SEATTLE — Less than 48 hours after being taken off the Husky Stadium turf in an ambulance, University of Washington linebacker Johnny Timu was back with the team Monday sporting the kind of injury with which Timu, his coaches and teammates consider to be a big relief.
“He’s got a sore neck,”
head coach Steve Sarkisian said during his Monday mid-day press conference. “I guess it would be equivalent to getting whiplash or something, if you were in a car accident, would be the best way to describe it. … There’s nothing structurally wrong. There’s nothing neurologically wrong, which is obviously a great sign.”
The freshman linebacker was loaded onto a stretcher and into an ambulance late in the third quarter of Saturday’s win over California. He was taken from Husky Stadium to Harborview Medical Center, where Timu spent a few hours before being discharged.
His playing status for Saturday’s game is still unclear, although it would seem a safe assumption that redshirt freshman Jamaal Kearse will be preparing for what could be his first collegiate start.
Timu is one of several players whose playing status could be up in the air this week. Cornerback Greg Ducre is trying to come back from a minor concussion Sarkisian said could keep him out of a few practice days. Backup running back Johri Fogerson was scheduled to undergo an MRI after suffering a knee contusion in Saturday’s game.
And as for quarterback Keith Price? When he showed up for Monday’s media session, he knew the question that was coming.
“How’s my knee?” he said with a laugh, referring to the sprained knees that have limited him since the opener. “My knee’s all right. I’ll be ready to play this week.”
On the move
After four games, the Huskies are still unsettled at a few positions.
The weakside linebacker spot that Mason Foster filled so well in 2010 appears to be up for grabs after Garret Gilliland replaced starter Princeton Fuimaono on the first series of Saturday’s game against Cal. Gilliland said afterward that the coaches were frustrated with a mistake made by Fuimaono early in the game, and so Gilliland ended up playing most of the afternoon.
Both players are now listed as co-starters at the weakside position.
Free safety is also a bit of a question mark now that starter Nate Fellner is almost all the way back from a hamstring injury. Junior Justin Glenn, from Kamiak High School, has filled in admirably and may have won the job in Fellner’s absence.
There could also be a change on the offensive line, where Sarkisian was calling on two of his young starters — right tackle Erik Kohler and right guard Colin Porter — to be more aggressive.
“I didn’t think we were nearly physical enough up front, especially on the right side of our line,” Sarkisian said.
Sarkisian added that he could give looks to some other players in an effort to spark up some competition on the offensive line. Tackles Micah Hatchie, who took a few first-team snaps at practice last week, could be a candidate for practice reps with the No. 1 offense this week, while guards James Atoe and Skyler Fancher may figure into the mix as well.
As far as the UW punting situation goes, Sarkisian wasn’t saying Monday whether Kiel Rasp or fellow senior Will Mahan would handle those duties. Rasp punted in the first three games of the season, while Mahan was in for both punts — each near midfield — of Saturday’s game.
Sarkisian-Chow, Part III
Publicly, Sarkisian has always had good things to say about his former coach (as an assistant at BYU) and mentor (at USC) Norm Chow. But Chow has declined to comment on his one-time quarterback and colleague in recent years, and there have been reports of a possible rift between the pair.
On Saturday, they’ll be on opposite sidelines for the third time. Chow is in his first season as offensive coordinator at Utah
Sarkisian downplayed the matchup Monday, pointing out the fact that both of them coach offenses and therefore won’t match wits on Saturday.
The last two times the pair was on opposite sidelines, Chow was running the UCLA offense. In 2009, Chow was a part of the Bruins’ 24-23 win over the Huskies. Last season, Sarkisian led UW to a 24-7 win.
“I was fortunate enough to play with Norm at BYU, and we had tremendous success, some great wins,” Sarkisian said Monday. “Then I went on and worked with him, I think it was three years, at USC. To watch him grow and move and go to UCLA and run the Pistol (formation) there for a little bit, it appears now he’s back to running the stuff that he knows and knows well.
“They’ve really improved offensively here in these first three games, from Week 1 to Week 2 to Week 3. It looks more like Norm Chow’s offense compared to what I watched here last year against UCLA.”
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