As long as Locker is healthy, this offense will be tough to stop, and that’s the clearest path to a bowl this team has. 

Practice Tuesday at 4:00.  Head on out and bring your rain gear!

-Matthew

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by | April 8, 2010 · 7:11 pm

Huskies Practice Report – 4/8/2010

Practice was moved in doors today because of the weird hail storms taking place.  Practice indoors is a kind of nice change, at least for the fans.   It’s a lot warmer in there but there isn’t as much space.  The coaches still make it work pretty well with the limited space.

Practice was interesting today.  Along with being inside, there were a ton of important people there.  We had our first Joe Montana sighting of the spring.  I admit, I was a little star struck when I ended up standing within a few feet of him and his wife.  Every time he walked by, I could hear the people around me start to whisper about him.  He wasn’t treated any differently than a normal fan, standing behind the rope and watching.  Along with Joe Montana I saw Dick Baird, Mark Emmert and Scott Woodward.  There seemed to be quite a few alumni there as well.  It didn’t stop with the celebrities though, there were about 15 recruits there.  I couldn’t place them all but most of them were from this years class. 

Zach Banner (2012 mega recruit) was there again and I overheard him say that his top 3 are UW, Oregon, and USC.  He took an unnoficial visit to Eugene last week and was really impressed with their campus and facilities.  He also raved about UW’s coaches, specifically Sark and the strength coach.  I heard all of this while he was talking to a couple of friends.  Banner 6-7, 295 lbs. and he’s only a sophomore in high school.  He will be one of the highest rated offensive line recruits in the county in a couple of years.

With all of these things going on it was a little bit hard to concentrate in practice.  Like Tuesdays practice, a lot of today was focused on 11 on 11 drills. 

The backup quarterbacks continue to grow every practice.  Nick Montana was the better of the backups on Tuesday but I think Price was better today.  In a two-minute 7-on-7 drill Price was very effective and completed all but one or two of his passes.  After watching a little closer this week, it might not be Price’s arm that hurts him, it might be his footwork.  He kind of bounces from right to left at times instead of looking fluid in his steps.  It’s obvious that he’s eager to learn and works hard.  Him and Montana ask a lot of questions to Jake and Nuss which is great to see.

The running game got going a little bit today.  It looked way more impressive than it did on Tuesday.  Fogerson was impressive today, he ran over some guys.  Callier had a nice run that he bounced outside for about 30 yards.  Cooper had the run of the day though.  The line opened up a huge hole for him and once he got into the secondary he showed off his speed.  Cooper took it into the end zone for about a 60 yard touchdown. 

Senio Kelememte is going to be great at tackle.  I think he’ll be the offensive lineman the Huskies have.  He’s really quick as a tackle and has pretty good size.  Moving him to tackle was definitely the right move by the coaching staff. 

Cameron Elisara continues to get a lot of reps at defensive end.  He looks pretty good there.  I worry a little bit about him having enough speed for that position.  Everyone knows he’s extremely strong but whether he has enough speed off the end has yet to be seen.

After watching these practices it seems that the Huskies will use a nickel defense a lot more this year (defense with 3 cornerbacks and 2 linebackers).  They hardly ever went to it with last year but I see it a lot in practice and it makes sense.  I never thought I’d say this but the Huskies best position may be cornerback (besides wide receiver).  They have 5 guys back there who I would feel fairly comfortable with starting in the secondary. 

Clarence Trent has given up football.  He was never really a factor in his 4 practices with the team but it was nice to have an extra body out there.  I hope he has an excellent basketball career.

Demetrius Bronson looked pretty good while playing some at fullback today.  I’d read that he’s up to 230 lbs. and I saw him throw some impressive blocks today.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they moved him to fullback permanently.  This will be an interesting story to watch through the rest of spring.

The Huskies are having a scrimmage on Saturday at noon.  It sounds like they’ll treat it as a real game and it should be fun to see who the coaches have in starting and such.  I’m really looking forward to seeing these guys in a game situation.  A few of the Good Guys should be there so leave a comment or something if you plan on going and we can talk sports with you! Or you could find Joe Montana and talk with him instead but I’m sure we’re much more exciting….

Thanks for reading!

Andrew

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by | April 6, 2010 · 7:28 pm

Huskies Practice Report – 4/6/2010

I learned my lesson after the first two days of practice that I attended, dress warm.  So today I made my way over to the U District, put my North Face on over my long sleeve shirt, put my jacket on over my north face, put my beanie and gloves on and then began my trek over to the stadium.  To my surprise, it was a little warmer today than it was last week.  The wind wasn’t blowing as hard and the sun even poked through once or twice.  It was easily the most enjoyable practice of the year so far.

I arrived about 45 minutes late because of a guitar lesson but I think I only missed some stretching and position drills.  On my way to my usual spot on the sideline I noticed De’Shon Matthews in the trainers tent with ice on his calf muscle.  He didn’t participate in the rest of practice but the injury doesn’t look extremely serious.  Needless to say, the Huskies don’t need another defensive end hurt.  Hopefully, Matthews will be back soon.  Jordan Polk and Cody Bruns also did not participate in practice.  Polk is nursing a minor hamstring injury and no one seems to know why Bruns sat out.

Today was the teams first day in full pads.  This made for a chippy practice where the offensive and defensive guys really got after each other.  When a team gets to start tackling it’s pretty normal to see shoving matches start.  All of these were stopped right away but it showed a little fire from a team that was so lifeless a few years ago. 

A lot of the day was devoted to 11 on 11 scrimmaging.  Most of the day saw the defense dominate the running game and the offense dominate the passing game. 

There were a few changes in the lineup.  Anthony Boyles and Quinton Richardson were the cornerbacks for the starting unit.  Adam Long ran with the second team.  This is somewhat surprising from an outsider’s perspective but after watching 3 of the first 4 practices it seems pretty clear that Boyles and Richardson are playing at the highest level right now.  Vonzell McDowell also played as a nickel back with the first team defense at times.  Desmond Trufant is not participating in contact drills this spring.

Victor Aiyewa (who’s not allowed in too much contact either) and Alvin Logan are rotating at the strong-side linebacker spot.  I think either of these guys will be just fine at this position.  Logan appears to be very quick around the edge on defense and seems to blitz quite a bit.  I don’t think this position will be decided until just before the season starts.

The defensive line did quite a bit of rotating today.  It was hard to get a read on who the starters are but it looks as if Tyrone Duncan has worked his way into some playing time.  They also tried Cameron Elisara out at defensive end a few times today.

I don’t know if it means everything but Deontae Cooper was always the first person to get a carry in the 11 on 11 sessions.  All the running backs rotated almost every play so I wouldn’t look too much into this.  Cooper did look like the best out of the four running backs (Cooper, Callier, Fogerson, and Bronson) today.

Nick Montana looked like the best option as backup quarterback today.  This was easily his best day of practice.  Even if you weren’t watching it’s easy to tell when Montana throws a nice pass because the couple hundred  people watching generally get very excited.  Montana had a couple of those throws today, he was pretty impressive.

The play of the day goes to Jake.  A rush came from Jake’s right and he scrambled hard to his left.  Aguilar broke free from coverage and Locker threw a 50 yard completion that would’ve gone for a touchdown if they let it play out.  What was impressive is that Jake threw this 50 yard pass across his body while on the run.  I was standing by a reporter who said, “I don’t know if any other quarterback in the nation could do that.”  I have to agree.  I’ve seen Jake do some amazing things but that one might have topped the list.

My players of the day after the jump! Continue reading →

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by | April 1, 2010 · 10:53 pm

Huskies Practice Report – 4/1/10

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get to the practice report sooner because I drove home to Yakima right after practice concluded.  It was another chilly day at Montlake today but the place was hoppin’!  There were softball and baseball games going on, those combined with the open practice made for a fun environment of about 3,000 people.  The team practiced without pads again today so it’s a little hard to get a read on who had a good day and who had a bad day.  They will get into pads and start tackling next week.

Sark seemed a little more animated today than he did on Tuesday (not that he wasn’t animated on Tuesday, just more so today).  He was getting after players when mistakes happened and shouting praise after good plays.  This coaching staff is extremely fun to watch; they’re almost as entertaining as watching the players sometimes.  If the team is lacking energy the coaching staff brings it.  I spent quite a bit of time watching the secondary coach, Demetrice Martin, and the running back coach, Joel Thomas.  These are two guys who move around as much as their players do.  Martin sticks up for his defensive backs and it’s easy to see that the players really enjoy him.

One of the stories of spring practice is the backup quarterback position battle.  The backup probably won’t be decided until Fall but it’d be nice if one or both of these guys had an amazing spring.  They both struggled at times today.  Montana threw some very good passes in the scrimmage session but during drills he threw 3 interceptions in a row.  Price is inconsistent and I don’t know if his arm will ever be something we can count on.  If the season started tomorrow I’d be worried.  Fortunately, it doesn’t and we have two of the best quarterback coaches in the country (Sark and Nuss) and one of the best quarterbacks in the country for these guys to learn from.  They are both trying to learn at every point; they are interacting with Locker in every opportunity they can and I saw both of them talking to Tui many times.  (Speaking of Tui, the quarterbacks were going through the routes and progressions with Nussmeier early in the practice and throwing the passes to Marques.  It was pretty cool to see.)

As if Locker wasn’t already a great leader, it’s obvious that he’s making even more of an effort this year.  It’s hard to explain just how much he interacts with the guys while trying to make himself better but it’s impressive to see.  I’m going to devote one of these practices to just watching him and will do a post on that. 

So, who had a good day today?  As I already mentioned it’s somewhat hard to tell without full contact but here are a few guys I came away impressed with:

  • Anthony Boyles.  Again.  I’m trying to not get too excited about him but it’s already getting difficult.  There were several times where I thought, “Wow, I need to text the fellow good guys to tell them how great Boyles looks.”  I’m not the only one who’s noticing either.  Jermaine Kearse, Devin Aguilar, and Jake Locker seem to be taking notice.  Boyles enjoys a little friendly trash talking after he or his fellow cornerbacks make a play.  Kearse doesn’t seem to enjoy that too much so after Boyles dominated for a while Kearse decided he would only go against A.B.  (that’s what the players call him, I figure the Good Guys might as well too.)  Kearse had his way a few times but Boyles held his own.  By my count, between drills and little scrimmages, Boyles had 3 pass breakups and an interception.  He got beat once by Kearse and heard about that from Locker and Kearse.  When he has those two talking trash to him about a completion I think that shows that he’s becoming a playmaker in the secondary.  (If you make it to a practice watch Boyles and Vonzell McDowell, they’re hilarious when they get going and extremely entertaining.)
  • Semisi Tokolahi.  I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to pronounce this guys name.  Tokolahi is a defensive tackle and it’s really hard to judge lineman when they aren’t blocking with all their effort.  Despite this Tokolahi has impressed the coaches enough to rotate with the other 1st defensive tackles (Alameda Ta’amu and Cameron Elisara).  Today he had a pass deflection and got in the backfield a few times.  He’s a big strong guy who could do a good job plugging up the middle of the defense.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see Tokolahi play himself into some playing time.
  • Jermaine Kearse.  Just get used to seeing his name on these lists.
  • Jake Locker.  Same as Kearse.
  • The entire secondary.  I already singled out Boyles for his good play but this entire secondary was pretty impressive today.  Especially during drills.  I really think we’ll see a lot more man-to-man defense this year.
  • Jesse Callier.  I forgot to mention him on Tuesday.  Him and Cooper are the two new freshmen running backs and both look like they could be Polk’s backup. 

Nothing really anything bad to report.  Sure there were some inconsistencies in the backup quarterbacks, a few dropped passes, a fumble or two, and some mixed up assignments but it’s the second day of spring practice and those problems are normal.

Cody Bruns appears to be the holder for the team.  The kicking was pretty bad today but I’m going to blame that on the wind and some bad holds.  I don’t think we need to worry about Erik Folk.

The punt-returners today were Deontae Cooper, Jesse Callier, Devin Aguilar, Jordan Polk and Johri Fogerson (I may have missed someone here).  My early money is on Cooper but I think any of these guys would be just fine returning kicks and/or punts.

One last practice note is that 2011 recruit WR Kasen Williams and 2012 recruit OL Zach Banner were at practice today.  Banner was standing on the field most of the day and is huge.  He was bigger than some of the Husky offensive lineman.  Williams was a little harder to find and wasn’t as involved in watching the practice as Banner was.  Williams is considered one of the best receiver recruits in the country and Banner is a lineman that the Huskies would love to get.

Well, that’s about it for today.  I write more words than I think I will on these.  As Dan noted earlier, this is our 100th post!  It’s a little bit of a shame that the 100th post is this lame but I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for reading.  This blog has been so much fun for me and I’m fairly sure the other Good Guys agree.  We look forward to keep writing to whatever audience is out there and we’re honored that you choose to read posts that we write.  As our friends over on Montlake Madness say, thanks for coming!

Andrew

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by | March 30, 2010 · 9:41 pm

Clarence Trent, Football Player

Just a quick note.  As Andrew mentioned, Clarence Trent, a freshman forward on the basketball team, is on the football roster this spring.  It sounds like it was his idea and both sets of coaches were all for it.  He’s playing defensive end and took part in the first practice today.  See Andrew’s practice report for a few more notes.

It’s pretty unlikely that Trent ever has an impact on the football team, or is even on the roster when they start play in the fall.  But with most of the other defensive ends out, he’ll get every chance to show whether he has any future in football beyond this spring.  He’ll get lots of coaching and practice time, and he certainly has the body and athleticism to make it happen.  No one seems sure that he’s ever played football before, though, and jumping into the Pac-10 isn’t easy.

If he is playing come fall, there are some interesting implications.  As pointed out by the Percy Allen and others, any scholarship athlete who plays football has to be on a football scholarship, regardless of which sport originally gave them the scholarship.  So if he’s playing football, he’ll be on scholarship with the football team, which will open up another spot on the basketball team.  Not a big deal for the football program, which has 85 scholarships to work with and generally has a lot of turnover year to year.  It’s a huge deal for the basketball team, however, which has just 13 scholarships.  Trent’s scholarship could then go to an extra recruit this year or next.  Essentially, it would mean an extra player, who, honestly, would probably have more promise as a basketball player than Trent. 

This will probably be a distant memory by this time next year, but something to think about.  Best case scenario, it could be a move that helps both programs in multiple ways.

-Matthew

Andrew’s note:  I’m jumping on at the end of this post because I didn’t think my thoughts were worth it’s own post.  I read somewhere that the last time Trent played football was his sophomore year.  As I noted earlier, Trent looked a little lost in practice today.  It was impressive to see how the coaches didn’t leave him in the dark.  They could spend their time with players who could have an immediate impact but they didn’t, they treated Trent as a very valuable asset to the team.  I wouldn’t write Trent off, he is a freak athlete. He has just as much speed of any of the ends and looks very strong.  He’ll need to put on quite a bit of weight but, who knows, this might just work. 

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by | March 30, 2010 · 7:23 pm

Huskies Practice Report – 3/30/10

The first spring practice of the year was held at Husky Stadium today on a windy, cold spring day.   It was fun walking up to the stadium; the baseball team was starting a game, the softball team was practicing (I only hope Danielle Lawrie saw me and fell in love at first sight) and there were a couple hundred people watching practice.  There was a good amount of energy in the air and the players seemed happy to be on the field.  The team wasn’t in pads yet and won’t be until next week.

I remember coming to the first spring practice last year and being blown away by the amount of energy the coaches brought.  Today was no different.  On numerous occasions I watched coaches sprint 20 or 30 yards to a player to either tell them what they did wrong or to give them praise for a good play.  I was also impressed by the amount of time the staff puts into one-on-one  coaching.  From Jake Locker to Clarence Trent, the coaches give a good amount of effort to get their point across to each player in one way or another.

I was watching the quarterbacks for a good share of the time today and it was about what I expected.  Jake Locker looked good, Keith Price and Nick Montana had some good moments but also had some shaky moments.  The wind gusts blowing off the lake often affected their deep passes.  My first impression of Nick Montana is that he has a good arm but is very skinny.  He threw some very good balls and will improve as he becomes more comfortable with the speed of practice.  Keith Price is an amazing athlete and if he ever develops into a good passer he could become quite the threat at quarterback.  Right now he reminds me of Dennis Dixon in his first few years at Oregon.

Alvin Logan was the starting strongside linebacker, as expected.  He rushed off the edge many times and looked very quick doing it.   The news of the day was Clarence Trent (UW basketball player) walking on to the football team as a defensive end.  Nick Holt coached him up numerous times and although Trent looked lost at times, he seems to have some raw talent.  For whatever it’s worth, he’s the tallest player on the defense and probably the team.

Greg Christine appears to be the backup center behind Drew Shaeffer.  I thought this was interesting at first because he was a starting guard last year but the more I think about it the more it makes sense.  Who else do the Huskies have to put there?  Christine seems like the best option as a backup and it’s good to have him understand both spots. 

A few more notes after the jump on players who had a good day.  Continue reading →

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by | March 30, 2010 · 5:15 pm

The Big Questions

With the Huskies starting spring football practice today, here are some of the biggest questions and issues they face going into next season.  Solid answers likely won’t come this spring, but we should have a better idea about the team after the Spring Game on April 30th.
  1. Can the offense become a consistent threat?As good as the offense looked in the last few games of 2009, it spent too much time being inconsistent and pushed around earlier in the season.  If it can play every game at a high level, this team has a chance at the upper tier of the conference.  Much will depend on the offensive line, which has more talent and experience than any Dawgs line in recent memory, but needs to take a big step toward dominance.
  2. Can the Dawgs field a defensive line that will stop anyone?Between graduations, injuries, and an unfortunate suspension, the defensive line, especially the end position, is undermanned this spring.  End was already a question after the graduation of Daniel Teo-Nesheim and Darron Jones, and now will spend the spring without three players who would have been in the two-deeps.  Tackle is in a little better shape, but was not exactly a dominant spot last year, either. 
  3. Will quality depth emerge on offense?The starting offense is fairly loaded with experience and a decent amount of playmakers, with fullback the lone position with little experience.  With the possible exception of receiver and tight end, depth is a question mark, however.  The back-up QB will have never taken a snap, RB doesn’t have anyone who’s shown a consistent ability to run the ball, and the offensive line is still lacking a little in bodies.  There is talent at each spot, especially considering the freshman class coming in, but it remains to be seen if that talent can turn into production.
  4. Can the defense take the next step?Last year, the defense went from absolutely horrible to thoroughly mediocre, but the last two games showed a team that could make some plays without giving up the big one.  Can the defense get stingier, despite some losses and personnel shuffling?
  5. Will special teams find any playmakers?Like most of the rest of the team, special teams improved last year, with fairly good years from the two kickers and decent coverage more often than not.  The expected increase in strength and speed throughout the team should further help coverage, but the team could desperately use a threat returning kicks.   Their best bet seems to be with the freshman class, but anyone with speed and some moves will get a shot.
  6. Will we see any changes in Nick Holt’s defensive game-calling in his second year?Opinion on Nick Holt’s first year remains mixed.  The defense certainly improved on his watch, but Dawg fans would love a return to the attacking defense of the glory years.  Will the expected strength of the secondary allow more one-on-one coverage, meaning more blitzes?  What can Holt do to improve the pass rush, especially with the worrisome line he currently has?  Can this be the year that the defense neither bends nor breaks?
  7. Who will emerge at safety and linebacker?Safety and linebacker both have solid returnees and talent to fill holes.  Spring should provide a good glimpse of who is in line to replace Donald Butler at linebacker.  Mason Foster and Cort Dennison are two of the better players on defense, but the other backer will be short on experience.  At safety, Nate Williams is a solid, if unspectacular, three-year starter.  A host of youngsters will battle for the other spot, with Nathan Fellner and Justin Glenn appearing to be in the lead to start.  Most believe this battle won’t be over until the team gets a look at Sean Parker when he arrives in the fall, however.
  8. How much of the team’s success is dependent on Jake Locker?  How far can he lead them?Jake Locker is undoubtably the strength of the team.  The past two years, any success the team had was almost solely due to his playmaking.  Hopefully, the team has improved enough where he doesn’t have to shoulder as much of the load.  Right now, 6-6 or 7-5 seems a fair projection for their 2010 record, but could a great year from Jake and improvement from the rest of the team push them into contention for the Pac-10 title?

In his best move besides making the team not hopeless, Sarkisian has opened all spring practices to the public, so take advantage.  It’s a lot of fun, especially the Spring Game, which will be played under the lights this year on April 30th.  We’ll have plenty of practice reports, and we’d love to hear your observations.  See you at Husky Stadium!

-The Good Guys

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