Spring football notes
Published 6:31 pm Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Spring football begins Thursday, and the UW held a press conference today with coaches and a couple of players to kick off the week.
A few notes of interest from Tyrone Willingham’s press conference:
—Jackson HS grad Johnie Kirton is moving from tight end to defensive tackle for his senior season.
—Linebacker E.J. Savannah and tailback J.R. Hasty were both left off of the depth chart spring depth chart, which you can view here along with the rest of the spring guide (the depth chart is on page two). Willingham didn’t go into details but said that, “Right now E.J. and J.R. Hasty will not be, at this date, involved in spring practice. They’ve not lived up to all of the responsibilities of the football team. They are eligible and could be back at any time.”
Willingham said the problem wasn’t with academics, and does not involve a legal issue.
—Freshman Chris Polk, who has yet to have participated in an official practice, is listed as the starting slotback. He and linebacker Kurt Mangum, both class of 2008 recruits, graduate early in order to come to Washington early and participate in spring football.
—One interesting walk-on to watch this spring is defensive back Tripper Johnson, a 2000 graduate of Bellevue’s Newport High School. Johnson, who turns 26 later this month, has been playing professional baseball since high school, but decided to go back to school and give football a try for the first time since his senior year at Newport.
