SEATTLE – A compassionate Dashon Goldson held back when he could have unloaded on the poor sap.
All the components were there for damage deluxe. For all the receiver knew, Goldson was in Tukwila. Goldson, the free safety, braced himself for a rib-crushing hit on the receiver’s blind side. The few fans viewing the practice anticipated the collision.
Then the ball flew through the receiver’s outstretched hands. Goldson, noticing the ball fluttering out of reach, thankfully brushed him lightly with his shoulder pads.
It was the anticipation, the hold-your-breath, close-your-eyes moment that’s been missing from the University of Washington defensive secondary since Curtis Williams struck fear in any receiver unfortunate enough to cross the middle.
“I think I’m the guy,” Goldson said. “If I’m in the position for the hit, I’m going to do it.”
From the first days of fall camp, Goldson was running with the first-team defense, even though he missed spring practices while he recovered from shoulder surgery. He did, however, sit in on meetings. He learned and absorbed the defensive schemes. By fall, he was ready to play.
“He likes football and it makes sense to him,” said defensive coordinator Phil Snow, who also coaches the safeties. “He’s always been eager and bright-eyed, with a lot of energy. That’s what makes guys good players.”
Still, immediately crashing the starting lineup in the opening days of fall camp was something Goldson didn’t expect.
“I feel I’m pretty good at what I do, but coming to a Division I school, I knew a lot of people have the same ability,” he said. “They get the best people out here. I believed I was going to come out here with competition, but I’m just happy running with the ones right now.”
UW head coach Keith Gilbertson prefers to withhold judgment on Goldson until the season starts. Although he admits that Goldson was impressive from the get-go in preseason camp, games are the true tests.
“I think he’ll be a good player and I think we’re better at the position than we were before he came here,” Gilbertson said.
A transfer from Coffeyville (Kansas) Community College, Goldson signed a letter of intent out of Narbonne High School in Carson, Calif. His grades, however, prevented him from enrolling in school.
“I really messed up my freshman year of high school and a little bit in my sophomore year,” Goldson said. “I wasn’t into the sports thing. I didn’t even think about going to the next level, playing football. Then people started telling me that I was real good and that I could make it somewhere, so I focused more on my schoolwork. But the first year, I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to do and hanging with the wrong guys.”
Goldson blossomed at Coffeyville, on and off the field. He was named a first-team National Junior College Athletic Association All-American and Kansas Jayhawk Community College defensive player of the year.
The vultures, predictably, surrounded him. Recruiters from USC, Arkansas, Iowa, Iowa State, Tennessee, South Carolina and Florida, among others, tried to drive a wedge between Goldson and the UW, but, mindful that Washington proved its loyalty by sticking with him through the bad times, Goldson re-signed and enrolled in January.
“They stuck with me and gave me a Plan B, which was to go to junior college,” Goldson said. “A lot of cats were coming after me, a lot of scouts. I had a couple of trips set up, but then I just thought about where I really wanted to go, and Washington was at the top.”
Much of the reason Goldson decided to come to Washington was because of Snow, who, when he was defensive coordinator at UCLA, coached Goldson at a summer camp.
“He was kind of cool,” Goldson said. “We bonded. I really liked the way he coached.”
What the season has in store for Goldson, no one knows. He had 99 tackles and two interceptions last year at Coffeyville, but refuses to rattle off specific numbers for his first season as a Husky.
“I want to be the best player I can be,” he said. “That’s pretty much it. I want to be the best player to play my position. I’ll just try to go out there and try not to make any mistakes.”
Notes: Tight end Joe Toledo is questionable for Sunday’s opener against Fresno State because of a sore groin. Everyone else on the team should be good to go, Gilbertson said … Gilbertson said the positions at offensive guard and tackle still are undecided. The players involved, Robin Meadow and Ryan Brooks at tackle and Tusi Sa’au and Stanley Daniels at guard, probably will rotate every couple of offensive series … Snow said the rotation at defensive line still isn’t set. He said the coaches will discuss the matter this afternoon and settle on starters and backups. One starting position especially undecided is at nose tackle, between Dan Milsten and Wilson Afoa. The other positions, Manase Hopoi at tackle, and Mike Mapuolesega and Brandon Ala at ends, may well be set. Wednesday’s and today’s practices, in which players will have full-pad workouts, will tell much.
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