Willingham wants to up the number of scholarship guys

Published 11:21 pm Monday, August 6, 2007

SEATTLE – Washington’s current football roster shows only 77 scholarship players, a number Huskies coach Tyrone Willingham would eventually like to bring up.

While few, if any, college teams open the season with all 85 of their allowed scholarships filled, Washington’s number was a bit lower than Willingham would like. Willingham won’t, however, give away scholarships just to increase numbers.

“You’ll find that most programs probably operate at a little bit less than 85,” he said. “I would like to get to 85, but I want to get to 85 the right way. I want it to be young men that I’m excited about having a Husky scholarship.”

Willingham said there isn’t a timetable as to when he would like to fill those spots.

“You’d like to do most of your offerings of scholarships when they’ve earned in a game,” Willingham said. “But sometimes you do it base on how they’ve practiced and how they’ve performed in those practices.”

He hinted that lineman Erik Berglund, a scholarship player in 2003, could be a candidate to earn as scholarship, and possibly another kicker or punter as well.

Little sluggish: Asked about Sunday’s opening practice, which included an interception on his first pass attempt, quarterback Jake Locker had this to say: “Obviously that first throw wasn’t how I wanted it to be. It was the first day of practice and we were all a little bit sluggish. We wanted things to be a little bit better, a little more crisp. Hopefully we can go out the rest of this week and keep getting better. For the most part I felt comfortable with where I was going with the ball, but I missed a couple of throws.”

Safety by choice: Nate Williams, who took the field Sunday as a defensive back instead of a running back, which is what he was listed as on the roster, said the decision was his, and not something the coaches asked him to do.

“That was my choice,” he said. “I talked to Coach Willingham the first day that we got here. Friday night was when I made it official. I said, ‘I’m thinking about maybe trying to play safety.’ And he said ‘is that what you want to do?’ and I said, ‘yeah, that’s what I want to do.’ He said, ‘all right,’ and it was a done deal after that.

A running back and safety in high school, Williams said he started seriously considering the position change after winning the MVP award at the East-West All-Star game in Everett.

“I was recruited as a running back,” he said. “But I had the all-star game, I had a good performance at safety there, and it really just changed my mind about where I wanted to play.”

Walk-on freshman Brandon Mezistrano was the only other position change so far, switching from defensive back to receiver.

Split up: Monday’s practice was a split practice, meaning half the team practiced early in the afternoon, the rest of the team practiced after. This allows everyone to get more reps in the limited practice time the team has before two-a-days are allowed starting Friday.

“It gives an opportunity for every player to get some repetition,” Willingham explained.

Thursday will be the team’s first practice in pads.

Injury update: While the team avoided injuries on the first two days, one player has been sidelined due to an old injury. Freshman defensive lineman Nick Wood is expected to be out for two to four weeks while recovering from a wrist injury that occurred while he was in high school.