Huskies healed, rested, ready

SEATTLE — The Washington Huskies accomplished some, if not all, of their goals during their bye week.

Washington did not, coach Tyrone Willingham said, decide who the team’s backup tailback behind Louis Rankin would be. The Huskies did, however, recover from some nagging injuries and they used the week of practice to get young players more involved.

“The running back situation will be continually worked on this week, so that’s not just a one-week period of time that you have a solution for,” Willingham said. “You just continue to work on that right up until game time and you figure out who works best, fits best in the game plan.”

Willingham said that in three days of practice, the young players got in a game’s worth of scrimmaging. In the case of the freshmen on the team who have yet to see game action, those scrimmage situations will help determine who might still be used and who might end up redshirting.

“We’re at that point where you’re making decisions about which guys do move forward and which guys don’t move forward in terms of redshirting and the like,” Willingham said.

For the players who have seen regular playing time, almost all of whom are banged up in one way or another after five games, a light week of practice was a welcome change.

“I liked the way the practices were set up,” said center Juan Garcia, who suffered a minor ankle sprain against USC. “Not too much, but it was enough to not forget what you’re doing, go through the routines and stuff. But at the end of the week, I felt like we had a good rest and a number of guys got healed up.”

Quarterback Jake Locker, who has taken a number of hard hits while running the ball, admitted Monday that he felt “a lot better than I have on other Mondays.”

A Saturday off allowed Locker and his teammates a chance to be football fans for a weekend. Locker traveled to Ferndale on Friday to watch his cousin, Casey Locker, play quarterback for the Golden Eagles. On Saturday, he watched close friend and former high school teammate Rocki Sandusky play for Western Washington University.

“We brought the motor home out and did a little bit of tailgating, so that was fun,” Locker said. “It was cool to be a fan for a weekend.”

Other Washington players enjoyed a relaxing weekend of catching up on sleep and watching college football on TV.

Willingham was able to catch his son Nathaniel’s homecoming football game at Skyline High School on Friday and, along with his wife, hosted a group of students at their house for a gathering on the night of the homecoming dance.

The Huskies’ chance to heal, improve and enjoy time with family and friends is behind them, and they believe the week off will pay dividends as they start their closing stretch of eight games in eight weeks.

“With the bye week coming at the perfect time, I think this is going to be a good time for us to break out,” Rankin said.

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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