Shoulder injury put Davenport on bench

Published 11:22 pm Wednesday, October 31, 2007

SEATTLE — Until Monday, Byron Davenport says he wasn’t sure why he was benched during Saturday’s loss to Arizona.

The cornerback knows why he was initially pulled, having been beaten deep on back-to-back plays, but Davenport was surprised that his day ended in the first quarter.

“I really didn’t know why,” said Davenport, who has started Washington’s last three games at cornerback after coming back from a pair of hamstring injuries. “They didn’t say. They finally tried to explain it to me [Tuesday] why they took me out. But I didn’t know why during the game.”

Davenport said he talked to Tyrone Willingham about the decision on Monday, then again at more length on Tuesday. Willingham expects to have Davenport back in the starting lineup against Stanford.

Willingham explained that his decision to bench Davenport was based on what he saw the entire week, not just in the first quarter of the game. Davenport injured his shoulder against Oregon and was in a red jersey at practice for part of last week.

“As I said with Byron, it wasn’t two plays,” he said. “I didn’t feel comfortable with where he was, and that was not based on just two plays. It was based on the fact that I had watched all week with his shoulder, and he just didn’t seem to be Byron, and at that point in the ballgame, I made a decision.”

Willingham said he didn’t consider not starting Davenport last week, and that he thought about putting him back in the game, but ultimately felt it was best not to. Instead, Davenport could only watch as Arizona piled up 510 yards of passing.

“It was tough, man, it was tough,” he said. “I didn’t know why they pulled me, and just to see all those yards, it was tough. I think I could have helped out a little bit. It was tough, it was tough.”

Hasty’s role: Willingham said he doesn’t know yet where tailback J.R. Hasty will fit into the tailback rotation now that he has returned to the team after quitting last week.

“We’ll look and see exactly where he’s at,” Willingham said. “We haven’t made a final determination, and the question really is, where will he be this weekend? We haven’t made a decision on that yet.”

Hasty had been splitting backup duties earlier in the season with freshman Brandon Johnson, but Johnson won the job not long before Hasty left the team.

Glad to be back: Jordan White-Frisbee has enjoyed his recent playing time at right guard. A move from the defensive to offensive line as well as injuries have limited his playing time at Washington, but he has been impressing coaches with his play on the offensive line, and earned two starts at right guard when regular starter Casey Bulyca sat for disciplinary reasons.

“It feels very nice to be back on the field, it’s been a while,” said White-Frisbee. “With defense it was second nature to me. You just go up field and make a tackle. But with offense, you have to be more strategic. You have to have a whole different mindset and so getting in that mindset and really picking up on how offense works has been the biggest thing for me. That’s what took me so long.”

Afoa improving: Defensive tackle Wilson Afoa, who sat out most of Tuesday’s practice with a shoulder injury, was back in pads Wednesday, though he was still practicing in a red jersey. Willingham said he expects Afoa to be OK for this weekend’s game.

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