Washington coach Tyrone Willingham said on his radio show this afternoon that senior running back Kenny James has an ankle sprain, but it isn’t a high ankle sprain, which is good news. High ankle sprains take awhile to heal (see Goldson, Dashon). Still, Willingham wasn’t clear on what James’ status would be as he was having tests done Monday. We’ll hopefully have a more concrete answer about his status Tuesday, though Willingham is no longer meeting with the media on Tuesdays. If James is out, that would leave the Huskies with just Louis Rankin and Shelton Sampson at running back. Willingham said it’s possible that someone could be moved to running back, though that player would not likely be Johnie Kirton. Instead, a likely candidate is fullback Luke Kravitz, who saw a little time at tailback in the spring and as a senior at Olympia High School scored 41 touchdowns as a tailback.
Quarterback Carl Bonnell has a third-degree AC joint sprain in his left shoulder (his non-throwing shoulder). He said he is fine, though, and Willingham said he would practice full this week and start on Saturday. Willingham said depending on the situation, if something were to happen to Bonnell, either Jake Locker or Johnny DuRocher would play. My guess? If the game is close, Locker is playing, if it’s out of hand, DuRocher plays.
No other real news out of Monday’s press meeting. Dashon Goldson said he feels fine after having one of his most active games of the season. The only other players to show up were Jordan Reffett and Juan Garcia.
Willingham talked a lot about his decision to kick the extra point rather than go for two at the end of regulation, saying he just felt, given that the team had no timeouts, it would have been hard to organize a two-point play given the excitement of the Hail Mary. He said he also felt the team could win in overtime.
About the 10-men on the field situation after Cal scored and went for two late in the fourth quarter, Willingham said some of the UW assistant coaches recognized that there were 10 men on the field but it was too late for the team to call a timeout and correct it. He said he expected Cal to go for two, which doesn’t explain why then the Huskies had some of their kick blocking team on the field.
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