SEATTLE — This week’s goal for Washington’s defense — well, aside from not giving up 55 points and 661 yards of offense — is to play faster on defense.
After watching the film of the Huskies’ game against Oregon, as well as the film of other games from this season and last year’s win over Arizona, defensive coordinator Kent Baer noticed that his defense was playing slow and tentative against the Ducks.
Oregon, which Baer called “Maybe the most explosive offensive I’ve ever seen,” kept the Huskies on their heels last weekend with their spread-option offense.
“I don’t think we played real fast,” said Baer. “One of the first things I did after grading the tape was go back and watch the Syracuse, Boise State, Ohio State and SC games and watched how fast we reacted. That offense does that to you. It gets you peeking, it gets you being slow and it gets you being tentative.”
That’s something Baer hopes his team will correct against Arizona. Washington should have some confidence this week against the Wildcats, having beaten them in each of the past two seasons while giving up a combined 24 points. In last year’s 21-10 win, the Huskies held Arizona to negative seven rushing yards, thanks in part to six sacks.
“I just watched that tape (of last year’s Arizona game), and man we played fast,” Baer said. “We knew exactly what we were doing and we played fast. If there’s anything I would say about last Saturday is that we did not play fast, and that’s the nature of that offense.”
Injury update: For the second straight day, cornerback Byron Davenport practiced in a red jersey. Linebacker E.J. Savannah and fullback Luke Kravitz, both of whom suffered stingers, were not in red Wednesday after wearing red on Tuesday.
Willingham said Davenport injured his shoulder against Oregon, but that all three players are expected to be OK for this week’s game.
As for Savannah, who has a long history of stinger problems going back to his playing days at Bellevue High School, Willingham said the team will continue to be cautious with him.
“I don’t think we’ve ever departed from a long-term concern with him,” said Willingham. “Coming out of high school I think his situation was somewhat serious. We’ll probably err on the side of caution as opposed to being a little more risky on that.”
Tui back in starting role: Linebacker Trenton Tuiasosopo, a Mariner High School graduate, is likely to get his fourth start this season as Donald Butler continues to recover from a knee injury suffered against Oregon.
Tuiasosopo, whose uncle Mike is the defensive tackles coach at Arizona, started against Syracuse, Boise State and UCLA, and has seen significant playing time in every game. He’ll play even more now that Butler is out.
“It is really unfortunate to have Donald Butler suffer that knee injury, and I hope he comes back as soon as possible,” said Tuiasosopo. “But now that I’m in there I want to do whatever I can for the team, whether it’s special teams or defense.”
Kosub gone: Asked about sophomore defensive tackle Derek Kosub, who recently left the team, Willingham said only that “Derek has removed himself from the program, and you always hate to see anyone leave for any reason, but we wish him well.”
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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