Tag Archives: Quinton Richardson

by | September 26, 2011 · 4:12 pm

Recapping Cal and Looking Ahead

On Saturday, the Huskies won a thrilling game against California 31-23.  You’ve all probably either watched the game or read the stories, so there’s not much point in me giving a blow-by-blow recap.  I will point out a few things that stuck out to me.

First of all, what a great birthday.  Saturday was my 21st and I got to spend it with my family and my girlfriend.  As far as I can remember, this was the first time my entire family had gone to a Husky game and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.  To many guys, Saturdays are their day off to spend in front of the TV (or at a game) getting some time by themselves and drinking a few beers.  That’s all good and I don’t mind watching a game by myself now and then, but Saturdays in the fall are family affairs at Husky Stadium and I’m so incredibly thankful for that.

It was also a great birthday because the Huskies won.  As we’ve all grown somewhat accustomed to, they won in a nail-biter.  Our Dawgs have won 7 of their last 8 games and only 2 of those wins have been by double digits.  It sure would be nice to beat a time by a couple of touchdowns but, in a ploy to make more people buy season tickets because every game is nerve wracking, the Huskies have decided to make sure they win in the last second, if they win at all.  Matthew and I were talking about if they will ever win in a blow-out.  We decided that will happen in about 2017.

With that paragraph full of sarcasm out of me, it’s amazing how far this program has come in a short amount of time.  This would have been the kind of game the Huskies easily would have lost a few years ago.  A few years ago, this team would have been 1-3 after 4 games.  0-4 wouldn’t be out of the question right now.  Sark has done a phenomenal job and it says a ton about how far he’s taken us when we say that we expect more out of this team.  And we all should expect more because this team can be quite a bit better.

Some bullet holes on the game and what lies ahead after the jump.   Continue reading →

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by | October 14, 2010 · 9:38 am

Quick Husky Observations, Through 6 weeks

Positive observations—
– Chris Polk and Jesse Callier are an excellent backfield combo. They need more touches!
– Our margin for error is very, very small. It seems like the defense needs to hold the opponent under 24 points, while the offense needs to score more than 24. One of these two typically occurs each game, but having them coincide has been a challenge.
– Locker is one heck of a leader, and doing just about everything he can out there given the hand he’s been dealt. Jake deserves more. He deserves a bowl game, a defense that can occasionally shut out an opponent, an o-line that will protect him, and receivers that will catch the ball consistently.
– We have the right coach leading the program. Recruiting, developing, charisma, and of course in-game coaching, he has it all.

Negative observations—
– Our offense is great at times, and very out of sync other times. Inconsistency is a theme on this team.
– Defense lacks big play potential, and still does not have the athletes to fair well in pass coverage and – – Fundamentals leave much to be desired: tackling, pass catching, kickoff coverage to name a few
– Our defense is like the Mariners offense; multiple contributors must play above their ability, and timely plays need to be made in big situations. Typically this doesn’t happen.
– The void at tight end is being felt. Kavario Middleton took some plays off here and there, but he commanded attention, and had big play potential.
– There is still not enough speed on this team, especially on defense.
– Desmond Trufant is not the shut down corner we saw glimpses of last year, and Quinton Richardson has a few bonehead moments every game it seems. The secondary, which many had thought might be the strength of the defense, is not performing well.
– In a year where the Pac-10 is as strong as ever, the Huskies are close to getting lost in the shuffle, which also means the pre-season bowl hopes are fading quick.

To summarize, the Huskies have 1 predictable win (Syracuse), 1 unexpected win (USC), 1 predictable loss (Nebraska), and 2 toss up game losses (BYU and Arizona State). That leaves UW at 2-3, when 3-2 is probably what we had hoped for at this point. So of course there are more negatives that positives. . Of course, a win on Saturday will change everything!

-Dan

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by | October 5, 2010 · 4:01 pm

A Few More Thoughts After Rewatching the Husky Game

Well, it took me 2 days but I finally made it through all of the USC game.  I can only wonder how many times I would watch it if it wasn’t a busy week.   Anyway, I came away with a few more thoughts that I’ll share before putting this game to rest and moving on to this week’s opponent,  Arizona State.

  • Let’s start with the worst part of the game, the rushing defense.  There’s no denying that they were terrible.  After watching it again, it was very clear that the problems weren’t because of a lack of schemes.  They tried just about everything.  They put at least 8 guys in the box every time.  I counted 10 guys in the box for several plays.  10 guys!  They also tried a 3-4 several times to be a little more athletic.  The problem was with what was happening on the field.  The defensive line was terrible.  Ta’amu played a decent game, but the rest of the defensive line was awful.  There were guys getting pushed back 5-10 yards every play.  Then, the linebackers seemed a bit timid.  They didn’t attack the runner for most of the game, they let the runner come to them.  By the time the runner got there, those linebackers were blocked.  I understand that they can’t completely sell out against the run because they have to watch for play-action, but their reaction time does need to be quicker.  Last but not least, the tackling was terrible.  It was just as bad as it was against Nebraska, if not worse.  I was on a mission to count the missed tackles but I lost track.  I lost track at the end of the first quarter.
  • One more negative thought on the defense before we move to brighter spots.   I think several players had the worst game of their career on Saturday.  Nate Fellner had one great pass break-up, but the rest of the game he struggled.  He was sucked into the wrong position and missed quite a few tackles.  Quinton Richardson missed an easy sack on Barkley because he forgot he had arms on the play.  He was taken out after that, I’ll be interested to see if he plays as much the rest of this season.  Where is Adam Long?  Cort Dennison looked a little rusty and slow after missing the Nebraska game.  Those players, along with the defensive line, were beaten up pretty well on Saturday.  Thank goodness we have Mason Foster.
  • With all that, give credit to the defense for not allowing a touchdown in the 4th quarter.  They buckled down and made some stops.  There’s no doubt they need to get better, but they made some plays that kept the Huskies in the game.

More thoughts after the jump. Continue reading →

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by | September 20, 2010 · 12:56 pm

Mitch Levy’s Game Tweets

Mitch Levy, from Sports Radio 950 KJR…

Like it or not, having the worst kick coverage team in major college football is plain and simply a reflection of the coaching staff.

I don’t think Nick Holt has done as good a job in his first year and a quarter as everyone else does. Def should be better than it is.

Nebraska drive to make it 28-14 was the most telling. 8 consecutive running plays right up middle. No 3rd downs. Blew UW’s interior def away.

Wide Receivers not as good as I originally thought. Against NFL caliber DB’s, no separation. Didn’t help Jake out.

Think #10 did a lot more than kill his Heisman chances. I think he clearly hurt his draft stock. He’ll be dropping down ‘big boards’ monday.

What was the freshman Ducre doing on 3rd and 14?
What was Desmond Trufant doing on 3rd and 16?
What was Quentin Richardson doing on Nebraska’s 2nd play from scrimmage?
What was Nate Williams doing on 1st play of 2nd half?

I don’t think I am as pessimistic as Mitch is, but I respect his opinion because he is not a homer and usually tells things how it is. I agree with his game tweets from watching Saturday’s game, although I am not heartbroken to get pumbled by an obviously superior Nebraska team. In fact, the BYU game still stings for me more than this loss. Saturday’s loss was just 1 game out of 12, and while it sucked to lose in the 2008 fashion that we did, it at least opened our eyes to what may actually be a realistic goal from this team. I will post more on this “reality check” later!

-Dan

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by | September 12, 2010 · 1:34 pm

Huskies Post Game: Syracuse

The Huskies got their first win of the year last night at Husky Stadium against Syracuse, 41-20. The Dawgs’ struggled early on; there wasn’t any offensive rhythm and special team’s mistakes led to an early 10-0 lead for the Orange.  But, then the Huskies found it.  They played like the team we had planned on seeing this year.  They outscored Syracuse 41-10 through the rest of the game and it wasn’t much of a contest after the first couple plays in the second half.

Jermaine Kearse had a monster day (9 receptions for 179 yards), as the offense used big plays to dominate.  The defense was solid too.  They gave up two or three big plays but the two touchdowns Syracuse scored were because of a special teams penalty and a turnover.

I’ll review this one by taking a look at each position.  I haven’t been able to find a replay anywhere yet, FSN decided to show a replay of Wyoming and Texas instead, so I won’t be as thorough as I’d like to be but these were my first impressions from being there.  Continue reading →

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by | September 2, 2010 · 7:19 pm

UW Huskies Defensive Preview

In 2009, the Husky defense was frustratingly inconsistent.  Daniel Te’o-Nesheim and Donald Butler, possibly its two best players, both graduated, but there is a lot of hope the defense will be greatly improved in 2010.  This is due partly to a dominating end to last season, holding WSU and Cal to 10 points in the final two games, but it’s also based on the potential maturation of a young group.

Defensive End

Starters:

Everette Thompson:  Thompson sounds like he’s recovered from an offseason achilles injury just in time, and stands to be one of the most important pieces of the defense.  A highly touted recruit, he’s spent time at tackle as well.  He’s bigger than most Husky D ends in recent memory, which will hopefully aid in the run defense.  It’s even more vital that he contribute in replacing some of Te’o-Nesheim’s record-number sacks.

Talia Crichton:  A true sophomore, Crichton played more than anyone likely anticipated last year, with decent results.  Hard to say what to expect from him, but coaches have been impressed with his improvement this fall.  He seems to be more of a pass rusher, which this defense desperately needs.

Depth: Kalani Aldrich, De’shon Matthews, Hau’oli Jamora, Josh Shirley.  Aldrich is trying to recover from knee surgery, but has decent potential if he can get back all the way.  He’d have contended for a starting spot if not for the injury.  Matthews is a former big time recruit who’s never really made an impact.  He has one last shot and is in position for a lot of minutes as the number one back-up.  Jamora and Shirley are true freshman.  Jamora is in the two-deeps and will play.  Shirley is more heralded, but joined the team late and seems to be having a tough transition to end from high school linebacker.  He’s likely to redshirt, but if he progresses and they’re needing a speed rusher, who knows.

Analysis:  This is one of the toughest positions on the team to call.  There’s potential, to be sure, but the only one who inspires real confidence is Thompson, and he’s coming off major surgery.  This group has to get pressure on the quarterback this year.  Hopefully they’ll be aided in that by an improved interior of the line.

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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 | March 28, 2010 · 8:53 pm

Huskies Position Overview – Cornerbacks

We get to move away from the weakness of the defense, the front seven, to the strength, the secondary.  It’s been a while since we’ve been able to say that the Huskies secondary should be pretty good, but that changes this.  Here’s my starters and backups:

Starters:

  • Desmond Trufant, 6-0, 180, SO.
  • Adam Long, 5-10, 170, RS SO.

Desmond Trufant has the potential to be one of the best cornerbacks UW has ever had.  He has started his first game on campus and was a pleasure to watch mature throughout last season.  He was a little scary to watch in the first few games but then became the Huskies best corner by mid-season.  It only makes sense that Trufant will get better with experience.  It will be fun to watch Desmond this spring to see how a year in the weight program has affected him.  He should be a lockdown corner for the Dawgs for the next three years.

Adam Long red-shirted his first year here and then took the starting job from Quinton Richardson halfway through last season.  He was recruited because of his speed and is one of the fastest players on the team.  Long had exceptional games against WSU and Cal to end the year.  During those last two games he was UW’s best cornerback.  He will have to compete this spring in order to hold off Richardson.  Long does lack weight and hopefully he gained some muscle this offseason while keeping his speed.  I really like Adam (not just because we have the same last name) and think he has just as much potential as Trufant.  If he continues to progress, Long may turn into an NFL caliber corner.

Backups:

  • Quinton Richardson, 6-0, 203, JR.
  • Vonzell McDowell, 5-8, 180, SR. 
  • Anthony Boyles, 6-3, 200, RS SO.
  • Anthony Gobern, 5-11, 185, SO.

At the start of last year, Richardson was U-Dub’s best cornerback.  He got burned on a couple of plays, suffered a few injuries, and lost confidence.  The combination of that and the progression of Trufant and Long  moved Richardson to backup.  Quinton is a big physical corner who was moved from his original position at safety.  He can tackle pretty well and is decent in one-on-one coverage.  I hope Richardson has an excellent spring and challenges for a starting job.  He is a good corner and will be a very valuable backup if the depth chart stays the way it does.

Someday I might devote a full post to Vonzell McDowell because the truth is, I feel sorry for him.  To put a long story short, Vonzell was a starter as true freshman and was solid his first two games in wins against Syracuse and Boise State.  He even had a game-clinching against the Broncos.  The next game was against Ohio State and in a close first half McDowell was burnt for a touchdown against a good Buckeye receiving group.  After that play, Tyrone Willingham (I threw up in my mouth after I typed that name) benched McDowell for the rest of the game and most of the season.  Why you would bench a freshman after one mistake is beyond me, but a lot of things Tyrone did were beyond me.  Predictabl,y McDowell lost a ton of confidence because of this benching and he hasn’t been the same since that fateful play.  I’m not suggesting that McDowell was going to have an amazing career, Trufant and Long possess more talent than Vonzell did as a freshman, but now we can only wonder what could have been.  As it sits now, Vonzell is a decent backup but nothing more.  I’m sorry that Tyrone was your coach Vonzell.

Boyles is an interesting case.  He came in as a highly touted wide receiver but didn’t grasp on to the offense and suffered from inconsistency.  No one questioned his talent but he just couldn’t pull it all together.  The coaches moved him to cornerback at mid-season last year so he wouldn’t have to think so much.  They like his raw ability and he had a couple of good practices.  Boyles really needs to have a great spring to crack this rotation because the guys in front of him have more experience and have quite a bit of talent.  Anthony Gobern hasn’t seen the field too much but was supposedly a solid scout team player last year.  He may progress into a good corner.  Like Boyles, Gobern needs to have a really good spring in order to crack the rotation.

Overall Position:  This is more depth and talent at cornerback than the Huskies have had in years.  Trufant, Long, and Richardson could all be starters on most pac-10 teams and they have room to grow.  The rest of the backups have a good amount of upside (especially Boyles).  If these guys are able to really grow and become dependable in man-to-man coverage the linebackers will get to bring pressure more.  This is what happened against Cal and WSU.  This is probably the best position on this defense.

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