Thursday notes/Lappano on the offense

Published 6:09 pm Thursday, April 10, 2008

The Huskies are back out at practice today after what Tyrone Willingham called a “very average at best” practice Tuesday.

Worth noting in the little time we saw of practice was that the Huskies seemed to be spending time working on the triple option, something offensive coordinator Tim Lappano had said when he met with the media earlier in the day would be a focus this spring.

Lappano spent some time with the media discussing the offense and what he’s seen so far. Here are the highlights:

On the play of his quarterbacks:

“Jake’s been playing real well. He’s throwing the short stuff good, and obviously he runs as well as anyone I’ve been around. He’s playing like we want him to play right now. There’s still room for growth there. There’s still room for decision making and all of that of that, but he’s playing pretty good.”

Lappano also talked about getting better play out of backup quarterback Ronnie Fouch, who didn’t look sharp in Saturday’s scrimmages:

“We’ve got to get Ronnie going a little bit. What we’re going to do with Ronnie give him a chance with the ones a little bit so we can really give him a fair assessment and evaluation of what’s going on. I think that will help him a little bit. We’ve got to get him going a little bit. He’s better than he’s playing right now. I think it will help to give him a shot with the ones.”

On the offense as a whole:

“Overall it’s been pretty good. It’s not where we need to be, but there have been some really nice things happening. On the perimeter, up front and at quarterback. It’s been pretty good so far. “

Lappano was asked if freshman slotback Chris Polk, who was a standout at running back and receiver, might see snaps playing just as a tailback:

“I’m not sure that’s where we need to go, but I’d never say never either. We’ve got to get our best players the football, that’s my job. And however that’s going to be, that’s what we’re going to do.”

Who is standing out at receiver?

“I think the leader out there, he’s the old man of the group, that’s D’Andre Goodwin. He’s really playing at a high level for us right now, which is really nice to see. We always thought he had a lot of potential, but I don’t’ think he saw the light at the end of the tunnel so to speak the last two years being really young with all of those seniors that had been here for three and four years. Now I think he knows it’s his time. He’s catching with consistency, his releases are extremely quick, and he’s playing really solid right now. He’s playing like a veteran receiver that has played a couple of years. That’s really nice to see. The young guys are trying to stay with that, so he’s been a great example for them. We’re really, really pleased with what he’s doing right now.”

Lappano was asked if Brandon Johnson is the likely starter at tailback, and said, “It’s open competition back there.”

As I mentioned earlier, Lappano said he wants his team to run the ball better out of the triple option this season:

“Our two-back run stuff was extremely productive, but we need to get better in our spread stuff. We’ve just got to get more production. Our spread read-zone stuff was really good, but our spread triple-option stuff wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be, so that’s been a big emphasis for us this spring.”

As for what didn’t work last year, he said it was a bit of everything:

“It’s blocking on the perimeter, it’s the quarterback’s fundamentals, the running back’s fundamentals, the whole thing. Everything’s got to improve in that area.”

Lappano expects the Huskies to practice a “Heavy dose of that today and probably the rest of the spring.”