SEATTLE – The Huskies practiced in pads for the first time this season Saturday and Tyrone Willingham said he saw a little upgrade in the team’s performance.
“It’s still not where I’d like it to be, but it was an upgrade,” Willingham said. “Since I’ve seen this group, we’ve gone up, slipped a notch and gone up again. It’s a daily sequence you go through in your preparation. We’re hoping to get to where we don’t have the ups and downs and just have a steady climb.”
For the first time in a few days, the team practiced as a full squad because of a limited time frame (picture day was Saturday afternoon). Willingham said that just because the team was finally in pads didn’t change the way the team practiced.
“Since Day One it’s been the same,” Willingham said. “We go hard whether we’re in shorts, shells or full pads. We didn’t tackle today, but we had some crisp work.”
Different place, different preps: Willingham said how practice is planned is sometimes dependent on where you’re practicing. He said he had to worry about different things going from Stanford to Notre Dame.
“When you go from Palo Alto, a California climate, a peninsula climate, to the Midwest,” Willingham said, “you get a little more concerned about thunderstorms. So you plan your practices around those, which usually come in the afternoon if they’re going to come around. You prepare for those, what field you’ll practice on, what adjustments you have to make.”
Baer on his defense: Defensive coordinator Kent Baer said that he’s been happy with what he’s seen from his unit but that it isn’t where he’d like it to be. He hopes by next Saturday, some position battles and rotations will begin to come into form.
As for what he wants to see from his group, it’s pretty basic.
“Play hard, be physical, swarm to the football,” Baer said. “We’re not there yet, but it’s something we talk about every day. We’ve got enough X’s and O’s and schemes, but none of that matters if you don’t play hard.”
Lappano on QBs: Offensive coordinator Tim Lappano said the four quarterback candidates are performing at a level where there is still very much a four-man race for the starting job.
It has been assumed that junior Isaiah Stanback is the leader for the position but Lappano said the “water is muddied” because none of the players has either moved significantly ahead of fallen significantly back. As a result, the decision on naming a starter could be extended, though Lappano said with the opener against Air Force less than three weeks away, he’d like to name one as soon as possible.
Also, Lappano indicated that he values versatility in a quarterback more than just an ability to drop back and pass, as that gives a defense more to worry about. That would seem to indicate that Stanback and Carl Bonnell are the leaders for the position over Johnny DuRocher and Casey Paus.
Tuiasosopo back on field: Former Mariner High star Trenton Tuiasosopo is back on the Husky active roster after missing spring ball and the first few days of fall practice. Tuiasosopo suffered facial injuries in March in a bicycle accident. He stood with the rest of the linebackers Saturday but has not been cleared to take part in contact drills. Willingham said there is no time table for Tuiasosopo to begin contact drills.
Heat causes a few problems: Willingham said that there were no new injuries to report Saturday, though a few players such as redshirt freshman defensive tackle Jasper Henry were limited because of some heat-related issues such as stomach trouble. Darin Harris (concussion), Kenny James (bruised shoulder) and Jordan Reffett (pulled hamstring) remain sidelined.
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