SEATTLE — It’s been talked about throughout fall camp, but the release of the season’s first depth chart Monday made it a little bit more of a reality.
Washington’s youth movement starts Saturday.
There are a number of ways to look at Washington’s depth chart, and just about any approach points to a young team that will rely on an unusual number of unproven players.
Eight true freshmen — five on offense, three on defense — are on the two-deeps, including starters Chris Polk at tailback and Senio Kelemete at defensive tackle. Polk, who participated in spring football as a slotback after graduating early from high school, is in line to be the first true freshman to start a season opener at tailback for the Huskies.
Receivers Devin Aguilar and Jermaine Kearse, tight end Kavario Middleton, tailback David Freeman, defensive end Everrette Thompson and defensive tackle Alameda Ta’amu are other true freshmen listed as backups or co-backups.
In addition, freshman receiver Jordan Polk will return kickoffs alongside redshirt freshman Quinton Richardson, who will start at cornerback.
Ten of Washington’s 22 starters are freshmen or sophomores, redshirt or otherwise. There are an additional 21 freshmen and sophomores listed as backups or co-backups. Conversely, just 10 seniors dot the Huskies’ two-deeps.
The young players, and especially the freshmen, don’t have the luxury of a soft landing when they open their season at Autzen Stadium, one of college football’s most hostile environs. Huskies coach Tyrone Willingham is confident his young team can handle the challenge of opening in Eugene, however.
“Obviously, anytime you play an important ballgame you do have some butterflies, and the backdrop for this one is kind of special,” he said. “It is one of our major rivals, and their stadium does come with a lot of noise, it is extremely close player-fan contact, and there really is no real way to prepare those guys for that kind of environment. But hopefully these guys are young men that expect to exceed in anything and everything they do. So therefore, their mentality will be a little different than maybe a guy with some lesser skills. I think they will be primed and eager to play and play well in this environment.”
Kelemete, a graduate of Seattle’s Evergreen High School, is one of the biggest surprises on the depth chart. Because of a mix-up with the NCAA Clearinghouse, he was declared academically ineligible and missed the first eight days of fall camp. Despite the setback, he has sprinted to the top of the depth chart, and will start at one defensive tackle spot alongside sophomore Cameron Elisara.
“The nice thing about Senio is, when we looked at him coming out of high school, we thought that of all of our defensive players, this young man might have shown himself as one of the better ones in terms of his overall play, ability to hold the point, get to the football,” Willingham said. “His late arrival has made things quite interesting and quite exciting the last week or so, but he’s come in, and we’ve given a fair opportunity to all, and he has shown himself to be able to do some things just a little bit different than some of the other guys. We’ll involve all of the guys in what we think are their roles and their strengths.”
Kelemete was the biggest surprise on the depth chart, but not the only one. Senior Jordan White-Frisbee will start at left guard ahead of Ryan Tolar, a starter last year. Tolar, who is listed as a backup at both guard positions and center, got less reps at his usual guard position than he would have normally because he spent time learning the center position to be an insurance policy behind the injured Juan Garcia.
Darin Harris will start at strong safety ahead of Victor Aiyewa, the person said to be the front-runner at that position. Aiyewa has been slowed by a groin injury during fall camp, but Willingham said Harris did a lot to earn the job on his own.
Garcia to start: Center Juan Garcia, who last spring was wondering if a Lisfranc sprain was going to end his career, is listed as the starter for Saturday’s game. In April, Garcia went against the advice of multiple doctors and opted against surgery, instead hoping for what he called “a miracle healing.” Even if the foot healed on its own without surgery — and doctors told Garcia there was just a 40 percent chance of that — optimistic scenarios had him coming back mid-season.
“Juan obviously has had an amazing recovery,” Willingham said. “I think it’s a testament to him and a testament to our medical and training staff that they have done just an excellent job with him. So far everything has gone extremely well with that.”
Locker love-fest, season two: Oregon coach Mike Bellotti picked up where opposing coaches left off last year, praising the play of Washington quarterback Jake Locker.
“We have a very healthy respect for what he can do,” said Bellotti. “He’s the fastest, biggest, strongest quarterback in the nation, in my opinion. He’s one of the most dangerous threats in Division I football. He can throw the ball. He can run. He’s not going to run and get out of bounds, he’s going to run and move the pile and run away from it if he can. I have great admiration and respect for Jake Locker.”
Speaking of quarterbacks: The Ducks plan to start sophomore Justin Roper against the Huskies in light of the recent knee injury to Nate Costa. Costa was the leading candidate to win the starting job before injuring his knee last week, but Roper had played well in recent scrimmages and might have won the job had Costa stayed healthy. Costa, who is 6-foot-6 and is the team’s most athletic quarterback according to Bellotti, led the Ducks to a Sun Bowl victory over South Florida last year.
Another year for Johnson?: Tripper Johnson, who is listed as the backup free safety, was listed in this week’s practice notes as a sophomore. The 26-year-old walk-on had been listed as a junior in fall camp prior to Monday, but was petitioning the NCAA to earn a third year of eligibility. Willingham said that is still being sorted out, but that they hope to get Johnson an extra year.
Game-week injury concerns: A couple of injuries still appear to be issues, as cornerback Byron Davenport (ankle) and safety Jason Wells (knee) aren’t on the depth chart for Saturday. Willingham also said that Michael Gottlieb (hamstring) is still a question mark, though he is listed as the starter.
Jared Ballman, the team’s starting punter who will also handle kickoff duties, missed Friday and Saturday’s practices while tending to a death in the family, Willingham said.
Contact Herald Writer John Boyle at jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more on UW sports, check out the Huskies blog at heraldnet.com /huskiesblog
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