By John Sleeper
Herald Writer
SEATTLE – Although it appears that Cody Pickett will start at quarterback for the Washington Huskies on Saturday against Arizona, UW coach Rick Neuheisel says he hasn’t decided.
For the second day this week, Pickett, sore shoulder and all, took all the snaps with the first-unit offense while backup Taylor Barton sat out.
In fact, Barton, who threw for better than 300 yards Saturday against UCLA, didn’t attend practice at all. Instead, he was undergoing a magnetic resonance test to determine the extent of injuries to his foot and head.
Pickett appeared to make all the necessary throws he needed and said he felt fine.
“I feel good, I feel confident and I feel ready to play,” Pickett said.
After having thrown extensively for the first time Tuesday since he was injured against USC Oct. 6, Pickett said he felt no undue soreness in the shoulder, which was diagnosed as having a third-degree separation.
He has been getting treatment three times a day for about four to five hours a day. Trainers have said the shoulder can’t be damaged any more than it has, and that the issue for Pickett is pain tolerance.
“Gradually, it’s feeling a little bit better,” Pickett said.
Neuheisel has said that he is carefully watching Pickett, and would pull him from practice if he detected Pickett showed any pain while throwing.
“Cody’s looked fine,” Neuheisel said. “We’ve gone with a slow process with him to see what he can take. The arm wasn’t necessarily sore this morning to any greater extent, given the amount he threw (Tuesday). We’ll see. I think he’ll be available. How much, we’ll wait and see.”
Barton missed the second straight day of practice after taking a beating against UCLA. He stayed in a Pasadena, Calif., hospital Saturday night for observation of a suspected concussion.
The MRI was for both neurological and foot tests, but Neuheisel said he wouldn’t rule out Barton’s availability.
“We’ll see what he can accomplish (Thursday),” Neuheisel said. “Hopefully, he can practice (Thursday).”
Stomped and stumped: Arizona is on a three-game losing streak – to Washington State, Oregon and Oregon State – in which the Wildcats have been outscored, 149-52. Two of those games were at home.
Washington State rolled up 421 yards against the Wildcats, Oregon 607 and Oregon State 415. The offense mustered just 159 yards against the Beavers.
“That was an anemic effort,” first-year coach John Mackovic said.
After starting the season 3-0, the Wildcats have turned a tailspin, leaving Mackovic at a near loss as to how to pump up a beleaguered team.
“We’ve really been kind of steamrolled three weeks in a row,” said Mackovic, who was a candidate for the Washington job when Jim Lambright was fired. “If anybody thinks morale is great, they have their head in the sand.”
It’s worse: The 16 yards rushing Washington managed against UCLA Saturday was embarrassing enough. But wait.
UCLA numbers people reviewed the tape and determined that the 24-yard gain on a fake punt by UW corner Omare Lowe was actually a shovel pass from Todd Elstrom instead of a run. The play originally was supposed to be a pass, but Lowe and Elstrom were closer to each other than they were supposed to be, making the play look like a run.
The happy totals, as Rick Rizzs would say: The Huskies ran for minus-8 yards, fourth-worst in school history. Washington ran for minus-11 yards against Stanford in 1971.
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