SEATTLE — The last time Washington offensive coordinator Tim Lappano called plays from the sideline, it was seven years ago, he was coaching for Oregon State and he really didn’t have a choice.
The phones went out at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Calif., so Lappano and other coaches had to handle the second half of the Beavers’ win over Cal from the sideline.
“I’ve called one half of a game in all the years of doing this,” he said. “At that point in time I really didn’t like it.”
Why then, was Lappano on the sideline when Washington played Oregon last weekend, instead of in his usual spot above the field in the press box?
“I just wanted to change it up a little bit,” he said. “I thought that the communication would be better down there.
“I thought that worked out really good. I wanted to be able to communicate, not just to Jake Locker, but to the offense in general. I especially wanted to communicate with our receivers, let them know what we were thinking so they kind of have an idea of what to expect. I just like the interaction with all the offense down there.”
The change appeared to have worked, as the Huskies had one of their best offensive games of the year with 34 points and 421 yards, both totals second only to those posted in the season-opening win over Syracuse.
“It’s just the communication is a lot better,” said Lappano, who plans to continue working from the sideline. “We needed a change. I thought it was the right thing to do at the time, and it really worked out well for us.”
The players liked the change. Receiver Anthony Russo said he “loved it,” while Locker said he was more comfortable with Lappano on the field.
“I think we were all on the same page and really understood what was going on,” said Locker, who had one of his best games of the season with 257 passing yards and four touchdowns. “It’s something new for us, and I felt like it worked out really well for us.”
Lappano said the change — which was first suggested by receivers coach Charlie Baggett — had a number of positives. For one, he said it gave the offense more flexibility. If Lappano wanted to call a play that wasn’t listed on the wristbands worn by players, he could do that and explain what he wanted, something he said he couldn’t do effectively from the box. Lappano also liked being able to get a better feel for the weather conditions, which were expected to be windy and rainy for the Oregon game.
The obvious negative of working from the field is that Lappano doesn’t have as good of a view of what is going on as he would from above the field. He said that wasn’t a factor, however, with Baggett and running backs coach Trent Miles communicating from the box.
“I thought Charlie and Trent did a nice job communicating what I needed to see,” Lappano said. “They did a great job on that so we didn’t lose anything with information and all of that. You can’t see from the field as well, but I get good information from those guys.”
Johnson is No. 2: Though this week’s depth chart still lists J.R. Hasty and Brandon Johnson as co-backups behind Louis Rankin, Lappano said that Johnson has won the No. 2 tailback job.
Hasty, who redshirted as a freshman, then was ineligible because of academics last year, has carried six times for 18 yards this season, including five carries for 12 yards against Arizona State. Johnson has 30 yards on 11 carries, and was the only tailback besides Rankin to carry the ball against Oregon.
Lappano said he wanted to get more carries for Johnson last weekend, but liked the way Rankin was running and didn’t want to take carries away from him.
“Last week we wanted to play [Johnson] more, but I though Louis was running as good as I’ve seen him run in a long time,” said Lappano. “When you’re running good and you’re feeling everything, you’ve got the flow of the defense down, let it eat, let him run. Don’t just change to change, there’s no reason to do that.”
More Frisbee: Lappano said Jordan White-Frisbee, who has seen playing time at right guard in the last two games, will continue to have an increased role. He would not say yet whether White-Frisbee is pushing Casey Bulyca for the starting spot.
“We’ll see what happens this week,” Lappano said. “He’s going to play a lot and we’ll see where it goes.”
Five in gold: Quarterback Jake Locker, tailback Louis Rankin, receivers Marcel Reece and Anthony Russo, and kicker Ryan Perkins all wore gold jerseys at practice Tuesday for their play against Oregon. Not surprisingly, no defensive gold jerseys were awarded.
And three in red: Fullback Luke Kravitz and linebacker E.J. Savannah, both of whom suffered stingers against Oregon, were practicing in red jerseys. A less expected sight was that of cornerback Byron Davenport in a red jersey. Davenport had not been reported as injured after the Oregon game.
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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