SEATTLE — After a tough five-week run to open the season, the Huskies have a week off to catch their breath, correct mistakes, get healthy, and prepare for Arizona State on Oct. 13.
Another key element to a bye week, Washington coach Tyrone Willingham said, is the chance it gives the team to work more on getting young players game ready.
“Any time it comes, you take advantage of it,” Willingham said of the bye week. “Late early, whenever. We have goals that we’ll set to accomplish. No. 1 is to get healthy, No. 2 is to prepare ourselves for our next opponents, and No. 3, to give our younger players an opportunity to get better, improve, and see if there are any of them that will be in a position to make a contribution for our football team.”
Rather than spend this entire week preparing for the next opponent, the Huskies can allow younger players to get more involved in practice. Willingham said that will include some sort of scrimmaging.
“Without the game week, our focus changes just a little bit in terms of all the structure of our practice and what we’ll work on,” said Willingham. “We’ll probably add a few more things for our young guys.”
He noted that the amount of time the team can practice is the same, but that “how we allocate our practice towards our veterans and our young guys will change.”
The Huskies could look to youth to help at the free safety position. Regular starter Jason Wells injured his knee Saturday, and the injury appears to be somewhat serious.
Willingham said Monday that there was no new news on Wells, but reiterated what he said Saturday night, when he said the injury will likely keep Well out on a “somewhat long-term basis.”
Darin Harris, who missed last season with a back injury, played most of the rest of the game in Wells’ place. He and freshman Nate Williams, who has played mostly in nickel and dime packages, are the likely candidates to fill in for Wells.
“We’ll see, and that’s what a bye week affords you,” Willingham said. “It affords you an opportunity to look at a lot of guys. Nate Williams has kind of been in that mix, being in our nickel and dime packages, so he may be a guy that now is ready to handle more of our defense.”
Murchison reinstated: The Huskies may be without Wells for a while, but they did gain one player in the secondary starting this week. Cornerback Jordan Murchison, who had been away from the team since early August, was allowed to rejoin the team starting Sunday.
Murchison turned himself into University of Washington police during the first week of practice after a warrant was issued for his missing a court date stemming from an earlier assault charge. He had been away from the team since then while the legal process played out.
Murchison eventually pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault, and was sentenced to one year in jail with all but two days, which he already served, suspended.
Willingham said that Murchison will be expected to meet the court’s requirements to stay with the team.
“Whatever they demand of him he’ll have to execute, and we’ll follow suite with that,” he said.
As for any additional punishment or requirements coming from the team, Willingham did not say what, if anything, he had in mind, only saying that such things were “not announced.”
Willingham also seemed unsure of how soon Murchison would be game ready and what type of role he would have on the team.
Send them the tape: USC coach Pete Carroll was quoted by Los Angeles media as questioning the personal foul called on linebacker Shareece Wright, who was flagged for hitting Locker on the USC sideline in the first quarter.
“We’re going to turn them in,” Carroll told the Los Angeles Daily News. “The ones on the sideline are really difficult to make. The quarterback wasn’t out of bounds. I want to hear an explanation on a number of things. But I’m not bellyaching at all about officials.”
Replays showed Wright make a hard helmet-to-helmet hit on Locker. Willingham would welcome a review of the play.
“I think we will all welcome the conference looking at that hit,” he said.
Weekly honors: Mesphin Forrester, who returned an interception for a touchdown, was named the team’s defensive player of the week, while Roy Lewis, who blocked and recovered a punt to set up Washington’s final touchdown, was named special teams player of the week. No award was given for offense. Winners for work on service teams were Tony Chidiac (offense) Brandon Yakaboski (special teams) and Darrion Jones (defense).
Of Jones, a backup defensive end who was injured in August before Washington’s first game, Willingham said “he’s getting healthier. He’s starting to do more, starting to get involved.”
Contact Herald Writer John Boyle at jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more on University of Washington Sports, check out the Huskies blog at heraldnet.com /huskiesblog
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