UW’s Freeman getting his shot

Published 11:29 pm Tuesday, September 9, 2008

SEATTLE — David Freeman feels like too many people have underestimated his abilities throughout his football career.

As a running back at Inglewood (Calif.) High School, Freeman put up big numbers, but didn’t rank among the elite talent. Scout and Rivals, two of the country’s best-known recruiting Web sites classified him as a two-star recruit. He wasn’t a player with scholarship offers to every major program. Quick, hard runner, maybe a bit too small: that seemed to be the opinion on Freeman.

If Freeman was looking for a stage on which to prove himself, he’ll certainly have it this weekend.

Freeman, one of nine true freshmen to play this season for Washington, is scheduled to start at tailback Saturday when the Huskies host No. 3 Oklahoma in a game televised on ESPN.

“I’m going to be excited more than nervous,” said the 5-foot-7, 190-pound Freeman. “Just excited to get out there and show the crowd what I can do, because I already know. Just to show everybody else what I can do. I was already underrated coming in, so I’m just trying to show everybody what I can do.”

Freeman says this perceived slight gives him motivation.

“Even back home I felt like I was underrated,” he said. “I didn’t get no publicity really — you all probably had never heard of me — but I feel like I was better than the guys that were getting a lot of publicity. I actually played on teams with them before, and I felt like I was better and I just needed the chance to prove it.”

One of those southern California players getting a lot of publicity is Freeman’s teammate at Washington, Chris Polk. Freeman is getting a chance to prove himself, in part, because of a shoulder injury to Polk, the starting tailback in each of Washington’s first two games.

Freeman made his college debut late in the first half after Polk went out, and quickly caught an eight-yard pass that helped him relax for the rest of the afternoon.

“I was surprised he threw it to me, honestly,” he said. “I didn’t know the ball was coming my way. The quarterback has a choice to throw it wherever he wants to, and he picked me… That kind of helped me, because I wasn’t expecting it so I wasn’t too nervous. So when I did get the running play, when they called my number and I actually knew I was getting the ball, it was easier because I already did it before.”

In the second half, Freeman split time at tailback with redshirt freshman Willie Griffin, and both did enough that coaches remain optimistic about the running game despite the team’s early struggles.

Freeman’s first carry was a nine-yard run, which at the time was the longest of the season for a UW tailback (Griffin later had an 11-yard run). Freeman finished with 30 yards on six carries, as well as two catches for 11 yards. Hardly a spectacular debut, but good enough to impress his coaches and earn him the starting job for Saturday’s game.

“We were very pleased with David’s effort,” said Washington running backs coach Steve Gervais. “He ran the ball well, he took it up inside, broke a couple of tackles… David got a good baptism last week, and he’s ready to go. Willie had a series and got a few reps in there. There’s no doubt about it, we’re really young. Brandon Johnson, we’ll see where he fits in this week, but I’d say definitely going into the week, David deserves that opportunity and he’ll have it to go out show what he can do.”

As much as coaches liked Freeman’s running ability, they seemed even more impressed with his pass blocking. Offensive coordinator Tim Lappano pointed out one play in particular, the third play of Washington’s final touchdown drive, on which Freeman picked up a defender who hadn’t been blocked at the line of scrimmage.

“He did a heck of a job blocking,” Lappano said. “He made a great block in that game that allowed Jake to complete the third and four on the two-minute drive. We threw a stick route to Kavario [Middleton] and we misblocked that and David picked a guy up that was coming free. We never would have picked that up. He was pretty physical for a smaller guy.”

Freeman, who played for former Husky football players Charles Mincy and Donald Jones at Inglewood, seems to have an additional skill that will serve him well at Washington. In addition to being a strong runner and blocker, he seems to also already have an advanced understanding of the Apple Cup rivalry, as was evident in his ability to slip a little jab in at Washington State when asked about his visit to the school.

“I took an official visit to Wazzu and here, and it was clear,” he said. “(I took the visit) just to see, to have something to compare it to, and it was clear that this was a better program and I knew where I wanted to go. It confirmed it.”

Contact Herald Writer John Boyle at jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more on UW sports, check out the Huskies blog at heraldnet.com /huskiesblog