Saturday Practice Notes

Published 5:13 pm Saturday, April 5, 2008

Saturday’s practice was one of a few this spring that was open to the media, and for the first time this week the Huskies wore full pads and were able to do some real hitting.

No major news to report, but a few things that are worth passing along.

One of the big questions about this team will be how much Jake Locker can clean up his accuracy from last year, and if this practice was any indication, he seems to progressing well.

Locker was accurate on most of his passes, and seemed to have a good chemistry going with D’Andre Goodwin. The two connected on a touchdown pass during drills early in practice, then again later when the team was scrimmaging.

“I felt pretty good,” Locker said. “There was a little stretch where we didn’t complete as many passes as we needed to, but for the most part I felt really good. No balls sailed on me or anything.”

When the team scrimmaged, the offense was not surprisingly a little better than the defense. The offense, which was the better unit last year, has more experience coming back than the defense. New defensive coordinator Ed Donatell still liked what he saw on Saturday.

“There’s just a great willingness with these kids, that’s what impresses me the most right now,” he said. “They’re all willing to do things. We certainly don’t have the product we want right now—you can see we’re at a stage where our offense is a little ahead of us, and rightfully so—but we’re looking to get guys in the right spots. I can’t say enough about the kids. They look at us like, ‘Hey, we want some more. What else can you teach us.’”

Donatell noted that there was some good physical play out of his defense.

“I thought there was some good popping, guys were laying it out,” he said. “There was some good hitting.”

One of the best hits of the day came from junior linebacker Donald Butler, who laid out tailback Brandon Johnson on one run during the scrimmage. Johnson dished out a mean hit of his own, running over Darrion Jones on a long run. Jones looked hurt on the play, but returned to action a few plays later.

While there were no major injuries, safety Darin Harris and cornerback Jordan Murchison both sat out most of practice with some sort of injury.

Harris’ injury meant more reps than expected for walk-on safety Tripper Johnson, who worked with the second-team defense for most of the day. Johnson, who turns 26 later this month, hasn’t played football since his senior year of high school in 1999. He has been playing professional baseball since being drafted out of Newport High School, but said getting back into football and getting physical was a lot of fun.

“It was awesome,” he said. “It’s been a while, it’s been a long time, but it was a lot of fun. That was probably the most fun I’ve had in a long time. I’m just happy to be out there… I couldn’t complain. It was the most fun I’ve had in a long, long time.”

Johnson admitted he was lost at times, but didn’t look very out of place on the field. He had one nice open-field tackle on tailback Brandon Johnson during the scrimmage portion of the practice.

Cornerback Vonzell McDowell, who spent most of his time with the second-team defense, intercepted two passes thrown by backup quarterback Ronnie Fouch.