Lewis a key to improved UW defensive secondary

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, August 17, 2006

SEATTLE – Roy Lewis knows he and the rest of the secondary failed to do the job they wanted to last season.

Many people pointed to the defensive backfield as a main reason for Washington’s struggles. The numbers would support that, as the Huskies allowed 275.7 yards a game on a 66.8 completion rate, and gave up 24 touchdowns.

“We made too many mistakes,” said Lewis, Washington’s junior cornerback. “We’d be in the wrong place, or we’d miss tackles, it was always something. But it’s going to be different this year.”

On paper that may be true. The move of Dashon Goldson from free safety to cornerback should help, and C.J. Wallace and Jason Wells at safety seems to be a good duo. And then there is the emergence of Lewis, who started eight games last season in his first year after transferring from San Jose State. Lewis had 47 tackles and an interception last season.

“I wasn’t as good as I could have been,” Lewis said. “I think I got better as the year went on but I wasn’t good enough. I’m going to have a better year this year.”

That appears to be the case. Lewis has won three gold jerseys in a row, the new award coaches have been giving this season to players who perform well in practice. Lewis has won it for both his play on defense and on special teams, and head coach Tyrone Willingham said Lewis is having “a heck of a camp.”

“You have to be careful,” Willingham said. “Don’t just measure things by gold shirts. They are making plays that are very consistent and Roy for most of the game has been very consistent.”

Willingham went so far as to make somewhat of a prediction for Lewis.

“With his experience from a year ago, he’s a better player and probably by the end of the year, he’ll get some recognition.”

Position move: Freshman Matt Mosley has been moved from tailback to cornerback, Willingham said. Mosley played a bit of everything for Corona del Sol High School in Chandler, Ariz., last season. On defense, he had 37 tackles and an interception. The move is a little bit of a surprise as Washington is extremely thin at tailback, now having just Kenny James, Louis Rankin and Shelton Sampson at the position.

Another day, another Locker: Willingham was asked about freshman quarterback Jake Locker again Thursday and he said he compares favorably to a couple other quarterbacks Willingham recruited Stanford’s Trent Edwards and Notre Dame’s Brady Quinn.

“He is right in that class,” Willingham said. “He is athletic, he is intelligent, he has poise and he has the respect of his teammates even at this early stage. Those are things to start with.”

Willingham said he would probably wait until at least the fifth game of the season to determine if he will redshirt Locker, which would indicate he intends Locker to travel with the team early in the season. Willingham said he wouldn’t be against playing Locker even in the last game of the year if it meant it would help the team win.

Injury update: The only new injury was a minor hamstring strain to backup cornerback Desmond Davis. Willingham said he expects some of the players with head injuries to return by today. Two of the players with injured heads got hurt on the same play, when linebacker Scott White and offensive tackle Ben Ossai collided. “It was a good one,” Willingham said.

Academic update: Willingham said they are “getting close” to a resolution for some of the players Anthony Atkins, Ashlee Palmer, Aaron Mason and Chancellor Young who have been out due to academic issues. It would have to come soon, as Friday is the final day of the summer session.

“Some of those involve our academic system and some involve systems outside of ours, so the timetable could be different on those.”

Not quite right: Willingham said that he was a bit disappointed in the final results of the conditioning tests given to the team last week, saying it “was not better than” last year’s team’s results.

“We had too many that didn’t pass our test, and that is always a concern,” Willingham said.