Tag Archives: josh shirley

by | August 30, 2010 · 5:03 pm

Huskies Release Depth Chart for BYU Game, Other Notes

UW released the official depth chart for Saturday’s game today.  You can find it here.  There aren’t really any surprises.  The back-up QB spot is listed as Price or Montana, so no answers there.  Not that an answer is needed until one of them has to play.  D’Andre Goodwin is listed as the third starting WR, a product of a good camp for him and James Johnson missing time with an injury.  Johnson will play, but might not be quite up to full-speed after missing parts of the last two weeks.  Some other notes about the Huskies and the rest of the Pac-10.

  • Sarkisian said that all 12 true freshman on the two-deeps would likely play, along with a couple more possibilities.  When asked about Josh Shirley and Sione Potoa’e, Sark gave an uncomittal, “Potentially.”
  • BYU is planning to play both quarterbacks after failing to choose between Jake Heaps and Riley Nelson.  Nelson is more of a scrambler, while local boy Heaps can throw the ball all over the place.
  • ASU decided on Steven Threet as their quarterback, although Brock Osweiler will get chances to play in the first few games.  Luckily for ASU, they play Portland State and Northern Arizona their first two games, which should give them a chance to test both quarterbacks while still winning fairly easily.  The Sun Devils are also breaking in a new spread offensive system.  There’s always the potential for new offenses to click quickly and surprise opponents for a while.  I’m not betting on it here, but ASU is a bit of a sleeper to me.
  • We’ll have a deeper look at this week’s Pac-10 games later this week, but there are some big ones, especially OSU at TCU.  OSU often starts the season slowly, so if they can come out and beat a top 10 team, it could get them rolling quickly.  It would also knock TCU out of a chance at the national championship, which would make me happy, if only because we wouldn’t have to listen to talk about it all season long.  We’ll get enough of that from Boise State fans, unless OSU can beat them as well.  In related news, I’m close to annointing OSU as my second favorite Pac-10 team, in case you were wondering.

That’s all for now.  Only 5 days till game time!

-Matthew

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by | August 6, 2010 · 12:26 am

Countdown to Camp: Press Conference Notes

4 days!  Sark had his season opening press conference today which didn’t give off a whole lot of news.  Here were a few things that stuck out to me.

  • Sark said that starting tight end, Chris Izbicki, had the best off-season of anyone.  This is great news if true.  It’s impossible to know what Izbicki did his first two years here because he was in Willingham’s doghouse.  Maybe he worked hard, maybe he didn’t.  But, now we have proof that he’s making big strides and wants to help the team win ball games.  Chris will play a big role on this team and if he meets his initial potential (a 4-star recruit coming out of high school) he will be another weapon in this high-powered offense.
  • Brent Williams and John Timu will gray-shirt this year.  Timu is not a surprise but Williams is.  I thought Williams would come in and redshirt but he also had the possibility of playing because of the lack of depth.  Maybe this move shows that Sark has faith that the previously injured defensive ends (Aldrich and Thompson) are fine.  Maybe I’m reading too much into it. 
  • Sark stated that he thinks Jake should be above a 65% completion percentage and have a 3:1 touchdown to interception ratio.  If both of those things happen, I think the Huskies will win 9 games or more.  Those are some lofty goals but if anyone could get to them, Montlake Jake would be the guy to do it.
  • He gave the team a clean bill of health.  Justin Glenn will be monitored very closely with an ankle issue but the rest of the team is very healthy heading into camp.
  • The Huskies announced they have 2 walk-on quarterbacks that were added to their roster.  I won’t pretend like I know a thing  about either of them but they both put up some good high school numbers.  They are much needed extra bodies at that position.
  • Speaking of extra bodies, the Huskies reportedly have 81 scholarship players on the active roster (I thought it would be 78 or 79 and I’m not sure where I’m off) and have 23 walk-ons.  That’s 104 players if you don’t feel like doing the addition.  The NCAA limit is 105.
  • Josh Shirley will start out at defensive end.  Although this is where he’ll start, I think he’ll get a good look at the open linebacker position also. 
  • Perhaps the biggest news of the day were the listed weights of players.  Ivan Lewis is one crazy dude and our players seem to be getting in the shape that the coaches want them to be in.  Here are a few of the biggest increases/decreases (straight from Condotta’s blog):
    RB Demetrius Bronson was 206, now 221
    DE Talia Critchon was 229, now 246
    DT Alameda Ta’amu was 348, now 330
    DT Semisi Tokolahi was 340, now 298
    The theme of this was the big defensive lineman losing some weight while the younger guys at other positions put on some weight.  Bronson is obviously embracing the ‘big back’ role that he’ll have with the team.  It’s great to see Critchon up some so he won’t get man-handled this year.  Ta’amu looks like a different person, according to Sark.  Tokolahi lost 42 lbs.  That’s crazy.  I think he’ll be in a little bit better playing shape now.

I realize that now it’s only 3 days until camp now but I just got back to Yakima after a terrible Mariner game.  Poor Felix, he deserves better.  I’ll be back with more later today!

Andrew

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by | July 26, 2010 · 9:35 pm

Kavario Middleton and Josh Shirley

I’ve been gone for almost a week now and have missed out on some interesting things.  Some of those things included a Mariner scuffle that I don’t have any problem with.  Maybe they should do it more often because it’s the most entertaining thing the team has done this season.  Instead of writing a couple of paragraphs about something that has been covered too much already I thought I’d write about something that is actually exciting: Husky football.

Over the last week two big things have happened, a departure and an arrival.  Lets end on the good note.

Kavario Middleton was kicked off the team last week.  The news seemed to come all of a sudden, but I wasn’t too surprised by it.  In fact, I haven’t talked to anyone who was too surprised by the news.  Middleton was kicked off for breaking team rules.  I’ve heard rumors about him failing a drug test but I don’t really know if that was true.

Middleton came to Washington as a 5-star recruit who was supposed to make UW Tight End U again.  He had moments.  In his home debut against BYU, Middleton made a few nice plays as a true freshman.  He had the size to look like he belonged and he had the hands to become an amazing pass catcher. 

That never happened.  Instead Middleton didn’t care.  He never worked hard enough to become a good blocker.  He was supposed to be a star in the pro-style offense that Sark brought but that never happened.  Sure, he had flashes but so does Casey Kotchman and we all know Kotchman won’t work out.  At least, he won’t work out for the Mariners.  Middleton wouldn’t have worked out for the Huskies. 

I watched Kavario quite a bit this spring.  I saw Sark try to get teach him in every way possible.  He would pull him aside and try to teach him privately.  He would yell across the field to tell him to block.  He would praise him whenever he did something good but Middleton would still take plays off and that would show in the games.  I absolutely agree with Sark in letting him go.  Maybe he’ll figure it out somewhere else.  He has the talent and he’s young, I wish him the best.

Now on to the good news.  Josh Shirley is a Husky!  I followed recruiting pretty closely this year and Josh Shirley was the one guy I was really disappointed that we didn’t get.  If he had committed on signing day, Shirley might have been a bigger name than Sean Parker. 

He is exactly what the Huskies have been looking for.  A DE/LB with speed off the end.  He was a mad man in high school and played really well in the all-star games that followed.  He may be a little underweight right now but he is expected to play right away.

Yes, he got into some trouble down in Pasadena.  Or did he?  Maybe UCLA just jumped to conclusions.  Shirley, at the moment, has no charges against him.  He didn’t have to post bail.  Yes, he obviously did something wrong but at this point we don’t know if it was just being in the wrong place at the wrong time or something more.  We aren’t picking up a Jeremiah Masoli here.  He has no record and is regarded as a good kid from everyone I’ve heard.

This could be a great pick up for years to come.  Welcome Josh!

Andrew

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