Everett, Wash.
Published: Thursday, April 3, 2008

Huskies looking to put the 'D' back in their defense

Defense is the focus as Washington commences its spring football drills today.

By John Boyle
Herald Writer

 SEATTLE -- The University of Washington football team's season opener at Oregon is still almost five months away, but today marks the start of a crucial stretch of 15 practices in four weeks that will help shape the 2008 Huskies.

The Huskies start their fourth spring under Tyrone Willingham this afternoon, and the coach on one of the hottest seats in America hopes his team can answer a number of questions between now and the April 26 spring game.

The biggest improvement in the upcoming season has to come from the defense if the Huskies hope to return to a bowl game in 2008. After the UW defense allowed a school record 446.4 yards per game last season, defensive coordinator Kent Baer was fired and replaced by Ed Donatell, who has served as a defensive coordinator on two NFL teams.

Donatell doesn't claim to be a miracle worker, but talks like a coach who is confident he can have a positive impact.

"Don't look for magic right away," Donatell said. "The magic is going to be in the culture and the process. That's teaching those methods that can bring our guys along at a quick rate and getting them where we want to be.

"Most important is to establish the belief that we have the people to get it done. There's no task out there that we can't reach together. The greatest feeling as a coach is when you bring that harmony of people together and you're all pulling in the same direction and produce great results together. That's my goal, that's the most satisfaction as a coach."

Donatell spent last season as a special assistant for the New York Jets, learning the ins and outs of the 3-4 defense (three linemen, four linebackers). He hasn't said yet what primary scheme the Huskies will use, but speculation has been that Washington might use more four linebacker sets this season because they have more experience at linebacker than on the defensive line.

And speaking of the D-line, that is an area that figures to see some of the best position battles of the spring. Three of Washington's four starters graduated, leaving only end Daniel Te'o-Nesheim as a returning starter. Javon O'Connor and Cameron Elisara are listed as tentative starters on the pre-spring depth chart, while Darrion Jones is listed as the other starting end, but those positions are far from decided.

Defensive line coach Randy Hart likes the talent that he has to work with. And whether he likes it or not, he's going to have to make do without an inexperienced group.

"Sometimes youthful enthusiasm is better than old news," he said. "And I don't know if that's the case here, but that's what we've got. It's time for the next bunch to step up and take a shot."

On offense, it's no surprise that Jake Locker again will carry a large part of load. Last year's Pac-10 Freshman of the Year was spectacular running the ball, but inconsistent throwing it, completing just 47.3 percent of his passes last season. Both he and offense coordinator Tim Lappano expect Locker's accuracy to take a big jump up in year two.

"He understands this offense a lot better than he did, and you'll see a lot of growth out of him," said Lappano. "There's no better competitor in the country. He's got plenty of arm, we've just got to work on his accuracy and that'll happen in year two."

Lappano especially wants to see his quarterback improve in the short and intermediate passing game.

"We want to see his accuracy improve, especially the short stuff," Lappano said. "What I want to make sure that I see with him is all the quick passing game, the seven, eight-yard hitches, quick screens, I want to see those on the money. ... I'm concerned about the quick passing game, the short and intermediate routes that keep us in manageable down and distance. Those need to be automatic."

But even if Locker does become a much more accurate passer this season, the Huskies are going to need to find new people to catch the ball. Washington lost seven of its top eight receivers, in terms of yardage, from last season. Curtis Shaw and D'Andre Goodwin are the only returning wide receivers who caught a pass last year, and they combined for 11 catches.

The good news for Washington is that while the receivers will be inexperienced, they will be as fast and talented of a group as the Huskies have had in years. In addition to Shaw and Goodwin, the Huskies are eager to see what kind of spring freshman Chris Polk, a slotback who will likely catch the ball and run out of the backfield, can have. Two more receivers to watch in the spring will be Anthony Boyle and Devin Aguilar, who were both class of 2007 recruits but did not qualify academically.

"We've got a number of guys that can go get the football, and we haven't always had that here," Lappano said. "We've got speed on the edges out there that they can go get the ball. It's going to be exciting to see what they can do and how we develop them in the next 15 days. The whole idea of this is to try to sprinkle some talent around Jake Locker so that he doesn't have to feel like he has to put this whole university on his back. That's not fair. I don't think he needs to do that, because we do have some weapons out there."

Starting today, the Huskies plan to find out just what those weapons can do.

Contact Herald Writer John Boyle at jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more on University of Washington sports, check out the Huskies blog at heraldnet.com /huskiesblog
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