SEATTLE – Coach Tyrone Willingham said on Monday that senior running back Kenny James has a sprained ankle, but the severity of the injury probably will not be known until today.
Willingham said on his radio show that the sprain was not a high ankle sprain, which tends to take longer to heal.
“The chances of him coming back before the year is over are good,” Willingham said. “It’s just a matter of if it’s this week or next week or the week after.”
James, who has started every game this season, was injured in the first quarter of Saturday’s 31-24 loss to California and spent the rest of the game on crutches in street clothes. He had tests done Sunday and Monday and is listed as the co-starter on this week’s depth chart along with junior Louis Rankin. The only other tailback on the roster is senior Shelton Sampson, who has not played in a game this season.
“If he’s called on he has to step in and he has to get it done,” Willingham said of Sampson. “That’s the way football is.”
Rankin actually leads the team in rushing with 443 yards, averaging 55.4 yards a game and 5.1 yards a carry. James has 373 yards and 4.3 yards a carry, but has three touchdowns to Rankin’s two. Rankin struggled with short-yardage situations against Cal but Willingham said he isn’t worried about it.
“Louis ran like I’m accustomed to seeing Louis run,” Willingham said. “Louis has his own individual style. … There’s certain plays he’s, ‘No, no, no, go here, go there.’ And there’s other plays it’s, ‘Why are you doing this? Oh, thank you, what a great run that is.’ That’s Louis, that’s his style. I’m very comfortable with that.”
Willingham said if James is out, there’s a possibility that someone could move to tailback from a different position. One potential player is sophomore fullback Luke Kravitz, who as a senior at Olympia High school ran for 2,460 yards and 41 touchdowns. Willingham said sophomore Johnie Kirton, a star tailback at Jackson High School who is now a tight end, would not likely move back to running back.
Bonnell OK: Quarterback Carl Bonnell said he suffered a third-degree AC joint sprain in his left (non-throwing) shoulder in the Cal game but said he is fine and shouldn’t miss any practice time. Bonnell was hurt a few plays before throwing a 49-yard touchdown pass to Anthony Russo. He had his arm in a sling after the game but did not have the sling on Monday.
“It sounds bad but it’s not too bad,” Bonnell said. “I can move it fine.”
Willingham said Bonnell would be the starter this Saturday. Jake Locker and Johnny DuRocher are listed as the co-backups. Last week, DuRocher was listed as the backup and Locker did not appear on the depth chart. Willingham said depending on the situation, if something were to happen to Bonnell, either backup could play.
Going for two: Willingham repeated what he said following the game: that he felt kicking the extra point and going to overtime after Washington’s successful Hail Mary touchdown pass rather than going for two and the win was the right decision.
“I made that decision probably a little before we put ourselves in that position,” Willingham said. “I don’t believe we had a timeout which would have made it very difficult, if things worked out, to get all our personnel on the field to get that going with the excitement. So I thought it was a better decision to go to overtime.”
Our bad: Willingham said there was a failure on the coaches’ part to get a timeout called when it was discovered that the Huskies had just 10 players on the field on California’s two-point conversion try late in the game.
“That was a failure on our part not to get that done,” Willingham said. “That was probably recognized by a couple of our assistant coaches but we didn’t get it relayed to get a timeout called.”
Willingham said he expected Cal to go for two upon scoring a touchdown, which doesn’t explain why Washington had some of its kick blocking team on the field. The Huskies had hoped to have their nickel defense on for the play but redshirt freshman E.J. Savannah failed to receive that message.
“Sometimes young men don’t hear you,” Willingham said. “Unfortunately it happened at one of those critical times that really could have had an impact on that play. That’s disappointing.”
Players of the game: Willingham named six Pepsi Players of the Game for the California game: Jordan Reffett (defense), Anthony Russo (offense), Michael Braunstein (special teams) and Donald Butler, D’Andre Goodwin and Jay Angotti (service teams).
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