Spring football is here

Published 5:46 pm Monday, March 30, 2009

OK, so that headline is a little misleading—spring football actually starts tomorrow afternoon—but there was a press conference with Steve Sarkisian today to talk about spring practice.

And before I get into that, a reminder to Husky fans that practices are open this spring, including tomorrow’s 4 p.m. practice, so feel free to come to Husky Stadium and check out the Dawgs. Schedule and guidelines for fans can be found at gohuskies.com.

—The only major position change Sarkisian mentioned today was that Senio Kelemete will move from defensive tackle to the offensive line, playing either guard or tackle. Sarkisian said he liked Kelemete’s athleticism and aggressiveness, and also said the team’s depth is better on the D-line.

Ryan Tolar is also going to start spring at center, after playing mostly guard the last two seasons.

A pre-spring depth chart was not released because Sarkisian said he plans to rotate so many guys through with this being their first look at the team.

Some players will be out or limited by injuries:

S Jason Wells (achilles), TB Brandon Yakaboski (knee), and OL Terence Thomas (foot/ankle) are out, while CB Vonzell McDowell (shoulder), LB Kurt Mangum (knee), S Victor Aiyewa (sports hernia), TE Marek Domanski (shoulder), TE Romeo Savant (back), TB Chris Polk (shoulder) and TB Terrance Dailey (shoulder) will all be limited.

One of the more interesting topics of Sarkisian’s press conference was his take on practice philosophy and how he plans to make everything competitive.

“We keep score every day. It’s offense vs. defense, and there’s going to be a winner every day.”

Sarkisian said there are no rewards for the winners or penalties for the losers, “Just that little bit of locker room chatter, a little banter of knowing who won or who lost. I want people to appreciate what they do and see the guys that are winning and the guys that are struggling. And there’s a little bit of a motivational factor there when your peers are watching. When the entire team is watching you win or lose, there’s a motivational factor there. That creates a little banter and a little chatter, which I think is good.”

“We’re not going out to practice just for the sake of practicing and running plays and being monotonous. We’re trying to make it to where these guys feel like they have to perform, because they either win or they lose, and everybody is going to know it.”